No. 1 softball advances to Super Regionals with 6-1 win

A slightly sluggish start blossomed into a 6-1 win, May 22, as the No. 1 Sun Devil Softball Team took off with yet another postseason win over San Diego State. Dallas Escobedo pitched ASU to the win to move to 29-3 overall while ASU now moves to 53-6 on the season and 3-0 in postseason action.

The offense decided to put it in gear early as Katelyn Boyd dug in to hit her sixth lead-off home run of the season, which leads the NCAA. The longball also gives her 17 on the season to tie her for third in ASU single-season records.

The Sun Devil bats stagnated a bit after that though as they weren’t able to convert on bases loaded with no outs in the second, but Dallas Escobedo went out to command the game to keep SDSU scoreless through five. There were stirrings of life in the offense in the sixth inning though as Annie Lockwood dug in to hit her third home run of the weekend with a solo shot to make it 2-0.

The Aztecs scrapped back into the game in the bottom of the sixth though as they pushed one across with a RBI single by Jen Maeva to cut it to 2-1. A State snapped out of the offensive funk in the seventh though as RBI hits from Boyd, Castillo and Donnenwirth opened up a can to make it 6-1.

Dallas Escobedo had a little help from her friends to close it out to finish her 29th win of the season, one shy of tying for fifth in ASU single-season records as ASU moved to 53-6 on the year and 3-0 in the NCAA Tournament.

The Sun Devils will now gear up to host the Tempe Super Regional with opponent Texas A&M coming into town. Game one will be at 7 p.m., May 26, in Tempe at Farrington Stadium.