ASU softball reaches regional final
Arizona State softball senior pitcher Breanna Macha shut down Mississippi in a 7-1 win Saturday, sending the Sun Devils into an NCAA regional final.
With its second straight regional win at Farrington Stadium, No. 8 national seed ASU (45-11) needs just one victory Sunday to advance to a best-of-three super regional.
Long Beach State routed New Mexico State 9-0 in five innings in the second game Saturday then lost 1-0 to Mississippi in a night elimination game. So ASU will play the Rebels again Sunday for the regional title.
If ASU loses, one final game at 9 p.m. will decide the double-elimination regional.
“Even though we lost, we still have life,” Ole Miss coach Mike Smith said. “I told our players, ‘How long do you want to pursue your career as seniors and how bad do we want to continue to go?’
“Tip your cap to their pitcher (Macha). She kept us off balance all night long and we didn’t make in-game adjustments like they did. That’s the difference between good teams and great teams. Arizona State was the better team today.”
Macha (15-6) allowed just three hits and walked one while striking out nine. Mississippi averted a shutout when Abbey Latham homered in the seventh.
“Great at-bats in the box every inning,” ASU coach Trisha Ford said. “We were doing some damage. (Macha) threw lights out. She did a phenomenal job. Her change-up was money. We executed our game.”
Macha added: “These past couple of weeks, we’ve really worked on the change-up, getting it feeling good again. We had a great week of preparation. That just goes to show when we put in our work, we can come out and play our game.”
Kindra Hackbarth put the Rebels (3124) away with a three-run homer in the fourth off Kaitlin Lee that just cleared the fence in right field. DeNae Chatman and Skylar McCarty singled ahead of Hackbarth’s one-out homer (her fifth) on a 2-0 pitch.
Lee (17-13) was the winning pitcher last year when host Mississippi blanked ASU 2-0 in a regional winner’s bracket game.
Marisa Stankiewicz made it 6-0 in the fifth by lining her 10th home run of the season to right field.
“We took a little bit personal because of what happened last year,” Stankiewicz said. “We told the new girls this is how we felt when we lost over there and they took it upon themselves, and we did a great job.”
ASU, the away team, scored in the top of the second on a leadoff double by Morgan Howe, a wild pitch and a disputed groundout. Smith argued unsuccessfully that the RBI grounder should have been ruled foul off Jade Gortarez.
Smith also was unhappy about ASU’s second run, coming in the third inning. Bella Loomis was ruled safe at second on Howe’s infield single with Taylor Becerra advancing to third then scoring when Ole Miss shortstop Paige McKinney relayed to first trying to retire Howe.
“They were aggressive on the bases and Coach Ford did exactly what I would have, sending the runner,” Smith said. “I thought Paige’s toe was on when she caught the ball (at second base). They overturned it, I disagreed with it. You can’t go back and change it. We don’t have instant replay. We need it. Our game is too fast, there’s too much at stake.”
ASU’s All-Pac-12 first baseman Danielle Gibson batted in the first inning then left the game, presumably for health reasons. Stankiewicz moved to first and Loomis entered at second base.
Ford said Gibson “wasn’t feeling right after that first at-bat. We have depth, and I have confidence we can go to our bench and everybody is ready to play. It showed today.”