Tempe, Ariz.- In the finale of the Littlewood Classic the Sun Devils homered their way to a shutout victory in five innings. No. 21 Arizona State Sun Devils (7-3) defeated the UTEP Miners (5-6) with a final score of 10-0.
Mac Morgan started in the circle for the Sun Devils, throwing four scoreless innings. Marissa Schuld came in for relief at the top of the fifth inning for ASU and struck out all three batters she faced in today's matchup, shutting out the Miners. The Sun Devils brought their hot bats, scoring 10 runs on seven hits, four of them being home runs. Two of the home runs were the first of the season for Emily Cazares and Mailey McLemore. The last time ASU hit four home runs in one game was against No. 8 Arizona on April 17, 2021.
ASU 10, UTEP 0
HOW IT HAPPENED:
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The scoreless tie broke in the third inning for the Sun Devils. Sac flies by Cydney Sanders and Alynah Torres gave the Sun Devils the 2-0 advantage. With one runner on base Jazmyn Rollin hit a two-run home run to double the lead for ASU.
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The home runs continued in the fourth inning for the Sun Devils. Solo home runs by Emily Cazares and Jazmine Hill brought the Sun Devil lead to 6-0.
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With Watson on second base, in the fifth inning, Jordyn VanHook hit an RBI single to extend the ASU lead to 7-0. With two runners on base McLemore hit a walk-off three-run home run to end the game in five innings with a final score of 10-0.
Up Next: The Sun Devils will hit the road for the first time this season at the Texas Classic next week. ASU will open up the tournament with a doubleheader on Friday, Feb. 25 playing Texas at 1:00 PM MST and Tulsa at 3:30 PM MST in Austin, TX.
QUOTES:
Head coach Trisha Ford
On today's pitching performance
I thought Marissa did a hell of a job. She came in and did a tremendous job. I thought she came in and commanded the zone. Mac was very solid for us, I told her to pound the zone for us and do what you do.
On the team coming together
I think we have a lot of good pieces and the puzzle is not together quite yet but we'll get there. We have a lot of options and we're going to continue to move things around. We'll put the pieces together and see how we respond and go from there.
Jazmyn Rollin
On tonight's performance
It feels good, I'm happy to finally get my swing coming along, and everything is going right and on time.
Thoughts on the team right now
I think my team is doing a great job setting the pace and setting the tone, we struggle a little bit here and there but I think we're starting to find a groove and settle into our roles as a team.
On two shutouts and going into Texas Tournament
I think it's good we ended on a high note, University of Texas is a great team but I think ASU's is just as good. We're ready to battle with anyone.
Mailey Mclemore
On if the last at-bat was more an aggressive approach
I take every at-bat the same, obviously we know that one run ends the game so I wasn't necessarily going up hoping to hit a home run, I was just aiming to hit a hard ball into play.
On the team being 10 games in
I think we are getting progressively better and better for each game which is what you want to see, I think we're heading in the right direction.
On the team's mentality going into the Texas Tournament
We're ready to go, we're excited to play a really good team and show them what we can do, that we can compete, and showing that we can hang with them.