Courtesy of Cal State Northridge Athletics
The CSUN softball team (4-1) defeated No. 16 Arizona State 8-6 in eight innings Sunday afternoon in both teams’ final game at the 2015 Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz. In a see-saw game that saw ASU tie it with two outs in the bottom the seventh, the Matadors persevered with two runs in the eighth and Brianna Elder made sure the door slammed all the way shut as CSUN knocked off the Sun Devils at Farrington Stadium.
The Matadors finished the weekend at 4-1, their best record in six years at the prestigious Kajikawa Classic. Hosted by Arizona State University, the tournament features over 25 teams and 75 games in a four-day period at a pair of locations.
Sunday, CSUN captured one of its biggest victories under head coach Tairia Flowers by displaying resiliency. The nationally ranked Sun Devils struck for a pair of home runs and quickly led 3-0 on the Matadors early in the game.
“Resiliency is a perfect word to describe today. All weekend we emphasized team effort and that is what we did all weekend. Pinch hitting, pinch running and our pitching as a staff are what helped us to this great victory and weekend,” Flowers said. “Arizona State is a great team but we stayed engaged and fought until the end.”
Momentum switched to CSUN in the top of the sixth when the Matadors scored six runs to take a 6-3 lead. ASU committed three errors in the field and Maylynn Mitchell and Taylor Nate each had two-run singles in the frame.
Elder kept the Sun Devils off the scoreboard until the Sun Devils were down to their final out in the bottom of the seventh. That’s when pinch hitter Katee Aguirre took the first pitch she saw from Elder over the fence to tie the game.
Undeterred, CSUN rallied for a pair of runs in the top of the eighth to seal the victory. Mitchell added another RBI single and Carissa Sherman drove in an insurance run with a chopper on the infield.
Elder (2-0) tossed the final seven innings of work for CSUN. She allowed six hits and four earned runs, but also had five strikeouts. With the international tiebreaker in place for the eighth inning, Elder retired the ASU side in order to clinch the win.
Mitchell finished the weekend batting .500 with seven RBIs in the five games. Madison Fleming had a career-high three hits and scored two runs.
Katie Hooper started things in the Matador fourth with a double. Cortney Horne then brought her home with an RBI single to center field. Aliyah Ricks came in to run for Horne and moved to second on a sac bunt from Savannah Horvath.
Ariana Wassmer reached on an error and Fleming singled on the infield to load the bases. The brought up Mitchell, who delivered a two-run single up the middle. Crystal Maas, a pinch hitter, then reached on another fielding error by ASU and moved to second on the play. She was replaced by Kaitlin Toerner, who then came around to score with Wassmer on a two-run single from Nate.
CSUN needed the extra inning of Aguirre’s home run, but got going quickly to regain the momentum. With Wassmer placed on second, Fleming took the first pitch up the middle to put runners on the corner. Mitchell then singled to right field to score Wassmer.
Toerner put down a sac bunt to move Fleming to third with one out and Sherman smacked a chopper to the shortstop that forced her to go to first and let Fleming score.
Before Sunday, CSUN’s last win against Arizona State came in 2003. The Matadors also knocked off Stanford earlier in the weekend to post a pair of victories against Pac-12 opponents. At 4-1 on the year, CSUN is off to its best start since the 2005 season.
CSUN resumes action on Friday, Feb. 13 with games against Portland State and New Mexico as part of the Wilson/DeMarini Desert Classic in Las Vegas, Nev. The Matadors will also play Indiana (Feb. 14), Utah (Feb. 14) and Utah State (Feb. 15) at the event.
