(Photo credit Austin Hurst/WCSN)
Arizona State Softball is entering what can best be described as a transitional period for the program.
The Sun Devils did not see much success in their final year in the Pac-12 Conference, finishing in last place with a 20-31 overall record and going 3-21 in conference play. However, significant changes have been made since the team’s 2024 Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinal loss to UCLA.
Old Guard
A core group of key returners still anchors ASU’s roster, but overall, there is only a small number of familiar faces from last year.
Junior outfielder Tanya Windle led the team in batting average in 2024, hitting .369. She also led the team in hits with 52 total, producing five three-hit games and 15 total multi-hit games. Windle’s performance earned her a spot on the National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-West Region Third Team.
Sophomore utility catcher Samantha Swan also had a successful year offensively, recording 12 runs batted in and four home runs in 24 starts. She was able to get across the plate 10 times and knock two multi-hit games. With only one other true catcher on the roster, Swan could see quite the increase in appearances behind the dish.
Graduate outfielder Kelsey Hall had a team-leading .435 on-base percentage and was named a part of the College Sports Communicators All-Academic All-District Team. Despite tearing her ACL in ASU’s last regular season game, Hall was named Preseason All-Big 12. Hall has been cleared to hit, however, she likely will not take the field for the Sun Devils until conference play.
Another key piece from the 2024 outfield was sophomore Yannixa Acuña. Acuña started 24 games and played an additional two for the Sun Devils in her second year before suffering a season-ending knee injury. Acuña was one of the team’s more consistent hitters while she was healthy, earning a career-high six-game hitting streak between Feb. 23 and March 1, and hustling for six extra-base hits. Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, Acuña has not been cleared to play yet this year.
However, ASU is looking forward to the return of one of its key relievers: senior right-handed pitcher Kenzie Brown. Head coach Megan Bartlett brought Brown into the ASU program from Tulsa in 2023. 2025 will be Brown’s second healthy season with ASU after missing all of 2024 with an injury. In her sophomore season, Brown led the Sun Devils in circle appearances with 31 and made five starts. She finished with an impressive 10-2 record while tallying 76 strikeouts in 74 innings.
New Guard
Bartlett is entering her third season with the Sun Devils and has completely revamped the roster. In addition to the returners, she brought in 14 new players, including six transfers and eight freshmen. The squad has a new look, with several talented additions; the question is how the team will come together and develop.
The infield will be gaining a few experienced players, including sophomore Maddie Okano, a transfer from UT Tyler. In Okano’s freshman year with the Patriots, she started 16 games and came off the bench in another 19 while only committing one error. In addition to her impressive .981 fielding percentage, she landed a .368 on-base percentage.
Okano will be on the front line with sophomore infielder Nehanda Lewis from the University of Central Florida. Junior infielder Katie Chester is another new addition to the Sun Devils’ defense. However, the transfer from Missouri was seen at the team’s open house with a boot on her left foot on Jan. 31.
If the three are able to play together, Defensive Coordinator Hailey Decker will have solid experience in the infield as she enters her second season with the Sun Devils.
Decker will also have some mobility with how she fields her defenders with the help of San Diego State senior utility transfer AJ Murphy. In Murphy’s junior year with the Aztecs, she played 43 games, mainly in the outfield. Despite the challenge of being spread across multiple positions, she did not commit a single error all season. Murphy will also be able to support ASU in the batter’s box. She was second on the Aztecs in home runs, had a .269 batting average, 19 runs batted in and 11 runs scored. Her offensive power can bring leadership to a fairly young 2025 Sun Devil lineup.
Hitting Coach Josh Bloomer will have a lot of developmental work to do in his first year at ASU. Last season, he helped rival University of Arizona finish 12th in the NCAA in batting average and 15th in overall scoring. The Wildcats used that talent to go to the NCAA Super Regionals. This year, Bloomer will have a much different team to work with, as the Sun Devils have five new freshmen on offense.
One of those freshmen is infielder Tiare Ho-Ching from Long Beach, California. Ho-Ching batted .595 in her senior season and hit over .400 throughout high school. She is likely to see significant time in the lineup along with freshman outfielder Ashleigh Mejia. Mejia was a four-year starter in high school in Corona, California, and tied her school record with 31 career homers. She was also named a 2024 Premier Girls Fastpitch All-American.
Other Sun Devil freshmen will also enter their Division I careers after earning high school accolades. Catcher Lillian Hotje was a Florida Athletic Coaches Association 7A Player of the Year, and infielder Takyla Davis was deemed the No. 2 player in the state of Delaware at the end of her high school career.
