ASU Softball: 7th-ranked Sun Devils split doubleheader with Oregon State

Game One: Sun Devils score 10 in run-rule victory over the Beavers

The Arizona State offense wasted no time in getting sophomore left-handed pitcher Giselle “G” Juarez run support as they scored three runs in the first inning.

The bats kept rolling behind its ace pitcher as Arizona State (32-4, 6-1 Pac-12) defeated Oregon State (20-16, 3-7) 10-1 in the first game on Friday.

Sophomores Kindra Hackbarth and Jade Gortarez started the game reaching bases via two Beaver errors. Junior center fielder Morgan Howe singled in Hackbarth and junior left fielder Skylar McCarty doubled to extend the first inning lead to three.

Coming off receiving NFCA and Pac-12 player of the week, senior second baseman Marisa Stankiewicz added an RBI in the third inning with a sacrifice-fly.

Arizona State added four more runs in the fourth inning. Gortarez and Howe combined to drive in three more runs, and Gortarez scored on another Oregon State error.

Hackbarth also collected an RBI in the fifth along with freshman pinch hitter DeNae Chatman to get the lead to 10.

In the circle Juarez allowed her only run of the day in the fifth inning, when she gave up a walk and two hits in the inning. Over the five innings Juarez conceded her first Pac-12 run of the season, allowing five hits and striking out seven Beaver batters.

Game Two: Too little, too late in Sun Devils’ comeback attempt

After breaking out for 10 runs in the first game on Friday, the Sun Devils’ couldn’t find the same success in game two against Beavers’ right-handed pitcher Mariah Mazon.

Mazon kept Arizona State (32-5, 6-2) in check leading Oregon State (21-16, 4-7) to a 4-2 victory.

The Sun Devils couldn’t scratch across a run until the six inning against Mazon. Hackbarth started the inning began the inning with a leadoff double. She’d score on freshman first baseman Danielle Gibson’s 11th home run of the season cutting the Beaver lead to two. That’d be all the offense for Arizona State.

Missed opportunities hurt the Sun Devils. Gortarez, a sophomore, was thrown out at third base advancing off of a Gibson single in the fourth inning. Stankiewicz would’ve had runners at second and third with one out had Gortarez been safe. ASU went two-for-11 in runners with both hits coming from Gibson.

Senior right-handed Breanna Macha took the loss on Friday, but pitched well for the Sun Devils. Macha only allowed four hits, allowing four runs (only two earned), while striking out four.

Already up 1-0, the Beavers loaded the bases against Macha in the bottom of the third. A single from freshman first baseman Hope Brandner combined with an error from Gortarez cleared the bases putting Oregon State up by four.

Weather allowing, the rubber match of the series will be on Sunday in Corvallis at 12:00 p.m.