No. 20 Arizona State had hit after hit and homer after homer.
No. 14 Arizona’s bats were, well, quiet.
If the Wildcats softball team thought they had figured out their hitting issues, they were mistaken. Arizona managed just two hits as the Sun Devils claimed the series with a run-rule, five-inning 11-0 win on Saturday at Hillenbrand Stadium.
Arizona State (24-5, 5-0 Pac-12) hit four home runs — three of them in the fifth inning — which accounted for 10 of its runs. After leading 4-0 after four innings, ASU broke the game open with seven runs in the fifth.
After taking three of four games against UA last year, the Sun Devils will look to complete a three-game sweep Sunday when the teams meet at 2 p.m.
For the second night in a row, Arizona went through three pitchers, but ultimately had no way to stop the Sun Devils.
After the loss — the fifth straight for UA (19-9, 0-5) to begin Pac-12 play — the Wildcats held an impromptu players-only meeting. It lasted well after Arizona State had cleared out.
UA sophomore Giulia Koutsoyanopulos said the message shared in their circle was simple: “Just to get our heads up and get things going.”
As far as who’s stepping up to try to get the Wildcats out of the current rut, the center fielder said everyone is.
“I think we’re all in it together and we’re going to work little by little,” Koutsoyanopulos said.
Saturday night’s performance was made a little more disappointing following the hitting progress the Wildcats had made a night prior, when they scored two runs and got seven hits coming off a scoreless weekend at UCLA.
Jasmine Perezchica and Blaise Biringer provided the Wildcats’ only two hits in Game 2 of the series. The Sun Devils had five players with two hits each.
“I think we didn’t control everything we can control today,” UA coach Caitlin Lowe said. “I thought (Friday) we stepped in the box hungry — we took pitches that weren’t ours and were all over things that we could hit. And today, we felt like we had to swing at all strikes instead of the ones we were hunting for.”
With heavy roster turnover, young players and a new head coach, there’s a lot of growing pains happening.
Unfortunately, in a conference where there are five ranked teams (including Arizona), the Wildcats aren’t afforded the luxury of having the time to sort out those growing pains.
It won't get any easier next week, when Top-10 team Washington visits Tucson.
As far as how the team will look to get out of its current rut, Lowe was glad to see the players talking amongst themselves after the game. Hopefully, some strong leaders will emerge from these hard times.
“If they all knew how much each other cared, which is what we’re finally starting to see when people use their voice and they show a part of themselves that’s vulnerable, the team goes to a different place,” Lowe said.
