The Arizona Wildcats softball team lost its seventh straight Pac-12 contest when No. 8 Arizona State walked off with a 2-1 win Friday night in Tempe.
Taylor McQuillin took the hill for No. 13 Arizona and surrendered two hits and two runs in 6ª innings. McQuillin (19-9) struck out 10 of 22 batters faced and walked just one.
The Wildcats jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first frame on a leadoff home run by Ashleigh Hughes, her fifth of the season. It was all Giselle “G” Juarez the rest of the way, as the Sun Devils’ starter struck out 13 while allowing just two more hits in seven innings after Hughes’ leadoff homer.
Juarez retired the final 15 Wildcats hitters to improve to 19-2 on the year. Juarez leads the Pac-12 in strikeouts (226) and ERA, which actually went up to 0.95 from 0.94 after Friday’s gem.
Hughes had two of Arizona’s three hits off the Sun Devils’ ace, and made a catch at the top of the wall in the fourth inning to deny ASU’s Danielle Gibson of extra bases. Wildcats cleanup hitter Jessie Harper finished 1 for 3.
McQuillin was sharp, allowing just three total baserunners, but her two hiccups both went for runs that ultimately doomed the free-falling Wildcats. ASU’s first hit of the game came on a home run in the fourth inning off the bat of leadoff hitter Kindra Hackbarth.
Gibson’s one-out double in the bottom of the seventh then sent everyone at Farrington Stadium home.
Arizona and ASU meet for Game 2 of their three-game series Saturday at 2 p.m., on Pac-12 Arizona.
