Every year, the Pac-10 conference promises tough softball competition.
It’s a conference that boasts teams with winning reputations and a schedule that lets all of the contenders know that there won’t be any easy series.
The wins here are what begin to pave the road to Oklahoma City and the College World Series, and for the No. 6 Sun Devils (25-5), that means a whole lot more than just going through the motions.
“At this time during the season there is a change in mentality,” junior infielder Katie Crabb said. “We play in the best softball conference in the nation. Every game counts, every at bat, every pitch counts — we’re just more focused because we want to win Pac-10 just like we did last year.”
And as the conference season gets closer, the Sun Devils will begin final preparations for the Pac-10 docket with a three-game home series against nonconference foe Long Beach State (19-10) this weekend.
The progression of the season and the success the Sun Devils have already had against their opponents gives them confidence in their abilities and a reason to look forward to the games ahead of them.
“We get really excited when we get to play better teams, and I think that last weekend’s success just gives us a lot of confidence going into this weekend,” Crabb said.
Even with the one loss they suffered to Michigan in last weekend’s Judi Garman Classic, the Sun Devils have found a way to look on the bright side.
“You take it in, and you experience it,” freshman infielder Katelyn Boyd said. “It’s true that you take something positive from every negative situation.”
The Sun Devils’ first game will be played on Friday, followed by a double-header on Saturday, and this weekend their focus will be to learn from the games they played last weekend and improve in areas where they struggled.
“We learned that we need to play really good defense against teams that can hit just as well as us,” Crabb said. “We need to string hits together instead of getting hits at times where we don’t have runners on base. In the loss against Michigan [last weekend], we had chances to score, but we didn’t come through in the clutch.”
The Sun Devils lead the all-time series 13-12-1 against Long Beach, after falling to the 49ers five straight times from 1993 to 2000.
In their most recent meeting, the Sun Devils notched a 6-5 victory.
Reach the reporter at emiley.darling@asu.edu.
