Devyn Netz came back for her redshirt senior season to have an impact. The pitcher/infielder did it again in a 5-1 Arizona victory over Arizona State on Saturday evening.
The No. 10 Arizona Wildcats pushed their overall winning streak to 8-0 and their conference streak to 6-0 since losing game two of their series against the UCF Knights on Mar. 8. It was extra sweet for the win to be over the rival Sun Devils.
Netz used her dominance in the circle and power in the batter’s box to secure her team-leading 12th victory of the season. She also matched fellow P/INF Miranda Stoddard’s 10th home run to retake a share of the team lead in that statistic. More importantly, she helped the Wildcats secure their second consecutive Big 12 series win.
Arizona proved once again that it’s not all about power. The Wildcats had nine hits but the Netz homer was their only extra-base hit of the day. They used eight singles, one walk, one stolen base, a sacrifice, and some groundball outs to get baserunners and move them around.
Arizona jumped to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first off two singles and a sac bunt. Dakota Kennedy led off the game with a single and was sacrificed to second by Regan Shockey. Netz drove Kennedy in with a two-out single that didn’t leave the infield.
The ASU offense went down easily in its half of the inning, but the Sun Devils put pressure on Netz in the second. She scattered five hits in the game. Two of them came in the second, putting runners on the corners with one out. Netz escaped with a foul out to catcher Sydney Stewart and a strikeout to end the inning.
The success on defense carried over to Arizona’s offensive half of the third. Designated player Paige Dimler walked to lead off the inning. It was Dimler’s first start since Mar. 7.
One out and a stolen base later, the Wildcats had two runners in scoring position. Kaiah Altmeyer drove in both runners with a single through the right side. Arizona led 3-0.
The Sun Devils got a two-out runner on in the fourth when Altmeyer misplayed a fly ball in right field. A leadoff double gave them another runner in the fifth. Netz got out of both situations without much trouble.
Altmeyer responded to her defensive error the next time she got up to bat. Her one-out single in the sixth put a runner on ahead of Netz. A two-run homer gave Netz her second and third RBI of the game.
That was all of the scoring for Arizona. ASU shortstop AJ Murphy denied Netz the shutout with an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh, but it had no impact on the end result.
Netz picked up the complete game. She gave up five hits and one earned run. She struck out five but did not issue a walk.
Arizona goes for the series sweep on Sunday at 1 p.m. MST on ESPN+. The Wildcats are in need of wins over teams like ASU that have solid RPIs after UCF was swept by Iowa State this weekend. The Knights are 1-7 overall and 1-6 in Big 12 play since winning their first two games at Arizona.
Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics
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