April 22, 2011
TUCSON, Ariz. – In one of the greatest games Arizona State Softball history, the No. 2 Sun Devils mounted an extraordinary come-from-behind 13-10 win over in-state rival, No. 7 Arizona Friday night in Tucson. Hillary Bach and the indomitable ASU offense were the heroines on the night as they came back from a 9-1 deficit to win for only the third time in 20 years in Tucson. Bach moved to 10-0 on the year while ASU moves to 41-5 overall and 8-3 in Pac-10 play. The Wildcats drop to 36-9 and 7-4 in Pac-10 play as well as dropping a point to ASU in the State Farm Territorial Cup.
A whirlwind of events saw Katelyn Boyd lead-off the game her fourth lead-off home run of the year, but that was all the good news would see as the Wildcats' offense would explode for nine unanswered runs in the bottom of the second which saw Hillary Bach come in for relief of Mackenzie Popescue and get ASU out of the worse inning of the season.
While the outlook looked bleak for the Sun Devils down eight runs to one of the most potent teams in the country on their home turf, which saw Hillary Bach lock in to shut down the 'Cats and watch her offense slowly but the offense clicked into gear and slowly chipped away as piece by piece with a tenacity Rocky Balboa would envy as they cut the lead to 10-7 after six complete.
Down three runs the Sun Devils didn't blink as cool as cucumbers they loaded the bases with no outs as Katelyn Boyd pulled a bases loaded walk to make it 10-8 followed with an RBI single from Lesley Rogers to make it 10-9 only to bring up Kaylyn Castillo who after taking a shot to the knee came up as the littlest player only to make the biggest play with the first pitch turning into a silencer as a grand slam ball sailed over the left field fence to send a hush over the UA crowd.
Dallas Escobedo came in to complete the win with the save as the Sun Devils take the series from UA in their own home turf. They return to Hillenbrand Stadium to try for the first sweep of UA in Tucson in program history at 1 p.m. tomorrow.