April 1, 2007
SEATTLE, Wash. - Even with the Sun Devils out hitting the Huskies, a controversial call and a passed ball decided Sunday's game against No. 12 Washington where the No. 7 Sun Devil Softball team fell 1-0. The loss puts ASU at 36-8 overall and 2-1 in Pac-10 play.
The game started with a Pac-10 pitching duel between Washington's Caitlin Nobel and ASU's Megan Elliott, seeing her first career Pac-10 start. Both Nobel and Elliott pitched four full flawless innings with Elliott giving up only one hit and Nobel three before ASU and Washington decided to bring in their aces in the fifth, entering Katie Burkhart and Danielle Lawrie.
Both Burkhart and Elliott cruised through two innings keeping the score deadlocked at 0-0 before the bottom of the seventh when Katie Burkhart walked lead-off hitter Dena Tyson in a tough eight pitch battle. Next up Danielle Lawrie started to swing on a pitch hit and inside which hit her in the hand and was sent to first in a hotly debated contest.
A sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third and a strikeout brought the game to two outs and two on in the bottom of seven when a pitch snuck by ASU's catcher Kristen Miller to score Dena Tyson and end the game with UW taking a 1-0 win.
The Sun Devils return to the field next weekend for part one of the `Duel in the Desert' as they head south to face their in-state rival No. 5 Arizona next Friday and Saturday April 6 and 7. Both games will be played at 7 p.m. with Saturday's game being televised on ESPN2.