(Photo credit Grace Johnson/WCSN)
TEMPE — For her first collegiate plate appearance, freshman infielder Grace Molitor came to the plate with the Arizona State softball team leading 1-0 in the bottom of the second inning. Molitor had two runners on and laid down a bunt, moving both runners into scoring position.
Stepping up next was freshman infielder Tiare Ho-Ching. Ho-Ching took ball one, then smacked a double into left-center field, bringing both runners home and announcing her name on the big stage.
“I threw up before the game. I was so nervous,” Ho-Ching said. “After I got my first groundball, I got my jitters out.”
Ho-Ching’s pre-game nerves didn’t show once, as in the second at-bat of her career she hit a home run into right field. Ho-Ching finished the day going 2-for-3 at the plate, with four total RBIs, which proved valuable to ASU’s 7-1 victory over the Maryland Terrapins (0-1) in the Sun Devils’ (1-0) first game of the season.
The two freshman infielders weren’t the only newcomers to have a big performance for ASU, as freshman pitcher Cambree Creager had a solid first outing in the circle at Farrington Stadium in the first game of the Kajikawa Classic. Creager’s four innings of one-run ball helped the Sun Devils take off to an early lead, while Kenzie Brown’s three innings of relief work helped land the win for ASU.
Compared to Creager’s more methodical and slower wind-up, Brown offered a change of tempo, as her wind-up is much faster. This showed as Maryland hitters struggled to make contact off Brown, as she struck out the first five batters she faced in her return to the lineup after missing the 2024 season.
“Kenzie is less precise than Cambree, but the ball moves a ton so she gets away with it,” ASU softball head coach Megan Bartlett said. “It is quite a different look, even though they’re both right-handed pitchers.”
Creager eased into her first college start, largely due to her familiarity with sophomore catcher Samantha Swan. Both Creager and Swan grew up in Georgetown, Texas, and the battery played together in club, high school, and now collegiate softball.
“Sam and I have been playing together, travel ball, and high school since eighth grade,” Creager said. “She’s like my mini pitching coach.”
Graduate outfielder Kelsey Hall and junior outfielder Yannixa Acuña also returned to the Sun Devils’ lineup after suffering devastating injuries in the 2024 season. Hall recovered from an ACL tear in just nine months, and in her return, she went 1-for-2 at the plate and drew a walk. Acuña didn’t have an appearance at the plate, but she pinch-ran for Hall in the third inning and scored from first base off a double from Swan.
“Kelsey has been a former conference player of the year … and she chose to stay for a sixth year and continue to rehab that knee,” Bartlett said. “[Acuña] was going off the first half of last year before she got hurt.”
ASU also benefitted from the output of junior outfielder Tanya Windle. Windle was one of the Sun Devils’ best hitters from 2024, leading the team with a .369 batting average, and was given the honor to bat lead-off on opening night. In her first at-bat of the 2025 season, Windle got a hold of a pitch from Maryland’s sophomore pitcher Julia Shearer and knocked it out of the park for a home run.
“[Windle has] worked really hard to add some power to the arsenal,” Bartlett said. “She has spent a lot of time with (ASU strength and conditioning coach) Peter Alosi.”
Athletes from Sun Devil football, basketball, and gymnastics were in the crowd at Farrington Stadium, continuing a recent trend of ASU athletes supporting each other at games.
“Rising tides rise all ships,” Bartlett said. “When you have the departmental standard of excellence, you’ll watch all your programs rise too.”
After Thursday night’s win, ASU takes on Miami (OH) on Friday and Saturday, before taking on Minnesota on Saturday, and then California on Sunday to round out the Kajikawa Classic slate.
“It’s a young group,” Bartlett said. “We have to keep them on task.”
