Junior Sun Devil Cheyenne Coyle swings at the plate in a home game on the Tempe Campus. The short stop is majoring in Health Sciences and was named the Pac-12 player of the week in her first week as a Sun Devil. (Photo by Dominic Valente)It’s one thing to be great. It’s another accomplish it on a consistent basis.
In the Clint Myers era, the ASU softball team models reliability — earning seven Women’s College World Series appearances in eight seasons, including the last three years.
The 2013 season resulted in another trip to Oklahoma City, but a lack of consistency derailed ASU’s championship goals.
The season’s wild ride halted when ASU (50-12, 16-8 Pac-12) was eliminated after losing its first two games in the Women’s College World Series. The Sun Devils finished tied for seventh.
The final result ended in relative surprise, considering everything the Sun Devils accomplished in the regular season and the first two rounds of the postseason.
“It was a great year,” Myers said. “We just didn’t do the job at the end. You win 50 ballgames, you’re doing some things right. We finished in the top eight in the country.”
As the case with many games, the losing teams in Oklahoma City were victimized by unlucky and sometimes cruel plays. A couple swing plays could have altered the entire outlook of ASU’s 2013 season.
In its Women’s College World Series opener against No. 4 Texas (51-10, 14-4 Big 12), a fly ball bounced out of sophomore outfielder Elizabeth Caporuscio’s glove and over the left field fence for a go-ahead homer.
Just one batter earlier, the game-tying double landed fair down the right field line by less than a foot. That amounted to four runs, more than the margin by which the Sun Devils lost.
Starting the Women’s College World Series with a loss spelled a death sentence. Since 2005, only six out of 36 teams to start out with a loss advanced to the semifinals round.
The upset loss to No. 8 Michigan (51-13) to close the year was not shocking considering the Wolverines beat ASU in the regular season, but what was unexpected was being shut out for the first time all season.
ASU outhit Michigan 7-6, but the Sun Devils stranded too many runners and could not get the clutch hit.
Junior pitcher Dallas Escobedo threw the first pitch against Michigan at 11:54 p.m. local time, five minutes before an NCAA contest must be postponed, and the game ended around 2:30 a.m.
No one will ever know if the start time and waiting around to play all night had an effect on the game, because ASU refused to make excuses.
In the beginning, ASU got off to a program-best 21-0 start that included 10 run-rule victories and looked to obliterate the school’s record books.
ASU played a superb regular season, but ultimately they were too inconsistent on the mound and in the batter’s box to make a deeper Women’s College World Series run. The concerns first arose when they lost their first series of the season at Utah (24-30) and two weeks later at UA (33-26).
After those series, the Sun Devils responded well, sweeping preseason Pac-12 favorite California (38-19) and Pac-12 champions Oregon (50-11), but it was still a little odd that ASU lost those two series.
At times, Escobedo looked like her All-American self in the circle, especially when she went on a streak of 36 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run.
But the do-or-die nature of her signature riseball pitch allows for variations in her performance. She led pitchers from the six major conferences with 39 homers allowed — remarkable considering her solid 2.32 ERA, .189 opposing batting average and a 30-6 record.
Junior shortstop Cheyenne Coyle had a tremendous first season with ASU. She tied a school record with 20 homers in a season, and sophomore catcher Amber Freeman won Pac-12 Player of the Year honors, but the bats eventually cooled off when the competition got tougher.
It’s generally assumed in the postseason that offensive numbers will decline, considering the remaining teams possess an elite pitcher. ASU hit .337 in the regular season and .256 in the postseason.
In the Women’s College World Series, ASU’s .222 batting average ranked fourth (through the first game of the championship series), but its 4.31 ERA ranked last.
That’s largely why the Sun Devils were sent home early.
Reach the reporter at justin.janssen@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @jjanssen11
