(Photo: Joey Plishka/WCSN)
From Tucson to Tempe, it’s no surprise that Marissa Schuld is a Division I softball player. Schuld’s Aunt, Julie Fuller, played softball at Iowa State. Her cousins, Hannah Fuller and Shea Fuller, play basketball at Drake and Minnesota State, respectively.
Schuld began her Division I career at the University of Arizona as a pitcher. However, while donning the red, white and blue with the Wildcats, she wasn’t getting the time she wanted in the circle. In her two seasons at Arizona, she threw just 17.2 innings and allowed just one earned run. She knew she wanted a change.
“After I spoke with my family, I felt that it would just be best for me to transfer,” Schuld said. “My teammates were awesome, but obviously, I wanted more time in the circle and it wasn’t a good place for me mentally.”
She wanted to come home and play for the local school in the Valley, Arizona State. The Scottsdale native attended Pinnacle High School and excelled in her time as a Pioneer in the circle and the batter’s box. As a senior, she went 11-1 with a 0.74 ERA over 13 appearances. Offensively, she hit .574 with 57 RBI, 12 doubles, nine triples, 16 home runs, a .626 on-base percentage and a 1.252 slugging percentage.
Schuld is the career home run, runs batted in, pitching strikeouts and wins leader at Pinnacle. She also owns single-season records in all those categories. It culminated in an AIA 6A state championship, where she threw a complete game shutout allowing just two hits and striking out 14 batters in a 4-0 win over Hamilton.
“This has been a dream school since I was a little kid,” Schuld said of No. 17 Arizona State. “I’m happy to be back home.”
When transferring between schools, there’s always an adjustment period. Nonetheless transferring to and from an arch-rival. Schuld says she’s enjoyed the collaboration between the players and coaches on practice and game plans.
“We have more input here, which is awesome and the coaches care what we think about practices, what we want to do,” Schuld said. “So it’s more of a collaborative effort, which is what makes a good culture within the team.”
The atmosphere is different for Schuld as she takes the field to play for her hometown team, but it didn’t come without sacrifice. Schuld had to sit out the entire 2021 season to play for ASU due to in-conference transfer rules. It may have been well worth the wait.
“The atmosphere for me, and the coaching staff makes it enjoyable and I’m definitely more comfortable,” Schuld said. “I think they’re one of the best coaching staffs in the country. They care for you as people rather than just a player on and off the field, so it’s something special, and I am thankful to be a part of it.”
That strong culture has spread throughout her teammates. ASU graduate student infielder and former Hamilton Husky Bella Loomis has known Schuld for years and has seen firsthand what kind of impact she’s made with other members of the team.
“She’s such an amazing teammate, just a competitor. Even since when we’d play each other in high school ball and club ball, she’s always been a competitor,” Loomis said. “Just playing with her, having her on the team, in the circle is a good feeling.”
Just getting Schuld on the field made ASU head coach Trisha Ford smile.
“My heart’s happy to see her on the field and competing to be honest with you, that kid’s gone through a lot,” Ford said. “I think she’s gonna help us tremendously in the circle and obviously offensively she can hit the ball and has a great swing.”
However, being a two-way player is rare and not always easy, even though at times, Schuld makes it look easy. When things don’t go well on one side of the ball, she still has the other side to hang her hat on. She enjoys the competition and the battle of going both ways.
“[Being a two-way player] It’s tough, but I like it because if I’m struggling in one, I can try to pick myself up in the other one,” Schuld said. “I think just finding something that can distinguish the two and just finding a way to keep my mentality on one and not dwell on whatever is or isn’t working. “I just never really get too high or too low, and I’m pretty level-headed.”
For Ford, she admitted at the beginning of the season that she only wanted to have her pitch to ease her back into action. That plan has worked so far for the ASU coach and her No. 17 Sun Devils. She compliments Schuld’s ability to mentally separate her pitching versus hitting abilities.
“In general, they have to be able to separate the offense and the defense and I think Marissa does a great job at that,” Ford said. It’s being able to balance the two and separate the two, but I think she’s done a great job and will continue to kind of use her in that role.”
Schuld is coming off back-to-back dominant outings in the circle. She threw a five-inning complete game allowing just four hits, one run and struck out 10 in 19 batters faced on March 15 against Marist. Last Saturday she continued her dominance going the complete game allowing two hits, one run, one walk and six strikeouts in a win over then-No. 23 Oregon State.
Those two outings moved her line to a record of 7-2, 1.32 ERA, 71 strikeouts to just three walks in 47.2 innings pitched. Opponents are hitting just .189 off Schuld this season.
Based on her start to the season, it seems like Schuld may have made the right decision coming to Tempe. With the biggest goal of all on her mind as a Sun Devil, Schuld hopes her time at ASU will propel her team into the history books.
“We want to get to the Women’s College World Series, that’s the goal and we have to keep pushing, taking it day-by-day, practice-by-practice pitch-by-pitch,” Schuld said. “Just having fun and enjoying the game, I have worked hard my whole life up until this point so I’m just gonna let the work speak for itself.”
Schuld will face her former team, No. 22 Arizona, in Tucson this weekend.
