Arizona State beat texas a&m softball 4-3 on Saturday in the NCAA Bryan-College Station Regional, finishing a seventh-inning rally that flipped a one-run deficit into a trip to the championship game. The win left the Sun Devils one victory from taking the regional.
Brown Holds Texas A&M At 4-3
Kenzie Brown worked the last frame in 13 pitches, striking out two after Arizona State moved in front. She finished at 16-6 after the game, and the closing inning came after Texas A&M had spent most of the night keeping pressure on the board.
The game started with Texas A&M taking a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Brown was called for an illegal pitch on Micaela Wark, erasing an 0-2 count, and Wark followed with a two-run home run that traveled 218 feet.
Katie Chester Ties It
Arizona State answered in the top of the second when Katie Chester hit a two-run home run that covered 236 feet and tied the game 2-2. That reset the pace, but Texas A&M went back ahead in the bottom of the fourth on Kelsey Mathis’s run-scoring ground out.
The Aggies carried that 3-2 edge into the final inning, with Arizona State facing three outs to save its season. Sidne Peters was at 15-6 after the loss, and the home team still had the regional route in front of it until the seventh changed the game.
Seventh Inning Turns
Brooklyn Ulrich opened the seventh with a double, Nehanda Lewis came on as a pinch runner, and Tanya Windle was hit by a pitch. Kaylee Pond then singled to left field to drive in Lewis, and Emily Schepp brought in Windle from third to give Arizona State a 4-3 lead.
That sequence was enough. Arizona State will play the winner of Saturday’s consolation bracket at 2 p.m. CDT on Sunday, May 17, and needs only one win to claim the NCAA Bryan-College Station Regional. Texas A&M’s run ended on its home field in College Station, Texas, after the lead disappeared in the last inning.
