May 1, 2010
PALO ALTO, Calif. – Sluggish offense and unstable pitching doomed the seventh-ranked Sun Devil Softball team Saturday afternoon in Palo Alto, Calif. as the No. 14 Stanford Cardinal took off with an 8-0(5) win. Sam Parlich took the loss to fall to 7-6 on the year while ASU drops to 38-11 overall and 7-7 in Pac-10 play while Stanford improves to 32-13 and 5-9 in conference play.
The Cardinal came out guns blazing on the Sun Devils as they jumped on starter Sam Parlich with five hits and a walk to post four runs on ASU to take the lead 4-0. They weren’t finished yet though as they throttled back in the second inning against Megan Elliott after a two-RBI double from Jenna Rich gave them the 6-0 advantage after two complete.
ASU couldn’t get the offensive fuse lit though as they were only able to put up a paltry two hits on the day, with little threat to the Stanford defense. The Cardinal came out again in the fourth inning taking advantage of an error to score an unearned run off a sac fly before finishing the day early on the Sun Devils with a single down the left field from Shannon Koplitz bringing home the nail in the coffin as Alix Van Zandt put one down the left line to end it.
The Sun Devils will finish the series with the Cardinal tomorrow as they set to face Stanford one last time this season at noon in Palo Alto at Smith Family Stadium.