April 5, 2012
, – Timely hitting helped the softball team to a 9-1 mercy rule in six innings against UCLA on Thursday night. With the win Dallas Escobedo picks up her 50th-career victory which ranks 10th all-time at ASU.
Thursday and Saturday's games will be on TV on Fox Sports . Check local listings for the channel.
won the first game of the weekend series with a 9-1 victory in six frames over the UCLA Bruins on Thursday. The Sun Devils pad their record to 33-4, 5-1 in Pac-12 while UCLA drops to 25-8 and an even 2-2 in conference action. ASU was led by Talor Haro’s performance at the dish, going 3-for-3 and Dallas Escobedo’s four strikeouts.
The victory marked the third-straight win over UCLA for the Devils dating back to 2011 when ASU took the series 2-1.
The Devils came to life in the third inning, when Alix Johnson saw a bases-loaded walk to score the first run of the game. An Annie Lockwood single plated Bailey Wigness one at-bat later and Haley Steele grounded out to see Katelyn Boyd come home for a 3-0 lead.
cushioned its lead in the fourth after Amber Freeman launched a home run over the center field wall on a 0-2 count. It marked the freshman’s sixth homer of the year and the team’s 54th.
The Bruins knocked in a run in the top of the fifth, with pinch-runner Sam Duran scoring on a sacrifice fly from Andrea Harrison, who reached on an error. UCLA was unable to convert runs through the rest of the evening, leaving seven runners stranded on base through the contest.
With the bases loaded again in the bottom of the sixth, the Devils secured the victory as ASU scored five runs off of four hits, enacting the mercy rule and ending the game with a final tally of 9-1. Escobedo picked up the win, her 13th of the year (13-3) and Jessica Hall garners the loss moving her to 12-5 overall.
UP NEXT
Friday night's game is slated for a 7 p.m. start, while Saturday's game is set for 12 p.m., and will be broadcasted on TV on Fox Sports Arizona.
FOLLOW THE SUN DEVILS LIVE | Blaze Radio Link
Starting this weekend, The Blaze 1330 AM will stream all home softball games on their LiveStream channel, which can be found here. Live statistics and play-by-play action will be provided on Gametracker and Twitter (@ASUSoftball) - the links to which are available on the softball schedule page here. Free audio will also be provided on UCLA's GameCentral web site here.
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 here.