TEMPE -- For the first time since the tournament season in February, the No. 23/22 Arizona State University softball team will remain at home for a second consecutive weekend this week as it prepares for a three-game Pac-12 series against the red-hot Utah Utes beginning Friday, April 24 at Farrington Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.
The series will open on Friday at 5 p.m. PT, followed by a 7:30 first pitch on Saturday and closing out the weekend Sunday at 12 p.m. PT. All three games this weekend are scheduled to be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Networks with Daron Sutton on the call alongside analyst Kyndra de St. Aubin.
#10THINGS (Twitter-Friendly Notes)
After grounding out in 1st at-bat of OSU series, @sirodriguez_ went 6-for-6 with 5 walks and a perfect 1.000 OBP! #SheGetsOnBase
@sirodriguez_ has reached base safely in 41 of @ASUSoftball’s 45 games this season and leads team with .511 OBP.
@ASUSoftball has struck out just 115 times as a team this season, fewer than any other team w/ 30+ games in NCAA on the year.
@bethykemp has homered in five straight games and would match the @NCAASoftball record with two more this weekend.
@ASUSoftball has been ranked in 151 straight @NFCAorg polls and has been in the top ten of 127 of those.
Entering season, ASU has the nation’s third highest winning percentage since 2006 at .807 (473-114-1) behind Alabama and Florida.
@ASUSoftball has turned 25 double plays in 2015, compared to 13 in entirety of 2014. 0.58 per game average is 7th nationally
@cgonzales112 has not had an error in each of last @Pac12 series. .956 fiielding % is third among all shortstops in conference.
@ASUSoftball plays nine of its final 12 games of the regular season at home after playing 17 of the previous 20 away from Farrington.
@ASUSoftball is 25-3 in games when it scores six or more runs compared to a 4-13 record when it scores 5 or less.
Scouting the Opposition
The Sun Devils are 31-12 in the all-time series against the Utes, a much smaller sampling than some series rivalries due to Utah’s inclusion in the Pac-12 only within the past couple years. Many of those games came in years where the team’s faced off just once but in years where at least two games were played, ASU has won the series eight times, split three times and dropped the series on three occasions - the last coming in 2013 at Salt Lake City. ASU swept the Utes at home last season and have swept in the past two series played against Utah at Farrington Stadium.
This year’s Utah is a far cry from some of its previous teams and represents one of the more impressive turnarounds in the past couple seasons and following a pair of victories over nationally-ranked this past weekend, Utah now has 31 victories on the season, which matches last season’s win total. One more win for the Utes would give the program its most wins since recording 40 victories back in 2006. The 2006 squad is the last Utah team to compete in post-season play. Utah enters the weekend with a 31-15 record and is 9-9 in Pac-12 action. Winners of four straight Pac-12 series, the Utes boast a 11-6 record on the road.
Much of the Utes success has come as a result of its solid stable of pitchers, with no Utah hurler post more than a 3.31 ERA and the team posting a 2.81 ERA overall. Katie Donovan and Miranda Viramontes lead the way with 23 and 21 starts, respectively. Donovan boasts a 2.69 ERA and a 13-7 record while Viramontes enters the weekend with a 3.04 ERA and an 11-6 record. Donovan has held opponents to just a .224 batting average this season and struck out 129 to just 52 walks. She has been prone to the home run, however, giving up 21 long balls on the season.
Katie Dickman paces the Ute offensive attack with her .428 average and team-leading six home runs. Only two players have over a .300 average in the Ute lineup and they aren’t a team that’s necessarily going to hurt opponents with the long ball and currently are eighth in the conference with just 31 this season. They do knock a fair amount of doubles, however, fourth in the conferencd with 70 this season and they are an exceptional fielding team - leading the Pac-12 with a .977 fielding percentage this season with a conference-leading 30 double plays.
In The Rankings
The Devils dropped two spots to No. 23 in the the NFCA/USA Today Coaches Poll one spot to No. 22 in the USA Softball/ESPN.com rankings following its 2-1 series victory over the Oregon State Beavers at home last weekend. ASU also dropped two spots to No. 16 in the fifth RPI ranking of the season.
The View From The Top
Over the past nine seasons, the Sun Devils have been among the most dominant teams in the nation. One need look no further than the weekly NFCA Coaches Poll to get a gauge of that. The Sun Devils have been ranked in 151 consecutive Coaches Polls, a streak that dates back to Week 2 of the 2006 season. The Sun Devils entered the top-10 in Week 6 of that season and have since been ranked in the top 10 in 127 of the 151 polls that have taken place since the team entered the rankings in 2006. ASU is one of just five programs to lay a claim to being in every poll since early in that 2006 season, joining Michigan, UCLA, Oklahoma and Alabama at the top of the list.
