Life in the Pac-12 softball landscape is tough, but the Utes (19-23-1, 4-11 Pac-12) will face their toughest opponent to date this weekend. Utah will take on No. 2 Arizona State (38-5, 9-3) in a three-game home series beginning today at 6 p.m.
“We only focus on the opportunities that it brings,” said head coach Amy Hogue. “I think it should free these girls up to play completely loose. We have absolutely nothing to lose.”
The team might have nothing to lose, but playing Arizona State is still going to bring some difficulties on both offense and defense. Utah has four players hitting more than .300 on the year. Comparatively, the Sun Devils have 10 players who have started the majority of the team’s games batting more than .300 for the year. Both Cheyenne Coyle and Amber Freeman have 14 home runs this season.
Freeman is leading Arizona State with 48 hits and 52 RBIs. The catcher was named to the Top 25 Finalist for the 2013 Softball Collegiate Player of the Year. She and the rest of ASU’s lineup will give Utah’s pitchers a tough challenge during the weekend.
Pitcher Kayce Nieto is confident in the team’s abilities versus the Sun Devils’. She said the team has the benefit of coming into the series on a winning note.
“I think softball is definitely a game of momentum, and the team that has the momentum usually has a pretty good edge,” Nieto said. “I think this [win against Utah State University] is going to give us a good chance against ASU, and I think this is definitely what we need going into that series.”
Nieto is Utah’s only pitcher with an ERA less than three, and she has been a solid performer for the Utes during the latter half of the season. However, Arizona State has three pitchers with ERAs less than three, including two pitchers who have started the majority of the team’s games. Dallas Escobedo has more than 70 percent of the team’s strikeouts and will be the Sun Devils’ power pitcher for the series.
Escobedo has notched 21 of the team’s 38 victories and will be a thorn in Utah’s side if the team cannot produce some hits. Even though Escobedo leads the team in wins and strikeouts, it might be Mackenzie Popescue who will give Utah a tougher time.
In the past, Utah has struggled against pitchers who specialize in off-speed pitches while playing better against fastball hurlers, and Popescue has some of the best off-speed pitches in the conference.
The Utes feel they need to hit the .500 mark to reach the postseason, which means they need to win eight of their next 12 contests. If the Utes fail to steal some wins against the Sun Devils, they will only have one game they can lose against opponents Southern Utah, Stanford, Washington and BYU.
“We tend to do well with better competition,” Hogue said. “We tend to well with people who throw the ball hard and high, and that is what one of [Arizona State’s] main pitchers does. So I’m excited for that … We’re chasing 27 wins, 27 is the magical number, so we’ve got eight wins to get still. We play [Arizona State] three times so we’ve got to find a way to manufacture a win starting [today].”