April 8, 2006
- Though Katie Burkhart jumped into NCAA records by recording 23 strikeouts on the night, the #8 Sun Devil Softball Team (37-5, 1-2 Pac-10) suffered their second loss of the weekend Saturday as they fell 3-1 in eleven innings to the #14 Washington Huskies (28-11, 2-3 Pac-10) in front of a near-capacity crowd of 1,317 at ASU's Farrington Stadium.
Powered by their tough pitching, Washington's Caitlin Noble and Danielle Lawrie held ASU to just five hits and tallied 19 Sun Devil strikeouts on the night, while the Husky offense scored all three of their runs off of solo home runs.
The Sun Devils plated one first as the Huskies loaded the bases for ASU in the first inning with two walks and a hit batter as Ashley Werschky stepped up to hit a single to bring home Kaitlin Cochran as the Devils grabbed a 1-0 lead. The Huskies answered the run in the fifth inning with a solo shot to center field from pitcher Danielle Lawrie, tying the game at 1-1.
The game remained deadlocked into extra innings until the eleventh inning when Washington's Lauren Greer and Dominique Lastrapes both hit a solo shot over right field to push the Huskies up 3-1. The Sun Devils were unable to answer in the bottom of the inning, as two Sun Devils went down swinging with the final out grounding out to short to end the game.
Sophomore pitcher, Katie Burkhart fanned 23 Huskies on the night, which ties her for fifth place in NCAA history for strikeouts in a game, but ended the night taking her third loss of the season.
The Sun Devils will have a chance to even the series with the Huskies tomorrow as they are set to face off at 1 p.m. at Farrington Stadium. Fans are reminded to expect traffic delays due to the Ironman Triathalon being hosted in tomorrow.