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With one out and Neli Casares-Maher on second base, Angel Jasso just needed to get the ball into the outfield to advance the shortstop to third base. Instead, while facing a 2-0 count, Jasso reached on an outside pitch and clobbered a home run over the center field wall to bring Casares-Maher and herself home, giving Syracuse a 5-0 lead in game one of Syracuse’s doubleheader against Buffalo on Tuesday.

Jasso sprinted the bases with her arms in the air as cheers erupted from the bench. Casares-Maher was awaiting her at home along with Toni Martin, the on-deck batter with whom Jasso jumped into a hug to celebrate her second career home run.

“She’s a firecracker,” head coach Shannon Doepking said about the freshman slugger. “She bangs on her chest, she jumps around, and the sky’s limit of what we’re going to get out of that kid in her four years here at Syracuse.”

In Syracuse’s (13-9, 6-6 Atlantic Coast) doubleheader sweep over Buffalo (6-19, 4-6 Mid-American) Jasso has three hits and three RBIs and went 2-3 and 1-3 in games one and two against the Bulls, respectively. Jasso’s impact offensively and defensively paved the way for the Orange’s 6-2 and 9-1 wins on Tuesday.

Jasso’s bat was hot in the Orange’s most productive innings of the day. The rookie outfielder’s home run was Syracuse’s third and fourth runs of game one’s third inning. In the second game, her only hit came in the bottom of the fifth inning, where the Orange scored another four runs.

With two outs in the fifth inning, Gabby Teran stood on second base as Jasso swung on the first pitch of her at-bat. She lined a single over the Buffalo shortstop’s head and brought Teran in to give Syracuse a 5-1 lead in game two.

“She hasn’t hit a ball pole-side the way that she hit it today,” Doepking said. “We’ve kind of been waiting for that ball all season.”

But as powerful as her home run was, her biggest play came in right field, where she made the biggest out of the day. Buffalo’s Brianna Castro was facing two outs with a 2-2 count when Kaia Oliver’s fastball came perfectly inside the strike zone.

The ball was set to land just out of Jasso’s reach, near the right field wall ahead of the warning track. But Jasso used her speed, blocked out the sun and made a running dive to make the inning-ending out, preventing a costly extra-base hit. Much like her home run in the first game, Jasso was swarmed with celebratory hugs that followed her all the way to the dugout.

“(Jasso is) a kid that we have high expectations for,” Doepking said. “A kid that we challenge on a daily basis because she’s got all the tools.”

Jasso’s three RBI’s are tied with Casares-Maher for the team lead. The Angleton, Texas native also climbed up to be the team’s third-best home-run hitter. She entered Tuesday’s doubleheader with seven hits and seven RBI’s in Syracuse’s previous six games, while she recorded just six hits in her first 10 collegiate games.

Jasso’s recent spell of offensive contributions is something Doepking and the rest of the coaching staff had expected from her development.

“She’s just young, and we’ve got a lot of maturing to do,” Doepking said. “I think every opportunity she has to step on the field is an opportunity for her to grow up a little bit and just understand the game of college softball.”

While Syracuse’s seven-game winning streak is its longest since 2012, Doepking still thinks the team must prove itself as a major ACC contender.

“Just because we’ve had a couple good games doesn’t mean we’ve arrived yet.”

Published on April 6, 2021 at 8:34 pm

Contact Alex: ahcirino@syr.edu