ASU Softball: New-look Sun Devils begin quest to replicate 2022 success

(Photo via Reece Andrews/WCSN)

Coming off a stellar 2022 season that ended with a Pac-12 Conference title, Arizona State Softball looks to continue its explosiveness and success in the 2023 season.

The Sun Devils will look to do so with new leadership at the helm in head coach Megan Bartlett. Bartlett, a former head coach at Ball State and assistant coach at Texas, was hired in June 2022, after former head coach Trisha Ford departed Tempe to take the head coach position at Texas A&M. Ford, who was named 2022 Pac-12 Softball Coach of the Year, led the Sun Devils to a 43-11 overall record and a 20-4 finish in conference play last year, setting a program record for most conference wins.

“We’re looking forward to the challenge,” Bartlett said. “I think the identity of this program looks a little different moving forward, with change in leadership, philosophy and honestly just the organic makeup of the kids, but I am really excited about it.”

With this new transition in management, ASU will have to adapt and adjust to remain one of the top competitors in the Pac-12.

The team will lead off its 2023 campaign with several classics, including the San Diego State Season Kickoff beginning on Feb. 9 for its season opener. Then, ASU will return home to Alberta B. Farrington Stadium to host the annual Littlewood Classic.

The Territorial Cup rivalry series against the No. 18 Arizona Wildcats will mark the start of Pac-12 play for the Sun Devils on March 10-12. But the real testament to the team’s sustainability will occur when they take on No. 2 UCLA on April 21-23 in Los Angeles.

The two powerhouses were only separated by one game in last season’s conference standings, as the Bruins went 19-5 and the Sun Devils 20-4. If ASU manages a decent fight against UCLA, they can prove they are still contenders in the conference and the NCAA tournament.

Expectations for the Pac-12 Conference are nothing short of competitive after the release of D1Softball’s preseason rankings. With almost half of the teams from the conference ranked in the top 25, there is no doubt that the division will remain aggressive. Although they won the conference in 2022, the Sun Devils are not ranked, however, they are receiving votes.

Despite their impressive 2022 season, the Sun Devils ultimately came up short in the Super Regionals round of the NCAA Tournament, falling 6-8 in game three against the Northwestern Wildcats.

Along with losing Ford, ASU also lost several key players to the transfer portal. Ford’s exit sparked an exodus of players into the transfer portal. Over the offseason, ASU lost sophomore infielder Cydney Sanders and senior infielder Alynah Torres, both of whom were cornerstones to ASU’s offense.

Sanders was named the 2022 Pac-12 Freshman of the year and broke ASU’s single-season home run record with 21, while Torres had a .339 batting average and 40 RBIs. Sanders and Torres transferred to the reigning Women’s College World Series Champion Oklahoma this offseason to play under the Sooners’ head coach Patty Gasso.

The Sun Devils’ pitching rotation also took a rough hit after losing junior righty Allison Royalty (Florida State), sophomore righty Mac Morgan (Texas) and redshirt junior lefty Lindsay Lopez (Washington). Morgan led the team with 119.0 innings pitched while also pitching six complete games and 75 strikeouts. Lopez also carried a heavy load, recording 112.1 innings pitched and 84 strikeouts. Morgan and Lopez were crucial components of the team’s 2022 postseason run. With their departures, the Sun Devils have sizeable gaps to fill in their rotation.

“We had a lot of really good ones choose a different path prior to me being named head coach, but we also have some amazing athletes, and we put some pretty good ones around them,” Bartlett said regarding ASU’s transfer portal losses and gains.

One player looking to take advantage of the absences in the circle is right-handed freshman pitcher Kylee Magee. Magee comes from a lineage of Sun Devils, as her brother Brandon Magee played football and baseball at ASU, and her other brother Cameron Magee also played baseball for ASU his freshman year before transferring to Washington State.

Committing to ASU in the eighth grade, Magee is a strong option for the Sun Devils’ rotation. She went 23-5 her senior year at Canyon High School with a 0.82 ERA and 338 strikeouts in 169 innings.

Not only is Magee an asset in the circle, but she also can make her presence known in the batter’s box. Magee batted over .400 in her senior season. With everything that she brings offensively and defensively, Magee hopes to be a player to watch in her first season in Tempe.

