Arizona softball wins series versus ASU, but loses on Sunday

Arizona had their seven game winning streak end on Sunday at Arizona State, but the Wildcats won the series with victories on Friday and Saturday.
Arizona v LSU
Arizona v LSU | J and L Photography/GettyImages

Arizona had its seven-game winning streak end on Sunday with a 3-2 loss at Arizona State. The Wildcats won the first two games of the series, 6-1 on Friday and 5-1 on Saturday. Arizona is 29-5 overall and 6-3 and in a virtual tie for second place in the Big XII with BYU and Iowa State.

Ashley Meija hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the second and Tiare Ho-Chin had a run-scoring double later in the inning to put Arizona State up 3-0. Arizona State held the lead until the sixth inning. Tayler Biehl singled home pinch runner Zaedi Tagalog to get Arizona on the board and cut the deficit to 3-1.

Arizona got within a run in the seventh inning when Devyn Netz reached on a fielder's choice to score Regan Shockey and cut the deficit to 3-2. After Sydney Stewart walked, Madison Stoddard struck out to end the game. Kenzie Brown improved to 12-2 for Arizona State and Maike Laupe earned her third save.

Saya Swain started and took the loss for Arizona falling to 3-2. Shockey had two of the six hits for Arizona on Sunday. The first eight batters in the Arizona State lineup each had one hit. Arizona State improves to 23-10 overall and 5-4 in the Big XII with the win.

Arizona got on the board first with a Stewart three-run home run in the third inning. A Biehl sacrifice fly scored Tagalog in the fourth and Kaiah Altmeyer singled in the sixth to put Arizona up 6-0. Meija homered in the sixth inning to end a potential Arizona shutout. Stoddard pitched 5.1 innings to improve to 7-0 and Netz closed it out.

Arizona scored in the first inning on Saturday when a Netz infield single scored Dakota Kennedy. An Altmeyer single scored Paige Dimler and Shockey in the third to extend the Arizona lead to 3-0. Netz hit a HR in the sixth inning that scored Altmeyer to extend the Arizona lead to 5-0. A.J. Murphy had an RBI single for ASU's only run in the seventh.

Netz pitched a complete game allowing one run on five hits with no walks and five strikeouts. Arizona finished the weekend with a 2.14 earned run average. Arizona is off until Thursday when they remain away on the road with a three-game series at BYU.