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Saturday Sweep & Roasted Duck Served at Club Farrington

by thesundevils.com
May 1, 2021

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Big performances at the mound and on the plate combined for No. 12 Sun Devil Softball's (30-12, 10-7) no-doubt Saturday sweep, 10-4 and 4-1, of No. 8 Oregon at Alberta B. Farrington Softball Stadium. Nearly everyone in the Sun Devil lineup got in on the hitting action while Allison Royalty and Lindsay Lopez devoured the Duck batters, holding them to one hit in game two, the fewest for the Oregon offense in a single game this season. 

In-game one of the doubleheader, the Sun Devils blasted the Oregon Ducks 10-4. It was a homerun party as both Yannira Acuna and Maddi Hackbarth went yard. Acuna notched a big game as she went 2-3 with a home run and three RBIs.

After giving up three runs in the first inning, the Sun Devils fought back to tie things in the bottom of the first. From there, the Devils didn't look back as they evened the weekend series 1-1. 

Game two of the doubleheader recorded as a non-conference match. The Sun Devils silenced the Ducks, 4-1, as the long ball party carried over from earlier in the day. The Sun Devils smacked two home runs to put the Devils up 4-0. Savannah Price made her first collegiate debut at second and put on a show. Price went 2-2 with two RBIs and a monster home run in the second to add to the lead.

Royalty flirted with perfection before allowing a baserunner in the fourth inning. She finished the night with only one hit and zero runs in five innings pitched.  

UP NEXT: The Sun Devils will finish up the four-game series against Oregon tomorrow at 12 p.m. MST on the Pac-12 Network.

Game One, ASU 10, UO 4:
HOW IT HAPPENED:

  • Oregon struck first in the first inning off a three-run home run, but the Sun Devils tied it  with a shot of their own off a Yannira Acuna bomb in the bottom of the first inning. 
  • Left fielder Makenna Harper flashed her defensive skills as she robbed the Ducks of a hit in the second inning.
  • The Sun Devils chased the starting pitcher out after two innings.
  • Oregon broke into their bullpen early as they used two different relievers in the third inning.
  • Maddi Hackbarth broke the 3-3 tie in the bottom of the third inning by hitting her 20th home run of the season to put the Devils up by two. 
  • Hackbarth's third-inning home run ties the program record of home runs in a season, joining Cheyenne Coyle (2013) and Kaitlin Cochran (2009).
  • With runners on first and third and two outs, Allison Royalty got the Oregon batter to strike out swinging to end the fourth inning.
  • Royalty finished her day with four innings pitched, giving up three runs off of four hits and five strikeouts. 
  • Lindsay Lopez came in and retired the first four batters before giving up a run in the sixth inning.
  • With the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning, Jazmine Hill squeezed a single through the shortstop to bring in two to make the score 7-4. Alynah Torres later added a run with a sac bunt to push the score to 8-4.
  • Yannira Acuna added to her big day with a single in the sixth inning to extend the lead to 10-4.
  • Denae Chatman sealed the game with a diving catch in foul territory to give the Sun Devils the win. 
  • The last time Oregon walked nine batters was on March 2019 vs Washington. 

Game Two, ASU 4, UO 1:
HOW IT HAPPENED:

  • Savannah Price made her first collegiate start at second base.
  • The Sun Devils opened with a pair of two-run home runs in the bottom of the second inning courtesy of Yannira Acuna and Savannah Price. It's Acuna's second dinger of the day after going yard in the earlier conference match.
  • The ASU defense went three-up, three-down in the first three innings as Allison Royalty made her 17th start
  • Royalty threw 4 ? innings of perfect ball before allowing her first baserunner. She finished the night with five innings pitched, one hit, and zero runs. Cielo Meza entered as relief in the top of the sixth with a 4-0 Sun Devil lead.
  • Lindsay Lopez came in for the save in the seventh inning and faced adversity before settling in and getting the final out to secure the victory.

QUOTES:
Allison Royalty
On being resilient throughout the course of the doubleheader:
"You don't have any other chance but to keep going. It's frustrating, I know I have to get my numbers down like the long balls I give up. I have to go in there and figure out [the gameplan] and I feel like I did a great job with that.  As heartbreaking as it is wanting to keep the team in the game, I know they do an awesome job of producing runs. I knew they were going to have my back and keep us in the ballgame. I know I have to have their back, it's not being selfish and getting down on yourself, I have to figure this out for the team. I'm glad I did because we got two wins today."

On Freshmen stepping up
"It makes my heart happy to see them all successful on the field. They've been ready for the opportunity to go in at any time, it's a matter of them getting a chance and taking advantage of it. Sav did a great job, Em did a great job, I'm just super happy for them."

Heach coach Trisha Ford
On the depth of the team:
"It's going to take everybody and sometimes our top-of-the-lineup does really well, sometimes our middle and the end. That's what makes us lethal, we have Bella Loomis at the nine-hole hitting over .300. It's not very fun for an opposing team. I thought Sav did a tremendous job, I'm so happy for her. She's been waiting to get an opportunity and she took advantage of it. Em has gotten some at-bats throughout the year and she's had some solid at-bats. She's going to be a special player here for us. She's working hard and putting in her time and doing those things that are necessary. I think all around we played better defense and took advantage of good pitches."

On Allison's performance:
"Royalty had to deal with some things during our off week and she was starting to work back into the grind of things. She came up to me and was like, 'I feel good, I want to throw, I need to work through this.' She was a little rusty going into our first two games and we took a different game plan and figured how to work best with what she has now. We had a really good conversation on how we wanted to attack the hitters and what our plan was. We made sure both Cielo and Lindsay were ready to go."

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