Sun Devils win first two games of a weekend series for the first time this season
(Salt Lake City, UT) Four players had two hits as Sun Devil Softball defeated Utah 3-2 on Saturday evening to clinch the series. It’s the first time this season that ASU has won the first two games of a Big 12 series.
Arizona State (30-14, 10-7 Big 12) struck first for the second straight day when Ashleigh Mejia doubled home Yannixa Acuña for a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Mejia doubled behind an Acuña single in the third inning, which allowed Kelsey Hall to make it 2-0 with a sacrifice fly.
Utah (12-29, 4-10) used three singles and a sacrifice bunt to score a pair of runs in the bottom of the third to pull even at 2-2.
Tiare Ho-Ching singled to right and advanced to third on an error, leading off the ASU fifth inning. Acuna picked up her second hit of the night as the next hitter to put the Sun Devils in front for good.
Utah put the tying run on in the fifth before Kenzie Brown replaced Meika Lauppe in the circle and got out of the inning without allowing a run. Still up by one, Brown worked through a bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the seventh, capping the win with her fourth strikeout of the evening.
Brown earned her third save of the year by holding Utah scoreless in her 2.2 innings of work and allowing just one hit. Lauppe moved to 7-5 on the season after she allowed just two runs and struck out three.
The top three in the ASU lineup of Ho-Ching, Acuña, and Mejia each had two hits and combined to go 6-for-11. Mejia had two doubles while Tanya Windle added two hits from the fifth spot in the order.
NOTABLE
- Mejia had multiple hits for the fourth time in the last 10 games, and it’s the first time she had two doubles in a game.
- She added an RBI for the fifth straight game and sixth time in the past seven.
- Ho-Ching recorded her third two-hit game in April and scored a run for the fifth straight outing.
- Acuña extended her hitting streak to five straight games, during which she has gone 9-for-15 with three multi-hit games.
- She now has a hit in 11 of the last 13 games played.
- Lauppe has now allowed two runs or fewer in five straight appearances.
- Brown’s save was her third of the season and first since February 21 against California Baptist.
UP NEXT
ASU will go for the series sweep on Sunday with a first pitch at 11 a.m. AZT.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Josh Fisher
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