In addition to Hotje and Davis, ASU added infielder Grace Molitor, an incoming freshman who won three district crowns and two state championships in Washington. Bloomer’s new recruits have seen success in high school, but now, they enter a far greater challenge in the Big 12 Conference.
The mound will also have a new look with three new freshmen pitchers: right-handers Corie Shull, Cambree Creager and Julianne Tipton.
In Tipton’s senior season with Dobyns Bennett High School, her team earned its first-ever Tennessee 4A state title, while she recorded 10 shutout games and four no-hitters. In that 2024 year, she was awarded District 4A Pitcher of the Year, Sweet 16 Player of the Year, and earned an all-state nod. Over the course of Tipton’s four seasons, she recorded 600 career strikeouts.
She will be sharing the pitching circle with Creager, who will be entering her first year in D-1 play after her time at Georgetown High School in Texas. During Creager’s senior season, she was named 5A/6A Athlete of the Year, Pitcher of the Year, and got a spot on the Texas High School Coaches Association Super Elite Team. Including her senior season, she was named all-state three times.
Both Tipton and Creager, along with Ho-Ching, were named to the D1 Softball D100 Freshman Watch List.
Pitching Coach Jeremy Manley, who started with the Sun Devils during the Bartlett coaching transition, will lead the young circle. Similar to the lineup, the future of the rotation relies on development.
Challengers
That development will need to happen quickly for ASU as it faces No. 18 Oregon to kick off the 2025 Littlewood Classic in its sixth game of the year. The Ducks finished fourth in the Pac-12 last season and swept the Sun Devils in Eugene, Oregon. As a matter of fact, an ASU win would be its first against Oregon since April 2022.
The Sun Devils’ non-conference schedule does not get any easier as they play the No. 1 Florida Gators on Feb. 21 in the 2025 Sun Devil Classic. The game will be the first time the teams have played each other in five years when the Gators handed ASU a 4-1 loss. The all-time series that goes back to May of 1998 has the programs tied at five wins a piece. In order to take the lead, the Sun Devils will need as much help as they can get from the fans in Alberta B. Farrington Stadium.
ASU also has an interesting matchup against fellow Big 12 school Oklahoma State. The Sun Devils will take on No. 5 OSU in a single non-conference game in early April. The Cowgirls shut out ASU in the teams’ last matchup two years ago. The Sun Devils will look to tie the all-time series at nine wins each in Tempe.
The Sun Devils’ difficult non-conference strength of schedule will help prepare them for a competitive Big 12 slate.
The Sun Devils will open conference play March 6 against BYU. ASU came out on top 10-6 when the Cougars last traveled to Tempe in February 2024. ASU got the win largely thanks to then-senior pitcher Mac Osborne, who tossed five complete innings while only allowing three hits and one earned run.
The Sun Devils will later host the team from down south March 21-23. When the teams played last year, Arizona recorded a sweep in Tucson, and ASU left with a -12 score differential.
The No. 12-ranked Wildcats are not the only former Pac-12 team ASU will have a revenge game against in conference play. Utah picked up three wins in Tempe last April, including a 4-0 shutout to end the series. The Sun Devils will head to Salt Lake City April 11-13.
April will continue to be a testing time for ASU as it goes against No. 21 Baylor at home and No. 13 Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas. Although these programs do not have much familiarity with each other, ASU could face off against someone they know all too well.
Texas Tech junior right-handed pitcher NiJaree Canady is entering her first season with the Red Raiders. She has spent the earlier parts of her college career at former ASU Pac-12 rival Stanford. While with the Cardinal, Canady appeared in five games against the Sun Devils, recording 36 strikeouts and four wins. She threw for 19.3 innings pitched, only allowing 11 hits, three walks and one earned run. With Texas Tech on the schedule, this new Sun Devil lineup will need to find the solution to a problem previous players in the program could not solve.
ASU will also face Kansas, Iowa State and UCF as conference opponents for the first time.
With so much newness, this year’s ASU squad will have the opportunity to create its own identity and recipe for success. Returners from the last two seasons will be expected to step up with their experience. Additionally, several transfers will look to find some defensive chemistry to keep the field on lockdown. Bartlett and her staff are taking on a big task with the amount of young talent being brought in. This kind of a challenge can show their new conference they can be dangerous with the proper development.
A new conference is not the only change in store for this program, and it is up to everyone on the team to shape the future.
