By
Brett Erickson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
UA takes 2 extra-inning games from ASU in intense series
After Friday's 11-inning marathon, it seemed nearly impossible that Saturday's softball game between Arizona and Arizona State could have produced the same College World Series-type atmosphere.
It did, and then some.
Arizona (41-4 overall, 5-2 Pacific 10 Conference) got an extra-inning home run in each of this weekend's two games against Arizona State (30-11, 5-3) to sweep the two-game series at Hillenbrand Stadium.
Saturday, UA freshman Kim Balkan led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a towering home run that just cleared the left-center-field fence to give No. 2 Arizona a 4-3 victory against the No. 8 Sun Devils.
Two innings earlier, Balkan allowed ASU to take a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning when a ball hit by ASU junior Missy Hixon bounced of the heel of her glove and over the right field fence.
"I was pretty pissed off at myself for not getting under it better," said Balkan, who was making a rare start in place of regular right fielder freshman Mackenzie Vandergeest.
Arizona State's Kirsten Voak had the Wildcats down to their final strike in the seventh when senior Lauren Bauer hit a hard ground ball to second. Hixon, though, misplayed the ball, allowing Bauer to reach base. Senior Nicole Giordano followed with a double to right to plate Bauer and tie the game at three.
Both teams went down in order in the eighth inning, as did ASU in its half of the ninth, before Balkan's home run - her fourth of the season - capped off a wild game that was in the Sun Devils' favor for much of the night.
Arizona State got a pair of runs in the first inning on a two-run home run from Kara Brun. For the next five innings, Arizona's bats were lifeless, as only senior Lindsey Collins (double in the second inning) and Bauer (single in the fifth) recorded base hits.
The Sun Devils, meanwhile, threatened again in the third, fifth and sixth innings, but timely strike outs by pitchers Becky Lemke and Jenny Gladding kept Arizona in the game. Senior Allison Andrade also threw out a runner at home from her shortstop position in the fifth to prevent ASU from building on its 2-0 lead.
With two outs in the sixth inning, UA junior Jennie Finch singled to bring the potential tying run to the plate. Lindsey Collins made the most of her opportunity by hitting a home run off Voak to tie the game.
About half way between third and home, Collins gave a hard stare and pointed at Voak before crossing the plate. The reason behind it was something other Wildcats had mentioned before the weekend series - Voak's tendency to smile a lot in the pitching circle.
"It wasn't the right thing to do, but it was adrenaline," Collins said. "It bothers me that you come on our field, you smile, you keep smiling. This is my field, and I take pride."
Finch replaced Gladding in the eighth inning and improved her record to 16-0 on the season.
Friday's game had all the ingredients of a high-stakes game, with the UA Pep Band, Wilbur and a standing-room-only crowd of 2,623, the sixth-largest in Hillenbrand's history.
It didn't disappoint.
Coming off a dominant outing last weekend against top-ranked UCLA, Finch was every bit as commanding against the Sun Devils. It was her bat, though, that ultimately won the game.
After striking out 12 batters and allowing just two hits, Finch ended the game in the 11th inning with a three-run home run.
Senior Toni Mascarenas doubled to lead off the inning, and freshman Leneah Manuma was hit by a pitch to bring up Finch.
"These are the games you play for and you love, and you want to be the one up with the game on the line," said Finch, who pumped her right fist in the air while rounding the bases.
UA head coach Mike Candrea, who received his master's degree from ASU in 1980, contemplated asking Finch to sacrifice the runners to second and third, but went with his gut feeling and let her swing away.
"I just told her to look for something in her zone and end this son-of-a-gun," he said.
