Offense flatlines in softball's loss to Stanford

Lack of offense spelled the story for the sixth-ranked ASU Softball team Friday night as they fell in a 4-0 loss to No. 3 Stanford which saw Stanford’s Missy Penna throw the complete-game shutout and ASU’s Hillary Bach taking the loss to drop her record to 22-8 on the year. The Sun Devils are now 37-14 overall and 7-9 in conference play while Stanford improves to 42-6 overall and 11-5 in the Pac-10.

The Cardinal took  it to the scoreboard first in the game as their lead-off Alissa Habner loped a double to left center before Ashley Hansen hit an 0-1 pitch deep to right for her fourth home run of the season to take a 2-0 lead. Another RBI in the second for Hasen after a Sun Devil error gave Stanford the 3-0 lead after two complete.

The Sun Devils mounted a rally in the fourth with a lead-off single from Jessica Mapes followed with Katelyn Boyd getting hit in the shoulder with no outs. Stanford ace Missy Penna settled in then to strike out the next two before a long shot from Krista Donnenwirth almost looked like it had the legs but fell shy into the center fielder’s glove to end the threat.

Hansen struck yet again in the fourth inning as with runners in the corners she knocked a 1-2 pitch to the left side pocket where shortstop Katelyn Boyd did all she could to make Top-10 ESPN highlight, but was just short of getting the runner as a run came home with the score at 4-0 after five.

Stanford ace Missy Penna hit cruise control after as she finished off the complete-game shutout, tallying 11 Ks on the night and allowing only two hits on the night as she pushes her record to 30-4 overall.

The Sun Devils hit the diamond tomorrow as they set to face the 13th-ranked Cal Golden Bears at 1 p.m. tomorrow in Berkeley.