TEMPE, Ariz. – Utah Softball suffered another setback this afternoon, falling to No. 16 Arizona State, 14-4.
Alyssa Barrera,
Hailey Hilburn and
Ally Dickman all drove in runs for the Utes but ASU smacked five home runs to pace the highest-scoring offensive display in the nation.
ASU took a lead two batters in as Kindra Hackbarth bunted her way on and moved up with a wild pitch. Skylar McCarty doubled to open the scoring. Morgan Howe followed with a single up the middle and after ASU loaded the bases, DeNae Chatman's sacrifice fly tacked on another. Bella Loomis followed with a two-run double and Utah recorded the final out of the inning with a nice relay throw, nabbing a runner at home.
The Sun Devils brought out the big bats in the second. Hackbarth homered and two batters later, Howe went deep. Chatman hit the third one of the inning to push the lead to 9-0. McCarty hit a two-run homer in the third and Alli Tatnall added another in the fourth to cap a strong output for ASU.
Utah broke through for the first time in the series during the fifth.
Julia Noskin singled and
BreOnna Castaneda doubled. After Allessa Bonstrom walked to load the bases, Barrera smacked a hard shot to short that brought in a run.
Hailey Hilburn followed with a double to left center and Dickman drove in another with a single
The two teams play their finale tomorrow at 12 p.m. AT/1 p.m. MT on the Pac-12 Networks.
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