April 23, 2006
- Powered with Michelle Smith's two triples, three RBIs and solid defense and Katie Burkhart's eight strikeouts the No. 8 Sun Devils grabbed a 3-1 win over the No. 5 Stanford Cardinal (33-10, 6-6 Pac-10) Sunday afternoon at Stanford's Smith Family Stadium in Palo Alto. The Sun Devils improve to 41-7 overall and 5-4 in conference play after going 2-1 over the weekend.
The Cardinal grabbed the lead first in the first inning as lead-off hitter, Catalina Morris was hit by a pitch and was plated off of an RBI double to left field from senior shortstop, Lauren Lappin giving Stanford the 1-0 lead.
ASU's bats caught on in the third to grab the lead with two outs as the Devils rallied off three straight hits with singles from Jackie Vasquez and Jessica Mapes, both being plated by Michelle Smith who battled back from an 0-2 count to hit a triple out to the right field wall as the Sun Devils jumped ahead 2-1.
Smith helped the Sun Devils cushion their lead in the fifth as she cranked off another triple to the right field gap bringing home Delenah Langley who was pinch running after Kristen Miller's lead-off single to left field, boosting ASU to a 3-1 lead.
The Cardinal threatened in their last at-bats as they hit back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second with no outs before Katie Burkhart struck out the next two and the final out flying out to Michelle Smith.
The Sun Devils will continue Pac-10 action next weekend as they travel to #14 Washington and #1 UCLA.