With the addition of assistant coach Jeremy Manley from Ball State, the ASU pitching rotation does not expect a drop-off in production. Manley’s presence positively impacted the Cardinals, as they ranked 37th in the nation with a team ERA of 2.22 in just his first year on staff.

Scottsdale native and graduate student right-hander Marissa Schuld will return to the circle for the Sun Devils. She compiled the lowest ERA on the team last season with a 2.09 ERA and racked up 93 strikeouts. Schuld even pitched a perfect game against her former school Arizona on March 27, the eighth in ASU program history.

“[Schuld] is one of the toughest closers in the country,” Bartlett said. “She is a feisty fireball on the mound, and we’re incredibly excited to have her in the mix.”

Junior right-hander Deborah Jones will also be impactful to the pitching rotation. She made the journey with Manley from Indiana to Arizona for her senior season after throwing 229 career strikeouts in 25 appearances for Ball State.

“[Jones] is a wonderful complement to the rest of the staff,” Bartlett said. “She works down. She works three speeds. She actually throws a knuckleball, which is kind of like a party trick in softball because you have to have big enough hands to throw it right. … But it is a super tough pitch to hit.”

With the talent the Sun Devils retained and added, Bartlett believes that ASU’s staff is a force to be reckoned with.

While there were subtractions from the lineup, there were also some additions from the transfer portal in the infield. Redshirt freshman infielder Taylor Nicholson from Missouri, junior catcher Sara Kinch from Minnesota, graduate infielder Alexa Milius from Virginia Tech and junior infielder Kayla Lissy from Ball State all provide depth to ASU’s infield.

Though Nicholson opted for a medical redshirt after making two appearances for the Tigers, she could prove to be a weapon in ASU’s back pocket. In her senior year of high school, she recorded a .605 batting average with four home runs, five triples, 24 RBI and 31 stolen bases.

And with the graduation of Jessi Puk, the position of catcher will be up for grabs between Kinch — who harbored a .233 batting average with a .425 slugging percentage and a .305 on-base percentage — and graduate transfer Gianna Boccagno from Boston College, who Boccagno tallied a .988 fielding percentage in 2022.

Other newcomers in the desert include speedy freshman outfielders Kalyn McCarthy and Yannixa Acuña. Acuña is the sister of graduate outfielder Yannira Acuña.

The veteran Acuña had a batting average of .430 in 2022, which was second in the Pac-12, and provided the Sun Devils with solid defensive performances in right field. Coming into the 2023 season, Yannira Acuña has drawn regional and national attention, making her way onto several preseason All-American teams and finding herself in the top 20 of multiple preseason top 100 player rankings.

“Obviously, it’s my last season, so I just want to cherish every moment that I have with my team, especially with my sister being on the team,” Yannira Acuña said. “And then having a new coaching staff, I am just here to embrace it and enjoy my last season, go out there, be calm and whatever happens, happens in my last season, so I’m just trying to have fun with it and take it all in.”

Returning alongside Acuña are senior infielder Jazmyn Rollin and senior outfielder Jazmine Hill. Hill has started every game since becoming a Sun Devil, earning a career batting average of 0.344 and a combined total of 138 hits. Rollin appeared in 47 of the 54 games in 2022 during her first season in Tempe, recording 13 home runs and 35 RBIs.

With many openings in the lineup, new and returning players will have plenty of opportunities to make their mark and keep the Sun Devils’ offense just as prolific as it was in 2022.

Just days away from its return to the diamond, ASU Softball has much to prove. Will they be able to overcome the loss of Ford? Do the transfer portal gains outweigh the losses? Is this team able to compete in the gauntlet that is the Pac-12? The Sun Devils will look to answer these questions and more when the season gets underway on Feb. 9 against CSUN in San Diego.

“We are ready to get going, and we are going to have a couple good tests this coming weekend at San Diego State and a nice regional matchup from last year. …

“They can go in the transfer portal at any point, they can choose something different so for how we are wired as humans [it] is important to us is that they feel really proud of where they are at, very valued and that they love their teammates and coaching staff around them,” Bartlett said. “That’s what is going to get us across the finish line to a national championship.”