April 14, 2007
TEMPE, Ariz. - Katie Burkhart pitched over six perfect innings for a complete game shutout and Caylyn Carlson hit her first career grand slam Saturday night as the No. 8 Sun Devil Softball team topped the No. 17 Stanford Cardinal 7-0 in front of a near sell-out crowd of 1,556. ASU is now 38-10 overall and 4-3 in conference play while the Cardinal drop to 27-11 and 3-5.
The game remained at a deadlock through three innings until the bottom of the fourth, and with two outs the Sun Devils rattled off six runs with a single, walk and a Cardinal error to load the bases before pinch hitter Caylyn Carlson lined her seventh home run of the season over the left field wall for her first career grand slam. Kaitlin Cochran dug in next and on the first pitch she saw, hammered her 13th longball of the season over right field to push ASU up 6-0.
Katie Burkhart cruised through the next few batters as she held a perfect game through 6.1 innings before a hit to left just bounced in fair territory to give the Cardinal their first hit of the game. Burkhart rallied back to close out the game with a final line of one hit and ten strikeouts in a complete game shutout.
The Sun Devils will face the Cardinal again tomorrow afternoon with a start time of 1 p.m. The game will be held in Tempe at Farrington Stadium. Fans are advised to make ample time to arrive there as several streets will be closed for the Tempe Ironman event going on all Sunday.