(Photo via Hailey Rogalski/WCSN)
Nine days after its crushing loss to the Northwestern Wildcats in the Super Regional round, Arizona State Softball lost its head coach, Trisha Ford to Texas A&M. In the following days, ASU lost six critical members of its squad, including three-fourths of their starting rotation and arguably their two best hitters.
Following the departures, ASU Athletic Director Ray Anderson named Texas assistant coach Megan Bartlett as the new Sun Devil head coach, changing the offseason story to who they added, not who they lost.
Bartlett and her new additions squared off in the annual Maroon and Gold scrimmage on Thursday night. It was the first glimpse at the new squad, but it started with a couple of familiar faces. On the mound for the gold team was returning graduate pitcher Marissa Schuld, who entered the transfer portal, but Bartlett and her staff convinced Schuld to stay in Tempe, keeping one of the four pillars of 2022’s stellar starting rotation.
“Marissa does an outstanding job for us,” Bartlett said. “We were so thrilled to keep Marissa in the crazy coaching change over. I think Marissa’s superpower is that she is an insane competitor, and she has a sense of calmness about her. In the bullpen, she’ll look over and say, ‘Oh my god, that riseball was really, really good,’ and then she’ll go back to whatever she was doing, and you’ll be like, ‘Is that a compliment, is she kidding?’. You have to figure out how to read her a little bit.”
The scrimmage did not start great for Schuld as returning senior outfielder Jazmine Hill got the better of her. With the departures of Alynah Torres and Cyd Sanders to Oklahoma, Hill will have to play a more prominent role in the Sun Devil offense. Her mission was off to a good start Thursday night as she went 2-4 with a 2-run home run and a 2-RBI single.
“Her plate presence is excellent,” Bartlett said. “The thing about Jaz is that she doesn’t say much, so she walks lightly and carries a big stick. She’s got great confidence. She’s got a great presence. Her plate awareness is very good, and she will be a difference maker for us this year.”
Starting the game for the Maroon side was one of the new transfers that excited Bartlett for her spring rotation, sophomore pitcher Kenzie Brown. As a freshman at Tulsa, Brown did not have the most remarkable year, but according to Bartlett, many of the reasons were out of her control. Now in Tempe, Brown looks to have a new start with a change in scenery and coaching.
Thursday night, Brown got off to a strong start, striking out the side in the top of the first, but started to lose control in the second inning, walking the first two batters of the second. Her outing was solid, giving up two runs in three innings of work but limiting the Gold Team to nearly no hard contact.
“Kenzie Brown threw beautiful tonight,” Bartlett said. “She is an exciting one. For a variety of reasons, had a rough freshman year, but she is dynamic. She throws a gorgeous low-rise, so she was beating some really, really good hitters tonight.”
After two innings of shaky work from Schuld, Bartlett handed the ball to senior pitcher Deborah Jones, who knew Bartlett from her time as head coach at Ball State. Despite only spending Jones’s freshmen year together, they created a strong bond, and when Bartlett brought Ball State pitching coach Jeremy Manley to be her pitching coach, it made too much sense for Jones to end up as a Sun Devil.
“I have worked with coach Jeremey the past three years, and this will be my fourth year with him,” Jones said. “Coach Bartlett was my freshman year coach, and it was super sad seeing her go, but I’m really glad we got the gang back together. They got the job, and I was already in the portal, so it was kind of like fate, and we all had to get back together.”
In Jones’ first time in the maroon and gold, she gave up four runs in four innings of work, not quite the start she would have wanted, but one she knows she can build on. The rough outing was not a deterrent for Barlett, who knows precisely what Jones can give her this year.
“It is like no time passed,” Bartlett said when asked how it was seeing Jones again. “I had her when she was 18. She is a great kid from an amazing family, and it was a happy fit the first time around, with tons of trust and a lot of love. She bled black and red at the time. She was an all-in kid who does whatever she is asked. I was thrilled she wanted to come back with us.”
The most impressive outing Thursday evening came from the junior Virginia Tech transfer, Mac Osborne. In two years with the Hokies, Osborne made 21 appearances to the tune of a 3.27 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 60 innings pitched. Now in Tempe, Osborne impressed, toeing the rubber in the bottom of the fourth inning, Osborne shut out the Gold Team for the rest of the game, only allowing two hits and striking out three.
Osborne completes what expects to be a solid rotation led by Schuld. But, even with Schuld as the proverbial ace, the rest of the rotation can give opposing teams plenty of different looks, which makes Bartlett extremely excited for what is to come this February.
“Marissa is surrounded by a lot of talent,” Bartlett said. “Kids that can go drop, rise, change, move it offspeed. Deborah can move it at four different speeds. There are a lot of things happening there that are going to be incredible compliments to each other, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how pretty the pitches are if we’re not competing.”
