March 6, 2010
TEMPE, Ariz. – Lights-out pitching and hot-hitting spelled the story Saturday night in Day Two of the Wilson/DiMarini Invitational as the ninth-ranked ASU Softball team won 6-1 over Samford and 8-0 (5) over UCSB in Tempe at Farrington Stadium. Sam Parlich and Megan Elliott pitched the wins, to push their respective records to 3-1 and 6-1 on the year as ASU now holds a 15-2 overall record.
Game one slated the Sun Devils against the Samford Bulldogs where Sam Parlich took to the circle to serve up a mixed bag of stellar pitches. The Sun Devils backed her effort with a four-run first inning with RBIs from Katelyn Boyd and Kaylyn Castillo. The Bulldogs sunk their teeth in to Parlich in the fourth though as Katie England sent one back across the pond for a solo shot to cut ASU’s lead to 4-1.
The Sun Devils came out to answer the run in the bottom of the inning as Caylyn Carlson sent a solo shot sizzling over the left center wall right before scrappy Kaylyn Castillo put an RBI single up the middle for yet another RBI to set the score at 6-1. Parlich wasn’t phased by the home run though as she shut down the Bulldog offense, finishing with a final line of four hits for one run and two strikeouts to push her record to 3-1 overall.
Game two for ASU saw the UCSB Gauchos step up for round two against the Sun Devils this weekend with Megan Elliott taking the ball for A State. ASU took it to the board first again as Kaylyn Castillo was cat-like on the base paths, scoring on a Gaucho error to take the 1-0 lead, which ASU only added to in the second as a Christina Zambrana single turned into an A State run as Katie Crabb lined a home run over the left field wall for a 3-0 ASU cushion.
The Sun Devil D also reared it’s head in the third as Caylyn Carlson pulled off a shoelace catch in left and a left to first laser throw for a double play that you can catch on ESPN’s Top-10 tonight. The bats were also at it again in the third for ASU as Krista Donnenwirth hit a real humdinger all the way to the Central Time Zone to give Kaylyn Castillo a home again before an RBI single from Talor Haro pushed the score to 6-0.
Five innings were all Megan Elliott and the Sun Devils needed as the Talor Haro ended it with a hit too hot to handle for the Gauchos to bring in two runs as Megan Elliott collected win number six with a final line of six hits with three strikeouts for the complete game shutout. For video highlights please click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMzUmgERH1Q
The Sun Devils will hit the dirt again as they set to wrap the 2010 Wilson/DiMarini Invitational tomorrow as they take on the Creighton Jays at 1 p.m. in Tempe at Farrington Stadium.