ASU Softball came into Cathedral City this last weekend for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic. The Sun Devils finished 4-2 in California.
The Sun Devils had their first game on Thursday against the Cowgirls of Oklahoma State. Cielo Meza took the mound and helped cooperate in a defensive shutdown through the first three innings.
However, in the top of the 4th, Meza hit a batter and Coach Trisha Ford called it a game for Meza. Abby Andersen stepped up to the mound and proved herself after a decent performance against Florida.
Andersen only gave up a run, but the bats were not awake yet for the Sun Devils in their first of two games on Thursday. ASU finished the game with only five hits from five separate players.
The Cowgirls’ pitcher, Samantha Show, shut down the Sun Devils by only giving up one walk, one hit by pitch and adding three strikeouts in a complete game shutout.
The Sun Devils dropped this game, 2-0, as well as the next game to Texas Tech, 8-0. The ace, Samantha Mejia, took the mound and the woeful Tursday continued for her and her fellow Sun Devils.
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Mejia dropped to a 6-1 record after allowing six runs in the first inning as well as nine total hits and two more walks.
Not only did Mejia struggle, the Sun Devils fell asleep behind the plate by only getting one hit in the five innings. Designated player, Alli Tatnall, got the only hit with a single to center field in the top of the 5th inning.
After Thursday, the Sun Devils woke up and played top-tier softball once again. In the final four games games, they outscored their opponents 26-11.
On Friday, the Sun Devils had another double-header where each game was decided by a run (6-5,5-4).
Skylar McCarty ran the offense on Friday as she finished the day going 3-of-5 with three of ASU’s 11 RBIs. On the bottom side of the lineup, sophomore Bella Loomis helped the Sun Devils to a bounce-back day. Loomis finished 2-of-3 with two RBIs and three walks.
On Saturday, the Sun Devils got to face Bethune-Cookman. The Devils won 4-1 as Mejia threw a complete game and only giving up three hits. The bats started firing as the Devils had seven hits led by Kindra Hackbarth, Morgan Howe and McCarty again.
On Sunday, the Devils finished with a bang behind Andersen. Andersen proved after two decent performances that she is comfortable and ready to roll as a much needed part of this team. Andersen finished the game with only giving up four hits and one run while striking out three Mustangs of Cal Poly.
The Devils’ offense came to play on the last day as they won commandingly, 11-1. The first four batters, K. Hackbarth, McCarty, Howe, and DeNae Chatman, finished the game with a combined 8-of-16 with seven of the 11 RBIs coming from those four.
At the end of the day, the Sun Devils capped off the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic with a 4-2 record, but the pitching seemed to glue together and the bats are now slowly rolling smoothly in the powerful lineup.
ASU softball comes back to Tempe on Friday to face Princeton in the Sun Devil Classic.