Every game in the Pac-10 promises a new experience, and over the weekend, the No. 8 ASU softball team learned that some of those experiences can be frustrating.
On Friday, ASU notched a 9-3 redemption victory against No. 3 Washington and esteemed pitcher Danielle Lawrie — a game in which senior outfielder Kaitlin Cochran surpassed her 2007 single-season record of 18 home runs and broke the all-time single-season home-run record of 18, previously held by former Sun Devil Mindy Cowles.
“We are really grateful, because we beat Washington and we played really well there,” sophomore catcher Kaylyn Castillo said. “But at the same time, we needed to keep that going throughout the whole weekend and use the win as momentum.”
After Friday night, though, the tone of the weekend changed.
No. 2 UCLA, a squad the Sun Devils beat in the teams’ earlier meeting this season, was back with a vengeance.
The Bruins drubbed the Sun Devils 9-1 on Saturday, and Sunday’s 10-4 loss dropped the Sun Devils to 37-11 overall and 7-6 in the Pac-10.
“We just want to use this weekend as a learning experience,” Castillo said. “We are a younger team; we can use it as motivation, because we don’t ever want to feel this again.”
It took the Sun Devils until the fifth inning on Sunday to get their offense going.
Set up by Caylyn Carlson’s home run in the fourth and a few dropped balls by UCLA in the fifth, a walk to Cochran loaded the bases for the Sun Devils with one out.
The batting order brought Castillo up next, and she hit a long shot to center field, scoring one, advancing the runners and cutting the Bruin lead in half, 4-2.
Then, it was freshman Katelyn Boyd who continued the rally with a fly ball that was dropped in left field, allowing the Sun Devils to score two more runs and tie the game.
But lineout to first base by sophomore third baseman Krista Donnenwirth brought an end inning and the Sun Devils’ rally.
In the next inning, the Bruins came back to score four runs and take an 8-4 lead before starting freshman pitcher Hillary Bach was replaced by junior Megan Elliott.
“I think we got a little over amped at the end,” said Carlson, who had two home runs during the weekend. “We were trying too hard, instead of keeping it calm and doing what we know how to do and doing it well. When that happens and we try too hard, is when things start to fall apart.”
This week the Sun Devils will try to channel the frustration into Wednesday’s doubleheader with in-state rival UA.
“This weekend was definitely a learning experience — it’s a building block,” Carlson said. “It’s hard, but UA is going to face a team who is upset about two losses. They’re not going to face the same team they did down in Tucson — they’re facing a totally different team for two games now.”
The first game on Wednesday will be the conclusion of a 2-2 game in the bottom of the second inning that was rained out in Tucson on April 11.
Reach the reporter at emiley.darling@asu.edu.
