ASU weekend recap: Gymnastics defeats UCLA for first time in 21 years, baseball goes 2-1

For the first time in 21 years, No. 20 Arizona State gymnastics defeated No. 15 UCLA. The Sun Devils recorded their seventh-highest team score in program history for a 197.800 to 195.475 at Desert Financial Arena Sunday.

ASU earned its first ranked win of the year and set career highs. ASU took four of the five titles with sophomore Emily White winning the all-around. White set career highs on vault (9.925), where she shared the title with freshman Alex Theodorou, and tied her career high on floor (9.875). White reached a season high on bars (9.900) and beam (9.900).

Sophomore Sarah Clark won bars (9.950), while senior Jasmine Gutierrez, Junior Hannah Scharf and White tied for the beam title (9.900).

The Sun Devils excelled on the floor exercise with 49.525, the highest for the program since 2004. ASU scored the highest on the bars and beam since the NCAA Regional Finals last season.

ASU will remain in Desert Financial Arena on Sunday, February 27 to host California at 5 p.m.

Around campus

—ASU baseball opened its 2022 season under head coach Willie Bloomquist to take a 2-1 series against Dixie State.

ASU started with a 3-1 victory in Friday’s opener. After being sidelined all last season from a season-ending knee injury, first baseman Conor Davis made his ASU debut with a home run in his very first at-bat in nearly two years.

ASU suffered its only loss of the weekend in a 7-6 defeat in 10 innings on Saturday. Redshirt sophomore Joe Lampe had four hits and was a triple short of the cycle.

In the series finale, ASU hit two grand slams from freshman Will Rogers and redshirt sophomore Nate Baez in a 17-8 rout. Coming off from Tommy John surgery, redshirt senior Boyd Vander Kooi returned to the mound in the ninth and recorded two outs.

ASU will host Nevada on Tuesday at 6 p.m. and will continue its time at home with a weekend series against BYU.

—No. 13 ASU wrestling snapped its six-match losing streak to Lehigh in a 21-17 victory Sunday. ASU (9-4, 5-0 Pac-12) claimed its tight victory with three major decisions and six-periods at the heavyweight class.

ASU will stay at home when it hosts the Pac-12 wrestling championships on March 6 at 7 p.m.

—ASU softball answered with offense at the host Littlewood Classic, going 4-1 over the weekend. ASU earned four run rule wins in the four-day tournament and scored 44 runs and surrendered 10 runs.

ASU has earned two shutouts, on top of senior Marissa Schuld pitching a complete game against Illinois State in a 12-2 win with eight strikeouts.

Junior Jazmine Hill was among many contributing offensively for ASU at the plate, hitting .625 with three home runs and 12 runs scored in the tournament. Hill was one of four different ASU players to hit four home runs in the 10-0 finale against UTEP.

—ASU lacrosse opened its season at No. 11 Michigan, coming within reach of an upset in an 11-9 loss on Friday. ASU overcame a long travel day ahead of the game that included several hours of travel delays on Thursday evening that went into Friday morning. Taylor Pinzone and Katie Brodsky each tallied a hat trick for ASU as the Sun Devils had the game tied at six heading into the fourth quarter.

ASU wrapped up the opening weekend with a 16-8 loss at No. 5 Northwestern on Sunday. The eight-goal margin of victory at home by Northwestern is the smallest against an unranked team in the non-conference since it defeated Canisius 9-7 back on Jan. 30, 2017.

—ASU women's tennis came back from an early 2-0 deficit to win 4-2 on Saturday against Kansas State. Senior Domenika Turkovic's sealed the match with a singles win on Court 2.

ASU (5-2) gained its ground in singles play winning four of six matchups.

Reach the reporter at jenna.ortiz@arizonarepublic.com or 602-647-4122. Follow her on Twitter @jennarortiz.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU gymnastics defeats UCLA for first time in 21 years