April 17, 2010
Final Stats
TEMPE, Ariz. - With four home runs from three Golden Bears - Lindsey Ziegenhirt (2), Valerie Arioto and Elia Reid - the No. 19/16 California softball team rolled over No. 6 Arizona State, 8-0, in six innings on Saturday evening. With the second consecutive conference win and victory over the Sun Devils, the Bears improve to 32-11 overall and 3-5 in the Pac-10 Conference while ASU now stands at 35-8 and 4-4 in the Pac-10.
Ziegenhirt tallied a three-run homer in the first and a solo shot in the third while Reid homered in the second and Valerie Arioto posted a three-RBI roundtripper in the sixth to push the Bears past ASU.
The Bears made lightening fast quick work of the Sun Devils. Shannon Thomas was the first base runner after she singled to short and the stole second. Arioto earned a walk, a category in which she leads the nation, to bring up Ziegenhirt. The freshman catcher fouled one off and watched two balls before smashing her 11th roundtripper of the season to give Cal a very early 3-0 lead.
It looked like another repeat of Friday night's game when Elia Reid homered for the second game in a row. In the top of the second on Saturday, Reid had a 1-1 count when she sent the ball flying past the wall in right center, distancing the Bears, 4-0
The veritable hit parade continued for the Bears in the top of the third. For the second time in the game and the third time in two games, Ziegenhirt hit another homer, this one her 12th of the season, putting Cal up, 5-0.
Cal was well on its way to another Pac-10 victory thanks to that 5-0 lead, but the Bears were not done wailing on the Sun Devils. In the top of the sixth, Elia Reid got things started with a bunt single. Her fast feet and a single to short by twin sister Jamia Reid put Elia at second and Jamia at first.
As she has done a conference-leading 12 times before Saturday's game, Shannon Thomas came through with her 13th sacrifice bunt of the season, moving Jamia Reid to second and Elia Reid to third with only one away.
That brought up Arioto. With her aforementioned prowess for drawing walks and her .594 on-base percentage coming into the weekend, which placed her third in the country, Arioto was destined to do something great here, and that is just what she did.
With a full count (foul, ball, strike, ball, ball), Arioto swung and connected. Connected for a three-run homer into left. The home run, her 11th of the 2010 campaign, gave Cal just the lead it needed at 8-0.
As if that was not enough, Arioto returned to the circle for the final time of the game in the bottom of the sixth and got ASU to ground out, pop up and fittingly enough, sent the last batter of the evening down on a looking strike out.
Arioto pitched the six-inning win, improving her to 15-6 overall, with four strikeouts and just two hits.
The Bears worked started Sam Parlich for five hits and five earned runs before Megan Elliott came in, allowing three earned scores on as many hits.
The conference series concludes on Sunday with a noon first pitch at Farrington Stadium.
