(Tempe, AZ) In a celebration of the eight Sun Devil seniors Sunday afternoon under the blistering sun, Sun Devil Softball (21-23, 5-16 Pac-12) fell to the No. 9 Stanford Cardinal (38-10, 13-8 Pac-12), 5-2, in extra innings at Farrington Stadium.
Senior’s Jazmine Hill, Jazmyn Rollin, Alexa Milius and Makenna Harper accounted for seven of the Sun Devils eight hits on the day, including multi-hit games from Hill, Harper and Rollin who each had two hits on the day.
Freshman Kylee Magee got the start in the circle going for five innings with five strikeouts, making it her second straight start going at least five innings, keeping the Stanford offense at a stand-still. Mac Osborne and Marissa Schuld came in for relief, each going 1.1 innings. Deborah Jones pitched the final out in the top of the eighth.
HOW IT HAPPENED
After a scoreless three and a half innings, Milius had a leadoff single. Next up to bat was Harper and a single from her brought pinch runner Kalyn McCarthy to second. Boccagno reached on a fielder’s choice, but all runners were left on base.
The Cardinal got on the board first in the top of the fifth off a sac fly.
Hill ignited the fifth frame with a lead-off double that got sent to the right-field wall, following a wild pitch that advanced Hill to third base, Yanni Acuña was walked, to setup a game-tying single from Rollin. Harper gave the Sun Devils their first lead of the series with a RBI single that scored Acuña later in the frame.
Stanford managed a rally with a lead-off double in the seventh. A single through the gap tied the game at 2-2.
In the top of the eighth, the Cardinal took the lead with a three-run home run and they held on in the bottom of the eighth to get the win.
NOTABLES
With her five strikeouts in her showing this afternoon, it was the most Magee has had in conference play.
Hill’s multi-hit game marks the 42nd time she’s had two-plus hits in a contest and her first since April 8.
Harper’s fifth-inning single marked the 24th multi-hit game of her career, and managed to be Acuña’s 150th run scored in her Sun Devil career.
Rollin notched her 37th career multi-hit game and set a personal best with her 12th of the season.
Acuña’s walk and hit-by-pitch marked the 23rd time this season she’s been on base at least two times.
Sunday’s attendance of 1,644 gave the Sun Devils a season average of 1,398 fans per game to set a new single season average attendance record.
QUOTES
Assistant Coach Jimmy Kolaitis
On Kylee Magee’s performance in the circle today:
“It was great, it was awesome. What you’re seeing out of Kylee, she gets better every time she’s in the circle. She’s got to get stronger over the next four years. But she’s the future of our program, she’s going to lead our pitching staff, she’s going to do great things. She’s been thrown into the fire and has responded well. She’s a competitor and she wants to get better.”
On what the graduating senior class means to the program:
“They’ve been so important to our program. We’ve got all sorts of different kinds of seniors, we’ve got some that have been here for four or five years that have put everything in to this program. We’ve got some that made the decision for their fifth year, grad transfers, G and Alexa, that came out and have been special here this year. We’ve got a great group, eight great seniors and they’ve all played a great part in our program and we appreciate everything they’ve done.”
UP NEXT
The Sun Devils will embark on their final road trip of the regular season facing a three-game series against Oregon State in Corvallis on May 5-7. Watch the games on Pac-12 Network.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Josh Fisher
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