Softball Suffers Second 2021 Loss vs. BU

TEMPE, Ariz. --  In the final matchup of a two-game series against Baylor University, the Arizona State softball team fell, 7-2, on a rare cold morning and cold bat day at Alberta B. Farrington Softball Stadium.

The Sun Devils (17-2) led the majority of the game until the sixth inning when the Bears (15-4) picked up two bunt singles in a row and ran with the momentum to take the lead. 

From there on the Sun Devils failed to mount any momentum. The bats went cold today as the Sun Devils were out hit, 7-6, and burned through the entire pitching staff in the seven-inning bout. 

Sophomore starting pitcher Lindsay Lopez was dominant today as she retired the first ten batters she faced. Cielo Meza entered as relief in the top of the sixth, threw a couple of pitches but was unable to close out the inning. Freshman Allison Royalty entered with zero outs in the sixth and stayed in to finish the game. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Sophomore shortstop Alynah Torres opened the scoring with an infield groundout in the bottom of the first inning, putting the Sun Devils up 1-0. It was all set up by senior outfielder Kindra Hackbarth who stole second and third to put the Sun Devils in scoring position.
• In the second inning, Hackbarth came through with a single to put the lead to 2-0.
• Sophomore pitcher Lindsay Lopez cruised through the Bears lineup, as she gave up her first hit in the fourth inning. She finished with five innings pitched giving up 1 run, four hits and five strikeouts. 
• For the first time this season, the Sun Devils didn't hit a homerun in a game.

UP NEXT: The Sun Devils look to bounce back as they travel to Los Angeles, for a four game series against the UCLA Bruins on Friday March 19th.

"I'm excited. I think the team's excited," Maddi Hackbarth said of opening conference play this upcoming weekend. "I know the freshman from last year and the freshman this year are very excited. It's their first time playing in the Pac-12 they're gonna see what it's about. I always said in the past and I will continue to say, I think the Pac-12 is the best competition in college softball, and I think that this year is going to be fun. I'm excited, I know the team is excited, and the coaches are excited. What better team to start with than UCLA?"

Maddi Hackbarth Quotes:
On takeaways from this game, and making it a positive…
"I think we take it as a learning lesson. I think every loss, even wins, you have learning lessons and learning moments that you can take away from the game. Moving forward, I think our learning lesson is to not take any team lightly no matter if we've played them or not in the past. I think going forward, we need to have the same energy if we're playing the #1 team or the last team in the nation. I think that's what we take away from today's game."

On personal improvements…
"I think personally just being a leader on the team, I think I can create a little bit more energy and pass that along 1-9 and then onto the bench. Today's about energy. We didn't have that, we lacked that today. That's what we can do moving forward and have the same energy no matter who we're playing."

On excitement for Pac-12 play and facing UCLA…
"I'm excited. I think the team's excited. I know the freshman from last year and the freshman this year are very excited. It's their first time playing in the Pac-12 they're gonna see what it's about. I always say in the past and I will continue to say, I think the Pac-12 is the best competition in college softball, and I think that this year is going to be fun. I'm excited, I know the team is excited, and the coaches are excited. What better team to start with than UCLA?"

On tying the second least runs scored this season, and what wasn't working offensively…
"I didn't think we made adjustments quick enough… We just weren't sticking with it. She threw hard and she threw changeup offspeed out, and we couldn't make an adjustment. We kept pulling and left many runners on early in the game and I think that's what hurt us."

TRISHA FORD QUOTES
On reality check of today:
"That's what I told them before the game, that this was going to be hard today. We're playing at ten o'clock in the morning on a Sunday, we threw this game in here, and I said this is going to be good for us. Unfortunately we didn't take care of the business we needed to take care of. I thought Lindsay did a great job. She threw five solid innings for us and things just unraveled rather quickly. That's the part we need to address, that can't happen we need to be able to stop the bleeding. We just didn't make the adjustments we needed to make."

Pitcher's performance:
"I don't think we made the adjustments we needed to quickly. When you're coming in relief you got to know what the umpire is calling and what the zone looks like and you have to trust your stuff. I thought we didn't do a very good job of that. We didn't make adjustments at all which I know we are capable of doing.

Playing UCLA:
"I think learning from today and working on some of those things but kind of  moving forward  we get to play conference, none of our freshmen got to play in the conference last year. Last year we got stopped on our bus ride over to UCLA. I think it's going to look different this year but I'm excited to get out there and compete and play against great competition. That's what the Pac is all about, that's why you come to play in the Pac. I'm excited to get going for conference play."

Playing through mishaps and getting back on track:
"We play through the game a little bit and have open conversations. I think that's the one thing that I've learned as a coach is to really listen. We're going to watch this game as a unit and talk about what we were thinking and what was going on because in order for me to be able to coach and hit those buttons I have to get inside their head. I'll have the pitchers write down some thoughts they were having during the game and some of those types of things because we can address it and that's how you get better. We practice physically just like everybody  else a lot and for me it's that mental piece and the preparation of what that looks like for us and getting inside their head and understanding which buttons to push and when. Today I feel like we had those freshmen mistakes and that's something that's going to happen.  We just got to get better and learn from it."