Los Angeles -- The sixth-ranked Arizona State softball team fell in extra innings, 2-1, at No. 1 UCLA Saturday afternoon. The extra inning loss to the top-ranked Bruins pushed ASU to a 43-10 record on the season, including a 16-8 mark in Pac-12 play.
Sophomore G Juarez made her second start of the weekend, throwing a complete game against the Bruins. The lefty allowed just two runs on six hits in the outing, while ringing up eight UCLA batters. Following Saturday's game, Juarez has now struck out 276 batters, the ninth-highest single season strikeout total for a pitcher in Sun Devil softball history.
Similar to the first two games of the series, neither team were able to crack the scoreboard through the first three and a half frames. It would be the Bruin bats that would plate the game's first run with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the fourth.
The one-run Bruin lead would be short lived, however, as freshman DeNae Chatman connected on her seventh home run of the season, second of the weekend, to make it a 1-1 game through five innings of play.
With neither team able to take the lead in the final two innings of regulation, the game was sent to extra-innings, marking the sixth extra inning game for ASU this season.
Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, it would be the Bruin offense that would break the tie with a solo shot in the bottom of the ninth inning, sealing the series win for top-ranked UCLA.
The Sun Devils will learn their postseason fate tomorrow evening when the field of 64-teams are announced live on the NCAA Softball Selection show at 7 p.m. PT. The entire show will be televised by ESPN 2. Fans can follow all of the action from the 2018 postseason by following @ASUSoftball on Twitter.
Sophomore G Juarez made her second start of the weekend, throwing a complete game against the Bruins. The lefty allowed just two runs on six hits in the outing, while ringing up eight UCLA batters. Following Saturday's game, Juarez has now struck out 276 batters, the ninth-highest single season strikeout total for a pitcher in Sun Devil softball history.
Similar to the first two games of the series, neither team were able to crack the scoreboard through the first three and a half frames. It would be the Bruin bats that would plate the game's first run with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the fourth.
The one-run Bruin lead would be short lived, however, as freshman DeNae Chatman connected on her seventh home run of the season, second of the weekend, to make it a 1-1 game through five innings of play.
With neither team able to take the lead in the final two innings of regulation, the game was sent to extra-innings, marking the sixth extra inning game for ASU this season.
Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, it would be the Bruin offense that would break the tie with a solo shot in the bottom of the ninth inning, sealing the series win for top-ranked UCLA.
The Sun Devils will learn their postseason fate tomorrow evening when the field of 64-teams are announced live on the NCAA Softball Selection show at 7 p.m. PT. The entire show will be televised by ESPN 2. Fans can follow all of the action from the 2018 postseason by following @ASUSoftball on Twitter.