(Tempe, AZ) Sun Devil Softball opened its weekend home series with a 9-5 win over Iowa State on Friday night at Farrington Stadium. The Sun Devils totaled nine hits with three home runs while earning their fifth comeback win this season.
Arizona State extended its season-long winning streak to five with big hits coming from Gianna Boccagno and Makenna Harper. Boccagno’s first multi-hit game at ASU included a go-ahead 3-run home run in the fifth after Harper tied the game with a 2-run shot in the third. Coming in for relief of Kylee Magee, sophomore Kenzie Brown struck out three and only allowed one hit in 2.1 innings to earn her third win of the season.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Yanni Acuña smacked her fifth home run – and third first-inning leadoff home run – of the season to right field on the first pitch she saw to give ASU an early 1-0 lead.
Alexa Milius added to the lead later in the inning with an RBI single, and Boccagno made it 3-0 with her first RBI of the season on a single to right center.
After leaving the bases loaded in the top of the second, Iowa State got a two-run home run from Angelina Allen to spark a five-run third inning that gave the Cyclones a 5-3 lead.
Jazmine Hill limited the damage by throwing out a runner at the plate for the final out of the inning.
Trailing for the first time in the game, Jordyn VanHook delivered a one-out double down the left field line, and Harper followed and tied the game by driving a two-run blast to center field.
Brown followed up a perfect fourth inning with a solid fifth-inning performance, notching two strikeouts to bring her total to three.
The Sun Devils started the bottom of the fifth with Harper hitting a single to first base and then Milius getting on base via a fielding error. Boccagno broke the tie with a blast just inside the right field fair pole for her first home run at ASU, giving the Sun Devils an 8-5 lead.
Savannah Price walked, then stole second base where she scored on a single down the right-field line from Acuña to make it 9-5.
Marissa Schuld worked a perfect sixth and then loaded the bases in the seventh before inducing a 1-2-3 double play which ended the game.
QUOTES:
Arizona State Head Coach Megan Bartlett
On how Kenzie Brown was able to step in and get the win after Kylie Magee’s early struggles:
“Kenzie was pretty lights-out tonight. Kid’s special. She’s working 68 to 70 drop-rise-change, and she’s another one that has done a beautiful job in the middle reliever role. She just kind of stops the momentum, and I was proud of her, I thought she did great. When that kid starts to believe in herself a little bit more, I think we’re going to have something pretty special.
Yani Acuña
On Yanni Acuña hitting another leadoff home run:
“Yanni is just so gifted and talented. She plays with joy and passion and grit and fire and I just really feel grateful I get to coach her in her last hurrah. She’s pretty special.”
How an offensive performance like this can prepare the team for what’s to come:
“The reality of our sport the last 10 years is we play a lot of knockout softball. A lot of haymakers get thrown, you win games in the sport with a lot of curved numbers on the scoreboard. If every time that happens against you your team is going to crumble and back down and get emotionally and mentally defeated you won’t win a lot of ballgames at a high level. It’s something we talk about, sometimes wins are ugly and we have to keep our wits about us.”
Arizona State Pitcher Kenzie Brown:
On getting the win and coming in for relief:
“Trusting my pitches, trusting my teammates behind me, and trusting that my pitching coach knows what he’s doing.”
On the importance of her coming in as a reliever:
“I think it’s easy to do whenever you trust the people around you, so trusting that the defense has my back, and trusting that my pitching coach has my back, too.”
On how much of an impact the offense playing well has on the pitching staff:
“Yeah, it definitely takes a lot of the stress off, because you don’t have to be as precise – you can make an error and you don’t feel bad about it. Having that offense behind us is really, really good.”
On whether or not the team discusses pitching strategy before the game (ASU threw lots of pitches high tonight):
“I think, back to Coach Manley, he knows what he’s doing, and he called a lot of high pitches. You saw they (Iowa State’s batters) were swinging, they weren’t going to hit it.”
Arizona State Catcher Gianna Boccagno
On what her approach was going into the at-bat that produced her opposite field, three-run home run to break the tie in the 5th inning:
“Just to see the ball, see what she was throwing. It sounds really silly, but if you can’t see the ball, you can’t hit it, that’s really important. That kid (ISU’s pitcher) had a really good change-up, so just finding the ball.”
Kenzie Brown
On the impact of Kenzie Brown ending the third inning right away on the team’s confidence:
“It’s a big motivation-killer for the opposite team, so it gives us that encouragement and that power, and we’re kind of in control at that point. Kenzie’s full of energy – she’s all of the emotions, she’s all of that – and striking a kid out on the change-up is really exciting. I’ve never really been someone to have that true emotion on the field, but she brings that out in me, and I think she brings that out in a lot us, which is really awesome. She’s a firecracker.”
On what she does as a catcher when she notices a pitcher losing control or missing the same spot often:
“Well, today I went out there and I told a joke to one of my pitchers – don’t ask me the joke, I don’t remember it – but it’s just to lighten the mood, get them back to a calm state, and tell them that we’re here to work together. We have a great group of girls, and everyone is behind them to make plays, so all they have to do is throw the ball – it sounds really easy, but it’s not easy (pitchers) work really, really hard. Just getting them to a calm spot, telling them that I’m here for them, our defense is there for them, and we’re going to figure it out together.”
On whether or not it was difficult for the team to adjust at the last minute to playing a different team in a different location:
“We still scouted and did all of the things we’d normally do on the road, it was just one team versus five teams, which kind of lessens the workload, and staying home is always nice – you like to play at home – home field, sleep in your own bed kind of thing, which is cool. You get to hear everyone’s walk-up songs, which is always fun.”
UP NEXT:
Arizona State and Iowa State will close the series with a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 2 p.m. at Farrington Stadium.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Josh Fisher
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