CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. — The No. RV Irish bested No. 16 Arizona State 7-3 Saturday, before falling in a final-inning battle to Cal St. Fullerton 4-5. Notre Dame finished the weekend 3-3, also notching wins over BYU (11-1) and Seattle (6-4). Payton Tidd earned the win over the Sun Devils and Alexis Holloway posted the save, while Morgan Ryan shouldered the loss to the Titans.
HOW IT HAPPENED | KEY INNINGS
Game Five vs. No. 16 Arizona State
FIRST
After Katie Marino walked, she advanced to second on an Emma Clark groundout. Marino advanced to third on a wild pitch before Abby Sweet was hit by a pitch and then stole second. Leea Hanks doubled to score Marino, and Johnson grounded out to score Sweet. The inning ended with the Irish up 2-0.
SECOND
After throwing two strikeouts in the first, Tidd singled and advanced to second on a Brooke Marquez single. On a hard Marino ball, Tidd scored and Marquez advanced. Clark singled, advancing Marino to third, but Marquez was tagged out at home plate. After a groundout left one on base, the Irish ended the inning up 3-0.
FOURTH
Quinn Biggio led off for Notre Dame with a walk, immediately followed by a Tidd walk. Both advanced on a wild pitch. Marquez hit a sacrifice fly to score Biggio, and Clark singled to advance Tidd to third. Thanks to a Sweet double, Tidd scored with Clark also scoring on the throw.
In the bottom of the fourth, Arizona State singled, and Tidd gave up a home run to score two. After another single and a walk, a third runner reached on an error, scoring one more. Thanks to a Sweet grab in center field, the inning ended with the score at 6-3.
FIFTH
Holloway entered in relief for Tidd to begin the fifth inning. Tidd finished the game with four strikeouts. After a single, a walk and a fielder’s choice that put out a runner at second, the Irish cleaned up the final two outs to hold the Sun Devils to no runs.
SEVENTH
Clark led off for Notre Dame, forcing an error and reaching second as a result. Due to another Arizona State error, Sweet reached first and Clark scored. Three outs followed, and Notre Dame held the Sun Devils scoreless in the bottom half.
With a final score of 7-3, Tidd notched the win, and Holloway earned the save. Both fired four strikeouts in the game.
Game Six vs. Cal State Fullerton
Holloway started on the mound for Notre Dame, and the Irish and Titans held each other scoreless through the first two innings. Holloway racked up three strikeouts through those innings.
THIRD
Due to Irish errors, the Titans scored the first run of the game on a single with an error on the throw. Limiting the damage, Joley Mitchell and Brooke Marquez snagged the foul and infield popup to end the inning, 0-1.
FOURTH
Biggio led off for Notre Dame with a single and advanced to second on a Holloway sacrifice bunt. Marquez singled to score Biggio, advancing to second on the throw, and scored on a Marino double. After Clark executed a sacrifice bunt to move Marino to third, Marino scored on a Sweet single. The inning ended with the Irish up 3-1.
SIXTH
Ryan took the mound for the Irish, and after a single, struck out the second batter. The next Titan batter hit a home run to score two, with a double to follow. Holloway returned to the mound. Cal State Fullerton singled and then hit a sacrifice fly to score one run, another scoring on a throwing error. Holloway struck out the next batter to end the inning at 3-5.
SEVENTH
Hanks singled to start things off for the Irish. After Mitchell walked, Biggio reached on a fielder’s choice and advanced all runners. Holloway forced the Titans into a fielder’s choice which scored Hanks. With two outs, a subsequent groundout ended the inning.
With a final score of 4-5, Ryan took the loss. In 5.2 innings, Holloway totaled six strikeouts. She posted 10 Ks through 8.2 innings of work on the day.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame returns home before heading to Durham, N.C. for the first ACC matchup of the season against the Blue Devils of Duke. The two teams will play Friday at 5 p.m. ET, Saturday at 2 p.m. ET and Sunday at 1 p.m. ET. Follow on Twitter with @NDSoftball for updates.