With just one week left before Pac-10 play begins against in-state rival UA, the ASU softball team hits the diamond this weekend for one final tune-up against Cal Poly.
The four-game series will serve as a mock run of conference play, with a series against the same team instead of tournaments against multiple opponents. The game may not provide the competition the No. 11 Sun Devils (27-4) will see in the Pac-10, but last weekend’s Judi Garman Classic supplied the needed high-level test.
Taking on Texas and Oklahoma, both top-15 teams, in the same day, ASU got a taste of the opposition it will face against a conference with seven of its eight teams ranked in the top 25.
“We need to play those types of teams to challenge ourselves before the Pac-10,” junior third baseman Krista Donnenwirth said. “It definitely got us ready.”
While ASU sophomore pitcher Hillary Bach (13-1, 1.20 ERA) held the Longhorns to five hits and one run, UT held ASU to just one hit. ASU fared better against OU, but a late-innings pitching collapse ultimately led to ASU’s 0-2 day.
“Those are College World Series-type teams,” ASU coach Clint Myers said. “We had opportunities to win ball games, but we just didn’t capitalize.”
The intensity level in both games felt like Pac-10 play, Donnenwirth said. That was important for ASU because, as Donnenwirth stressed, it will be facing those kinds of games every weekend in conference play.
“There are no cakewalks in the Pac-10,” Donnenwirth said.
Although the meeting with No. 2 UA looms, Myers won’t let his team get caught looking ahead. Myers said he is focused on this weekend’s series with Cal Poly and isn’t writing the Mustangs off, despite an 11-11 record.
“We’re going to have to come out with our ‘A’ game every day,” Myers said.
ASU’s ‘A’ game starts with its overpowering offense. Through 31 games, ASU is outscoring opponents 263-73. Of those 263 runs, 153 have come in the first three innings of games, and when ASU leads after three innings, it holds a 23-1 record.
The calling card of the Sun Devil offense in 2010 has been the long ball. With 25 regular-season games remaining, ASU has hit 50 team home runs — just over halfway to the single-season record 99 hit in the 2008 season when ASU won the Women’s College World Series.
Outside of UT freshman Blaire Luna and Kentucky sophomore Chanda Bell, no pitcher has really been able to shut down the ASU offensive machine. Cal Poly junior pitcher Anna Cahn will do her best to tame the Sun Devil bats. The lefty enters the weekend with an 8-4 record and 1.21 ERA.
Cahn also provides hitting for the Mustangs’ anemic offense. Her .327 batting average is second on the team and 11 RBI are tied for the team lead.
Cal Poly is coming off two losses to No. 5 UCLA on Tuesday.
Regardless of their opponent’s record or ranking, the Sun Devils take the field again this weekend with the same expectation they have all season — success.
“I expect to win all four,” Donnenwirth said.
ASU opens the series Friday at 7 p.m. at Farrington Stadium. Saturday’s doubleheader brings games at 4 and 7 p.m. and the series concludes with a 1 p.m. game Sunday.
Reach the reporter at tyler.lockman@asu.edu
