Saturday's game was a long one for Marissa Drewrey.

The starting pitcher of the No. 13 Cal softball team battled much of the afternoon against the nation's second-most productive offense in No. 6 Arizona State at Levine-Fricke Field and had every right to be tired.

She wasn't.

As the game wore on, her velocity was fading and the Sun Devils were threatening, but the pitcher found a way to hold an offense that averages over seven runs a game to only two runs on 142 pitches, giving the Bears the 4-2 win.

"I didn't realize that I was throwing so many pitches, I just pitched my game and didn't focus on them," Drewrey said. "It felt good to get a win knowing that they are some of the best hitters in the nation."

The junior faced six batters in the fourth inning but escaped with only one run of damage to protect what was a 3-1 Cal lead at the time.

Sophomore Valerie Arioto left the field in the fifth inning to warm up in the bullpen, but Drewrey again escaped unharmed, while her offense tacked on an insurance run.

In the sixth, Drewrey got two quick outs and would have been out of the inning if third baseman Vernae Sevilla had been able to hold onto a swirling foul ball, which jumped in and out of her glove. It became all too apparent that Drewrey's stuff was not as crisp as she walked the next two batters, bringing the tying run to the plate.

Needing help, she got it from Arioto. Arizona State's Mandy Urfer hit a blistering grounder down the first-base line that had RBI written all over it, but the first baseman was denied by her Bears counterpart as Arioto-who re-entered the game in the sixth-came up with a spectacular off-balance grab that carried her to the bag for the unassisted out.

It seemed as though it would be Arioto in the circle to close out the Sun Devils (38-15, 8-10 in the Pac-10), but coach Diane Ninemire sent Drewrey back out to the mound to finish the game.

"We wanted to get Marissa through that game," Ninemire said. "We didn't want them to get a chance to see Val two days in a row."

Arioto finally got her chance to pitch in Sunday's rematch. The right-hander started off slow, walking two in the first inning and allowing the Sun Devils to load the bases, but Arizona State could only produce one run, which came on a throwing error by Sanoe Kekahuna.

The Bears (34-16, 9-8) pulled ahead in the bottom half of the frame on a triple by Elia Reid that scored her sister Jamia and Gina Leomiti all the way from first to put Cal ahead, 2-1.

The score stayed that way until the top of the sixth, when the Bears' pitching staff was exposed for six runs, including a grand slam off Drewrey, who had replaced Arioto two batters earlier.

Cal could not repair the damage with its bats, falling to the Sun Devils, 7-3. The Bears ended the weekend 1-1 after Friday's game against No. 7 Arizona was rained out.

"We were good until that sixth inning and then our pitching staff failed us," Ninemire said. "We just can't do that to ourselves."

Tags: CAL SOFTBALL, DIANE NINEMIRE