TEMPE, Ariz.- As the game moved on to the bottom of the sixth, Arizona State junior infielder Katie Chester stepped up to the plate in a 2-2 game. With a runner on second, Chester drilled the ball out of the park, giving ASU a 4-2 lead.
“I knew we were in a tight situation, and I personally like those situations,” Chester said. “Coach (Josh) Bloomer just told me the inning before like ‘hey, go take some practice swings’ so I just went out, got my timing, and got what I was looking for.”
This big hit sparked a big inning for the Sun Devils and was enough to secure a 9-6 victory on Saturday, Feb. 14.
The Littlewood Invitational was in full swing at Farrington Stadium after a full day of softball action. It was now time for ASU (8-1) and Pacific (1-7) to face off in the nightcap and begin a two-game series between each other.
The Sun Devils made an interesting move, starting freshman left-handed pitcher Mary Peyton Hodge in her first-ever start at the collegiate level.
With this in mind, the Tigers came out ready and put pressure on with a leadoff single followed by a bunt to catch Hodge and the rest of the ASU defense off guard. Hodge faced her first challenge at the college level with two runners on base.
Hodge stepped off and took a breath to give herself a reset. The left-hander stepped back in and fired away to get the strikeout to start it off. Before getting the next two batters out to navigate out of the jam.
The Sun Devils got their turn in the bottom half, but went down in order in a lackluster inning.
After another zero from Hodge, ASU got the scoring started with a two-run double from senior infielder Brooklyn Ulrich. This was set up by timely hitting from the Sun Devils to load the bases and pay it off.
Despite this early action, Pacific answered right back at the top of the next inning, scoring two runs off a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 2-2. Now all tied up, it was a brand new game for both sides.
Both teams finally settled in as they both put up zeros for the next couple of innings, but the sixth inning is when ASU assumed control.
Sophomore outfielder Ashleigh Mejia led off the inning with a double to right field to bring up Chester, who was in the game as a pinch hitter. In her first appearance, the infielder made her presence felt as she sent a ball over the fence to break the tie and start the big inning.
Over the course of the sixth inning, the Sun Devils racked up six hits and scored a total of seven runs, and extended the lead to 9-2. They batted around in the inning as Mejia got the chance to come up again and capped off the offensive barrage with a bases-clearing double.
“Just not quitting,” Mejia said. “Yeah, I got on base the first time and second time, but we're not done yet. I just knew that and what the situation was asking of me, and just to stay calm.”
In the top of the seventh, the Tigers had one last chance to pull off the improbable down such a deficit. After two quick outs, ASU left the door open after a misplay at first to keep the inning alive.
Pacific wasn't going away, and it managed to load the bases off a couple of missed pitches from senior right-handed pitcher Aissa Silva. Making one last push was Bailery Boetjer, who hit a ground-rule double of her own and brought the score to 9-6.
Silva stepped away to regather herself and faced the final batter, got the punchout and ended the game with the Sun Devils coming out on top.
“Yeah, Aissa just dialed it back into the zone and ended the game for us,” head coach Megan Bartlett said. “There's a lot of moving parts on defense, physical mistakes are going to happen, but certainly compounding errors is a no-go, so we'll clean it up defensively.”
This game was certainly a team effort, and a big contributor defensively was Hodge, who showed out in her first start. Going four innings and only giving up one earned run is a great spot for the promising freshman, who has also been helping the team in practice.
“I'm so glad we have lefties this year,” Mejia said. “It's a new eye, and I feel comfortable facing other lefties now because we see them all the time in practice.”
On the offensive side, Mejia had the biggest impact, finishing with three hits and three RBI, while playing with high energy the whole game.
“You can't think ‘what if’ in this game because it's so fast,” Mejia said. “Just trust everything that you've seen and all the work that you've done, and I just think that's what happened tonight, just trusting the process.”
Both teams will play each other again tomorrow as the Littlewood Invitational wraps up.
“We just have to make sure we show up in the morning,” Bartlett said. “Respect the game the right way, clean it up on defense, and take care of business.”