April 20, 2012
, – A pair of grand slams in the fifth inning lifted softball to a 11-9 victory over No. 16 Stanford on Friday night in softball’s Gold Game in front of a crowd of 1,875.
Amber Freeman and Katelyn Boyd both connected for grand slams in the contest while ASU came-from-behind to take the win, 11-9. Talor Haro and Sam Parlich hit 3-for-4 at the dish with two and one run scored, respectively. Mackenzie Popescue picked up her sixth win of the season during the comeback.
Stanford (32-14, 6-10 Pac-12) scored four runs in the third on a Jenna Rich grand slam to take an early lead. ASU (37-5, 9-2 Pac-12) answered in the bottom of the frame when Bailey Wigness was brought home on a Boyd single to left to close the gap at 4-1.
The Cardinal tacked on an additional two runs in the fourth, both unearned, during an Ashley Hansen at-bat to make it a 6-1 lead over the Sun Devils.
Mackenzie Popescue came in for relief in the top of the fifth as Dallas Escobedo left the circle after 4.0 innings worked and one strikeout.
ASU then created some two-out lightning in the bottom of the fifth, with an amazing two grand slams in the stanza. Freshman Freeman hit her first career grand slam to edge the Sun Devils closer at 6-5, followed by Boyd hitting one to left center, giving ASU the 9-6 lead.
Getting in on the home run action was Annie Lockwood, who hit her seventh of the season in the bottom of the sixth. Parlich then extended the lead to 11-6 after her double to right center brought home Breanna Kaye.
Stanford scored three more runs in the top of the seventh on six hits, but it was not enough as ASU closed out the game with an 11-9 final score. Popescue picked up the win, improving her record to 6-1 on the year, while Teagan Gerhart garners the loss to drop her to 27-9.
FOLLOW THE SUN DEVILS LIVE
The entire series this weekend will be streamed live on FoxSportsArizona.com as well as The Blaze 1330 AM's UStream channel, here. Live stats and play-by-play will also be available on Gametracker. All links can be found in the sidebar on the softball schedule page, which is found here.
UP NEXT:
The Devils continue the series at 7 p.m. Saturday and noon on Sunday. Fans are encouraged to check traffic reports on Saturday as Pat’s Run will cause delays on and in the morning through early afternoon.
VOTE FOR BOYD FOR THE LOWE'S SENIOR CLASS AWARD | Vote Here
Ten NCAA® softball student-athletes who excel both on and off the field were selected as finalists today for the 2012 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. Katelyn Boyd has been chosen as one of the 2012 finalist. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence - community, classroom, character and competition. Vote for Katelyn at www.seniorclassaward.com/vote.
CLOTHING DRIVE AT SOFTBALL, MAY 4-6
The weekend of May 4-6 the softball team will have a table set up at Farrington Stadium to accept donations for Helen's Hope Chest throughout the weekend as the Sun Devils take on in the season home finale. Senior designated player Nikole Afusia is an intern at Helen's Hope Chest - we invite you to learn more about this event here.