Arizona State handed Arizona its first two home losses of the season in the series.
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Arizona State scored nine runs on 12 hits and earned the series win against No. 14 Arizona with a 9-5 victory in Tucson on Saturday.
The No. 21 Sun Devils (24-10, 5-2 Pac-12) won the series for the second consecutive season, marking just the fourth time in the series history and first time since 1982 that ASU has won back-to-back series against the Wildcats.
Dale Ryndak (11-4) earned the victory, scattering six hits and four runs in five innings of work. Breanna Macha came in and pitched two innings of scoreless relief, allowing just two hits to go with three strikeouts.
The Devils never trailed in the contest, taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Trish Parks (9-4) took the loss for Arizona, allowing seven runs on seven hits with three walks and five strikeouts.
After a scoreless second, the Sun Devils jumped all over Parks in the top of the third. Haley Steele lined the first pitch she saw to the wall in right center for a double, bringing across two and giving ASU a 3-0 lead. Nikki Girard launched a double through the right side to clear the bases and give ASU a 5-0 lead.
Arizona answered in the bottom half of the inning with a solo shot by Hallie Wilson, but the Devils made it up and then some in the fourth to go back on top 7-1.
Again, the Wildcats responded with another solo shot in the bottom of the inning, this time of the bat of Katiyana Mauga to make it a 7-2 game. Arizona would then add two more in the bottom of the fifth on a base-clearning single by Kellie Fox to get back within striking distance at 7-4.
But in the sixth, Freeman launched her 10th home run of the season, a solo shot that landed about 20 rows up in the bleachers in left field.
Two batters later, Steele put a charge into her seventh homer of the season on another solo shot to center field and ASU reclaimed a 9-4 edge.
