March 15, 2009
FULLERTON, Calif. – Defending national champion Arizona State scored three runs on ten hits including a pair of sixth-inning home runs as the Notre Dame softball team fell to the Sun Devils by a 3-0 count. The Irish (8-10) finished the four-day Judi Garman Classic hosted by Cal State Fullerton with a 2-3 record heading into their home opener next week.
Brittney Bargar (6-5) gave up one hit in the first inning along with a walk, and a wild pitch put the two base runners on second and third with a pair of outs before a grounder to Christine Lux closed the stanza.
Sadie Pitzenberger doubled over the head of left fielder Lesley Rogers for an early double. Pitzenberger moved to third on Alexa Maldonado’s infield grounder but was left standing there when Katie Fleury popped up to shortstop Katelyn Boyd.
No. 6 Arizona State (25-5) had two hits and took advantage of an Irish error to score in the bottom of the third to take a 1-0 lead despite leaving the bases loaded.
Mandy Urfer took the second pitch of the sixth inning over the fence in left-center to give Arizona a 2-0 advantage. The third pitch of the inning landed in the same spot, this one coming off the bat of Renee Welty.
The Irish had runners on the corners in the seventh with two outs when Hillary Bach (14-1) induced the game’s final out. Bach gave up four hits and had three strikeouts, with Bargar going the distance while striking out five.
Jessica Mapes, Lesley Rogers and Urfer each had two hits for the Sun Devils. Arizona State committed four errors, but the Irish offense could not manage to take advantage of the free bases.
Notre Dame opens the home portion of its schedule Wednesday (March 18) with a doubleheader beginning at 3:30 p.m. (ET) against Toledo. Live stats, video and audio will be available at UND.com.
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