Courtesy of Arizona State Athletics
TEMPE – Bethany Kemp’s walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the seventh sent the Farrington Faithful home happy as the No. 21/21 Arizona State University softball team beat No. 4/3 Oklahoma 8-4, handing the Sooners their first loss of the season.
True freshman Dale Ryndak improved to 4-0 on the season for the Sun Devils (8-4) in the circle, throwing all seven innings – her first true complete game of the season – while allowing three earned runs on eight hits and striking out two. The freshman bobbed and weaved in and out of trouble against the potent Sooner offense and came up clutch when the team needed her the most.
After Oklahoma tied the game up at four in the sixth inning, ASU head coach Craig Nicholson elected to stick with Ryndak for the seventh. Facing the second, third and fourth hitters in the Sooners’ (9-1) lineup, Ryndak forced three straight groundouts to set up a dramatic bottom half of the inning for ASU.
Allie Butterfield got the inning started with a walk, but was followed up by two straight groundouts. Oklahoma then decided to intentionally walk both Haley Steele and Amber Freeman, bringing up Kemp – who was 0-for-3 in the game up to that point – with the bases loaded.
On the very first pitch, Kemp unloaded and sent the ball flying over the left field fence for her team-leading fourth home run of the season, securing the biggest win of 2015 for the Sun Devils.
In the second inning, Sierra Rodriguez got the scoring started for ASU with a three-run shot to center field – her first career home run as a Sun Devil.
Ryndak then fell into a bit of trouble in the top of the next inning, seeing Oklahoma load the bases with one out and the heart of the order coming up, but limited the damage to just one. She was able to get the next two hitters to fly out – the first being a sacrifice to cut the lead to two for the Sun Devils.
ASU got that run back with a manufactured run of its own in the fifth frame. Rodriguez started the inning with a walk, and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Elizabeth Caporuscio then hit a ground ball to the right side, moving Rodriguez to third. With the one out and a runner on third, Haley Steele extended the lead back to three with a sacrifice fly to left.
Oklahoma came back with force in the sixth against Ryndak, scoring three in the inning on five hits to tie the game up at four. But she buckled down in the seventh and gave her offense a chance to win the game.
The four runs scored by Oklahoma were its fewest this season, just below the previous low of five set on Saturday against the Sun Devils. ASU held Lauren Chamberlain arguably the nation’s best hitter, to 0-for-2 on the day with two walks. Chamberlain entered the game batting .560 with season with six home runs and 21 RBI.
The Sooner averaged 9.1 runs per game this season prior to the two Sun Devil contests with an average margin of victory of 9.0 in those seven games. Oklahoma had also only given up three home runs in nine games entering Sunday’s tilt that saw the ASU blast two in one game.
