TEMPE, Ariz. – It was aces wild on Friday night. Oklahoma State senior right-hander Ruby Meylan and Arizona State senior right-hander Kenzie Brown both cruised through the opposing hitters.
Both pitchers went the advertised distance of seven innings, but the game was not over as the score was tied at two. The two pitchers combined threw 258 pitches in the scheduled seven innings.
Arizona State head coach Megan Bartlett went to her bullpen to bring in junior right-hander Meika Lauppe in the eighth. Bartlett’s decision proved to be correct as Lauppe put up a zero on the board, giving the bats a chance to win.
In a game where long counts were the norm, it was a surprising juxtaposition that redshirt senior centerfielder Kaylee Pond crushed the first pitch she saw from Meylan over the centerfield wall, ending the game giving Arizona State softball (21-6, 1-3 Big 12) the 3-2 victory over No. 15 Oklahoma State (17-8, 1-3 Big 12) in extras.
“When I hit the ball, I just find (the) barrel,” Pond said. “I was just trying to see a ball out front.”
It was Pond’s eighth home run and 29th RBI of the season. She is having a career year with the most home runs and RBI she has ever had in a single season, beating her previous marks of six and 28.
Pond was one of two players to homer off Meylan. In the fifth, redshirt senior shortstop Brooklyn Ulrich slugged a two-run homer to tie the game.
“My swing is pretty natural for the drop ball,” Ulrich said. “I just decided to take a big hack and put all I had into it.”
The game-tying homer was Ulrich’s second homer of the season. Her career high is 13 in her redshirt sophomore season at Marshall.
Both Pond and Ulrich were the only Sun Devils to have multi-hit games, as sophomore right fielder Ashleigh Meija was the only other Sun Devil to record a hit.
“After watching the top of the lineup, I was like, ‘okay what I need to adjust is I need to attack early,’” Ulrich said. “I need to go get her early, because when you get deep in the count, that’s when she starts to throw her wild stuff or her chase pitches.”
Redshirt junior Yazzy Avila was the other Sun Devil to reach base as she walked once and was hit by a pitch. She scored on the Ulrich home run.
Baserunners were few and far between. The Sun Devils had eight compared to Oklahoma State’s 11.
Despite pitching seven innings of two-run ball, Brown looked shaky at times, walking six. She loaded the bases on walks in the second inning, but did not allow a run to cross there.
“She bends the ball a ton, and the ball moves a ton,” Bartlett said. “Sometimes it’s a blessing, sometimes it’s a curse.”
The two runs Brown allowed came off a Rosie Davis home run in the fifth, where she walked the previous batter. The Cowgirls had four runners in scoring position on Brown, but none of those runners crossed the plate as Brown’s 14 strikeouts often came in clutch moments.
Brown has 88 strikeouts to 27 walks across 47.1 innings this season. Her strikeouts per seven innings are 13.01, up from last season’s 11.60, where she was an All-American. Her walks are up as well, from 2.81 per seven to 3.99.
“When they’re in the circle, honestly, all the pressure is on the batter,” Ulrich said. “They’re pretty much vulnerable in the box so it’s easy for me to go out there and trust Meika (Lauppe) and KB (Brown).”
Brown ended with 144 pitches, a season high. Her career high is 164, when she faced UC Santa Barbara in the NCAA regionals. Her ERA is 3.11.
Lauppe picked up the win in the inning she pitched. She allowed a few baserunners but got out of the inning when junior catcher Sam Swan picked off the Cowgirls' redshirt senior catcher Audrey Schneidmiller with junior first baseman Katie Chester making the tag.
Lauppe moves to 7-2 on the season. Her ERA is 3.18, a career best. She needs two wins to tie her career high.
“This team tends to be pretty resilient and even keel,” Bartlett said. “We needed this one.”