SALT LAKE CITY – The Arizona State University softball team dropped the opener of its three-game series against Utah, 10-2, in six innings on Saturday in Salt Lake City.
Utah scored the final eight runs of the game, including four in the sixth inning to put the run rule into effect. Katee Aguirre extended her team-leading hit streak to 10 games while Nikki Girard moved into a tie for eighth in ASU history with her 39th career double.
Kelsey Kessler (13-7) took the loss for ASU (27-14, 3-7 Pac-12) striking out five and allowing four earned runs on seven hits. Utah’s Katie Donovan pitched the complete game to move to 14-7 on the season, allowing just one earned run and striking out six.
Utah got on the board early, scoring a pair in the first behind a couple of ASU fielding miscues. The Devils rallied in the top of the second as Aguirre’s single scored pinch runner Avianna Davis before she would later come around on a Utah fielding error to tie things at 2-2.
It was all Utah from there as Hannah Flippen knocked a two-out, three-run home run in the bottom of the second and the Utes never looked back.
The Devils will look to even the series tomorrow at 6 p.m. PT with the game scheduled to be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.