March 14, 2008
TEMPE, Ariz. - Katie Burkhart pitched her second perfect game of the season as the top-ranked Sun Devil Softball team topped the Santa Clara Broncos 8-0 in five innings Friday night in front of 800 Sun Devil faithful. The Sun Devils are now 28-1 overall while riding a 25-game winning streak as Santa Clara drops to 4-28 overall.
The Sun Devils struck early as they put one on the board off a Bronco error, but the second is where the offense caught fire posting four runs on four hits with Mindy Cowles plating two off a double to right field off a 1-2 pitch to put ASU ahead 5-0. They added another in the fourth as Kaitlin Cochran led-off the inning with a single through right side in her only at-bat after being intentionally walked twice. Mindy Cowles and Krista Donnenwirth followed up with ground-out to plate Cochran and put the lead at 6-0.
All ASU needed was the fifth inning though as a lead-off walk to Caylyn Carlson was followed by a single from Ashley Muenz with a Bronco error to score Carlson. A sacrifice hit and wild pitch later scored Muenz to wrap the game early with an 8-0 win for ASU.
The final line for Burkhart in her third career perfect game was five innings with 11 strikeouts in the 15 batters she faced. Burkhart now holds the ASU career record in perfect games.
The Sun Devils will wrap weekend play tomorrow as they host Santa Clara in a double-header. Game one will start at noon with game two beginning tentatively at 2:30 or 20 minutes after the finish of game one.