May 18, 2000
TEMPE, Ariz. - Sophomore Erica Beach tied the Arizona State single-season record with her eighth home run of the year as the fifth-ranked Arizona State softball team opened NCAA Tournament play with a 9-1 victory over Coastal Carolina Thursday night at Alberta B. Farrington Stadium in Tempe. With the victory, Arizona State improves to 41-18 on the year, while Coastal Carolina falls to 35-27.
Coastal Carolina opened up a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when sophomore third baseman Sarah Lockett homered to left center, but the Sun Devils quickly answered in the third inning on a pair of RBI singles by sophomore Nichole Thompson and freshman Kara Brun.
Arizona State added to its lead in the fifth inning on another RBI single by Brun and a three-run homer to right field by Beach. With her three RBIs, Beach also set the Arizona State single-season record with 46 so far this year.
According to Arizona State head coach Linda Wells, it took her Sun Devils a few innings to get their offense going.
"I think we were all feeling like deer in headlights in the first inning and then we recovered and certainly got our offense going which helped out a lot in the game," she said. "We knew it was a matter of time, we felt like we were ready to play, maybe a little excited to play."
Sophomore Kirsten Voak earned the victory for the Sun Devils to improve to 29-9 on the season. She allowed just one run on three hits while striking out nine. Voak now has fanned 300 batters on season, just 14 away from the single-season mark she set last year. For Coastal Carolina, Stephanie Belden took the loss to fall to 10-6 on the year after allowing six runs on six hits.
First-seeded Arizona State will take on fourth-seeded Texas A&M at 6 p.m. Friday, while Coastal Carolina will face Florida Atlantic at 3 p.m. In other Region 5 action, third-seeded Penn State will take on second-seeded Alabama at 8:30 p.m. at Farrington Stadium.