A cold and rainy Friday night at Farrington Field kicked off Alumni weekend in Tempe with the Oregon State Beavers visiting. The team from Corvallis ultimately took down Arizona State 5-3 after an impressive rally.
Oregon State sent junior Sarah Saendiges to the circle and Arizona State countered with senior Deborah Jones.
Jones would start with a clean first inning and the Sun Devil bats got going in the bottom half. With senior third baseman Kayla Lissi on first, sophomore right fielder Tanya Windle stepped up and delivered an opposite-field RBI double. Lissy went from first to home to score the game’s opening run.
From there both pitchers took over. Saendiges would keep the Sun Devil bats at bay and on the other side Jones was continuing to work her way out of jams including a two-on, one-out situation in the third.
Eventually, the Beavers broke through with an RBI single from Junior second baseman Kiki Escobar in the fourth inning. Sophomore left fielder Yannixa Acuna attempted to throw home but her pivot foot slipped awkwardly and she went down and eventually left the game.
“It broke my heart,” said Graduate student center fielder Kelsey Hall. “It was definitely a big momentum changer, she’s been one of the biggest factors on this team.”
After another solid inning from Jones the ASU bats woke up again courtesy of Hall with an opposite-field standup triple that scored a pair of runs and sent Farrington Stadium into a frenzy.
Unfortunately for Jones and the Sun Devils, Oregon State had an answer. Junior first baseman Lici Campbell singled down the third base line bringing up Junior right fielder Eliana Gottlieb sent a 2-1 offering from Jones over the wall tying the game and ending her night. Jones pitched five innings giving up three runs on six hits and striking out four.
“All we can ask her to do is keep us in the game and she did that,” said Assistant Coach Jimmy Kolaitis.
Graduate student Marissa Schuld replaced Jones and stopped the bleeding in the sixth. But the Beavers eventually got to her in the seventh. The inning started well for Schuld as she retired back-to-back batters.
Then freshman left fielder Paige Doerr walked to bring up Campbell. Down 0-2 in the count with two outs, the first baseman got her pitch and took Schuld deep to grab the Beavers their first lead of the game after a two-run home run.
The Beavers brought out junior Ellie Garcia to take over in the circle.
Haendigs finished her night pitching six innings giving up three runs on eight hits and striking out four batters.
Garcia walked one batter and gave up no hits to shut down any comeback effort.
A bright spot for ASU was their defense. The Sun Devils had a very sound game in the field with no errors and only one past ball that allowed a Beaver runner to advance.
“The defense made plays when they needed to, we didn’t give them anything, every run they scored tonight they earned,” said Kolaitis.
The Sun Devils and Beavers are right back at it tomorrow at Farrington Stadium to continue the three-game series and the alumni festivities. The first pitch is at 5 P.M. MST.
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