Sun Devils revive offense to beat Portland State

(Photo credit: Madison Sorenson/WCSN)

TEMPE — As Arizona State softball graduate outfielder Kelsey Hall jogged home following her two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning against Portland State on Saturday, it was clear the momentum had shifted.

The Sun Devils (9-5) came out sloppy Saturday as they battled the Vikings in their third game of the Sun Devil Classic. The Sun Devils allowed three runs in the first inning, mostly due to a couple of errors and some timely hitting from the Vikings. Ultimately, ASU recovered and won the game 10-3.

“There isn’t much that needs to be said,” senior right-handed pitcher Kenzie Brown said. “We just need to fix it.”

The ASU offense has crumbled in recent games after their defense collapsed. The Sun Devils were only able to muster three total runs in losses to North Dakota, Belmont, and Florida. They also combined for eight errors in those three games.

Head coach Megan Bartlett had one simple message for her team following a sluggish start to the contest.

“’We better start hitting the ball if you are going to give up that many runs,'” Bartlett said.

After a sloppy and frustrating top half of the first, the Sun Devils offense answered back in a big way. The leadoff hitter, freshman infielder Tiare Ho-Ching, was hit by a pitch before Hall stepped up to the dish.

Hall has been the Devil’s best hitter to start the 2025 season, leading the team in most offensive categories including batting average and OPS. With ASU In need of a spark, Hall delivered, belting a ball to right-center that easily cleared the fence and pulled the Sun Devils within one run.

As she rounded the bases, the energy in the dugout and throughout Farrington Stadium shifted. With Hall leading the charge, the floodgates opened for ASU in the first.

The Sun Devils went on to score a total of eight runs in the first inning and got all the way to their ninth hitter before Portland State could record an out.

“We had tons of high energy,” freshman catcher Lillian Holtje said. “That’s something that we’re working on continuously keeping throughout the game. But I think this game, specifically, we did a great job keeping the energy up.”

With a mix of defensive errors and quality Sun Devil at-bats, ASU turned the tide from the top of the first to the bottom half.

After that, both offenses quieted down, and the Sun Devils shut out the Vikings for the rest of the day. The combination of Brown, sophomore right-handed pitcher Meika Lauppe and freshman right-handed pitcher Julianne Tipton nailed things down for ASU.

The defense and pitching settled in after the first. ASU didn’t record an error following the first inning, and the defense helped its pitching out for the remainder of the game.

“Meika and Kenzie are doing a beautiful job right now,” Bartlett said. “Hopefully they can be successful because once they do that, I think you’re really going to see something special out of the endpoints.”

ASU was able to scratch another run across in the fourth, then again in the fifth to put things completely out of reach from the Vikings.

The offense, unlike in other contests, was able to respond after the Sun Devil defense underperformed in the first inning. However, Bartlett still expects more consistency from her team especially as they get closer to Big 12 Conference play.

“They got to keep playing the game,” Bartlett said. “The reality is, we’ve got a lot of freshmen on the field, and you’re kind of building the plane while you’re flying it. So we just have to continue to hold the standard high, continue to make sure they are prepared and that they feel the most under control they can in any given moment.”