UA maintains mastery over ASU

Ian Mayer Arizona Daily Wildcat UA senior outfielder Alison McCutcheon slides in safe at second base during the first game of Friday night's double-header versus Arizona State University. The Wildcats swept ASU 7-2 and 5-3.

The Wildcats (43-3 overall, 9-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference) maintained their unblemished record against the Sun Devils (27-13, 3-7) in the last 31 games with a doubleheader sweep Friday recording victories of 7-2 and 5-3.

In addition, the Wildcats are riding a brief, five-game winning streak against three highly-regarded top 10 teams, including last week's victories over third-ranked Fresno State and fourth-ranked Washington. The Sun Devils came into Friday's games ranked ninth.

The Wildcats again got strong pitching performances from freshman Becky Lemke and senior Nancy Evans, who each tossed complete-game efforts to earn the wins.

Lemke (15-2) continued her recent success, limiting the Sun Devils to three runs on four hits while striking out nine and walking only two.

Evans earned her 22nd victory of the season, scattering five hits and allowing two runs, only one of which was earned.

The senior hurler again struggled in the opening innings of the first game, yielding a lead-off home run to ASU's Chris Gill in the second inning. Lesley-Ann Murphy hit a run-scoring double later in the inning to put the Sun Devils on top 2-0.

In the bottom of the same inning, UA senior Lety Pineda hit her 11th homer of the year, a solo shot to bring the Wildcats to within one run.

Arizona then loaded the bases on a pair of fortunate bounces that should have been made by ASU. Freshman Nicole Giordano then walked to tie the game at two.

UA closed out the game with three runs in the third, one more in the fourth and the last run of the night in the sixth to account for the final margin.

In the nightcap, Arizona was again hurt by the long ball as Lemke served up a three-run shot to Gill, tying the game at three.

But as has become customary with the Wildcats, they jumped back on top in the bottom of the fifth inning when Giordano started off the scoring with a run-scoring single, which drove in Michelle Churnock and moved Alison McCutcheon to third. McCutcheon later scored on a sacrifice fly.

Lemke pitched her way out of a jam in the top of the seventh, ending the game on a ground out with runners on first and second.

Arizona now enjoys some time off as it does not play again until this weekend's road trip to the Bay Area to take on California and Stanford.