(Photo credit: Elizabeth Agazaryan/WCSN)
Arizona State Softball will welcome four schools to Tempe over the weekend as part of the 2025 Sun Devil Classic.
The Sun Devils (7-4) will host the California Baptist Lancers, the Portland State Vikings, and the New Mexico State Aggies. ASU will open its Sun Devil Classic on Friday against the No. 3 team in the country, the Florida Gators.
The Gators (13-1) started their season off strong, winning their first 13 games in a row. Florida, however, dropped its first game of the season Sunday to Duke. The then-No. 14 ranked Blue Devils traveled to Gainesville as part of the Bubly Invitational and split their two-game set with the then-ranked No. 1 Gators. After getting run-ruled in their first matchup, Duke beat Florida 8-1 in their final game of the Invitational. Duke junior pitcher and Florida native Cassidy Curd tossed 7.0 innings, only allowing one run on four hits with six strikeouts in her lights-out performance against the Gators.
The Gators come into the Classic boasting the No. 1 ranking in team RBIs (105) and runs (114), and the No. 2 ranking in team home runs (22), hits (124) and shutouts (7). They are also top five in the nation in walks, doubles and stolen bases.
Florida’s roster has talent all over, with five Gators earning Preseason All-SEC Team recognition and three players named to the USA Softball Player of the Year Top 50 watch list.
On top of the preseason awards, one Gator is already winning in-season awards. Freshman outfielder Taylor Shumaker was named the Louisville Slugger/ NFCA Player of the Week on Feb. 11, as well as the SEC Co-Players of the Week and D1 Softball’s Player of the Week for that same week.
Shumaker opened the season by hitting five home runs in the first six games of the season and is now tied for the home runs lead in the country with eight.
The Sun Devils are 5-5 all-time against the Gators, and Florida won the last matchup by a score of 4-1 in 2020. This will be the highest-ranked team that ASU has played this season.
Arizona State will be right back on the diamond Friday following the Florida game and will take on the California Baptist Lancers. The Lancers (5-7) are looking to get back in the wins column after dropping their last three games. They will also play their first set of away games this season in the Sun Devil Classic.
Cal Baptist has one of the better defenses in the country with the 33rd-ranked fielding percentage (.997) and the 31st most double plays per game at 0.58. They will take on the Sun Devils who rank second in the Big 12 Conference in slugging percentage (.505), home runs (14) and home runs per game.
The Lancers will also be playing in a doubleheader as they take on Florida before the ASU and Florida game. ASU has only faced the Lancers once, beating them 8-0 in five innings in 2022.
After Friday’s doubleheader, ASU will take on the Portland State Vikings (3-7) in its only game Saturday. The Vikings have struggled early this season as they are on a four-game losing streak that they look to end in Tempe.
Portland State is last in the Big Sky Conference in batting average (.232), but third in ERA (4.51). They will take on ASU, which ranks second in the Big 12 and 34th in the NCAA with 6.71 strikeouts per inning and ranks 13th nationally with a 4.12 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
The Sun Devils are 17-0 against the Vikings in their historical matchups, dating back to 1978. Their most recent meeting was won by ASU 8-0 in 2023.
To end the weekend, ASU will take on the New Mexico State Aggies (8-4) on Sunday. New Mexico State is the only team that ASU is facing with a win streak coming into the classic, as the Aggies have won four in a row.
In the Conference USA, the Aggies rank first in home runs (22) and RBI (85), and rank second in batting average (.381). Hitting .381 also puts New Mexico State in the top 10 in batting average in the country.
Along with Cal Baptist, New Mexico State has yet to play an away game, which will likely provide new challenges to the team.
ASU has won 41 of its 50 games against the Aggies dating back to 1972. The Aggies got the best of the Sun Devils in their last matchup, winning 10-8 in walk-off fashion in 2024.
After a promising start to the season, Arizona State will face its toughest challenge to date in the upcoming Sun Devil Classic.