Strength of Schedule
ASU’s solid RPI ranking is due in large part to playing one of the toughest schedules in the nation this season. Of ASU’s 45 games this season, 20 have been against squads ranked nationally - going 8-12 in those games. ASU is 11-8 in its last 16 games and all but five of those games have come against ranked opponents. The Devils have three victories this season against teams that were ranked in the top-10 at the time of the tilt. ASU had seven wins against ranked teams in March, trailing only the eight posted by No. 7 Auburn in the month for the most in the nation. The Sun Devil scheduled is currently ranked as the fifth toughest as far as Strength of Schedule in the NCAA this season with 30 games played against teams in the top 53 in the most current RPI and 19 against teams in the top 25 in those RPI rankings. Eleven of ASU’s losses have come against those Top 25 RPI teams and three of the five team losses outside of the Top 25 all occured in the first weekend of the season.
Craig Nicholson Leading the Way
The Sun Devils are in their second season under head coach Craig Nicholson. In his first season as the head coach at Arizona State, Coach Nicholson led the Sun Devils to an impressive 46-12-1 record and another berth in the postseason. ASU was one of sixteen teams selected to host an NCAA Regional earning the No. 9 national seed. Nicholson guided ASU to a third place finish in his first year in the historically tough Pac-12 conference. Despite it being just his first season, Nicholson led ASU to victories over powerhouse programs such as Oklahoma, Michigan, Texas, Washington and UCLA. Under his tutelage, two Sun Devils, Amber Freeman and Dallas Escobedo, were named NFCA Second Team All-Americans. In Nicholson’s new offensive system, Amber Freeman put up monster numbers batting a career best .406 with 11 home runs on her way to a First Team All-Pac 12 season.
Nicholson was the head coach at Ball State for the for seven seasons where he amassed a 241-162 record with the Cardinals and now holds a 1039-280-1 career record. Nicholson replaced Clint Myers, who accepted a similar position at Auburn on June 14. On top of coaching at Ball State, Nicholson was the associate head coach for the Chicago Bandits of the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) in 2008 and helped the team to a NPF title.
Lights, Camera, Action
All three games against Oregon State will be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Networks. Daron Sutton will be on the call all weekend alongside analyst Kyndra de St. Aubin. The Sun Devils have received plenty of love through the Pac-12 this season with 21 games scheduled to be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Networks and another 20 streamed live via the Pac-12.com. Fans should check their local listings for the Pac-12 Networks station in their area, or they may tune in online at www.pac-12.com/live.
On The Airwaves
For the third consecutive year Blaze Sports Radio will provide the call for all of Arizona State’s home games this season. Fans in the Tempe area can tune in at 1330 AM and also listen online at ustream.tv/channel/blaze-sports.
A Look Back - Oregon State
The No. 21 Arizona State softball team rebounded nicely following a tough seventh-inning loss in the series opener to Oregon State this past weekend, taking the final two games and a series victory over the Beavers to improve to 29-16 on the season and 7-7 in Pac-12 play. Bethany Kemp and Amber Freeman each homered in all three games in the series as the Sun Devils lit up the OSU pitching staff for nine home runs in the three games played this weekend. Breanna Macha and Dale Ryndak each earned a win in the series with the two combining to limit the potent offense in Sunday’s rubber match, holding OSU to three runs despite 11 hits and stranding 12 runners on base. The Devils remain home next weekend for what now looks to be a big Pac-12 series against the Utah Utes beginning Friday, April 24 with a chance to move up to third in the current Pac-12 standings.
Looking For a Place In History
ASU’s senior class this year can provide plenty of work for the editor of the Sun Devil record books by the time the season is done. Amber Freeman currently finds herself fourth in ASU history with 55 career home runs, fifth with 191 RBI, seventh with 249 total hits and fifth with 44 doubles. Keeping pace alongside her in most categories is Haley Steele, who is currently fifth in homers (46), 15th in hits (219), fourth in RBI (193) and fourth in doubles (45). Elizabeth Caporuscio is tied for 16th in home runs (27), 12th in RBI (137) and seventh in doubles (43). Fellow senior Bethany Kemp is tied for 10th with 34 career dingers amd 23rd with 94 career RBI. Those four seniors hold a combined 136-24 (.850) record overall in games played at Farrington Stadium.
‘Ber, It’s Cold In Here
Two-time All-American and 2013 Pac-12 Player of the Year Amber Freeman was recently named one of 25 finalist for the USA Softball National Player of the Year and continues to lead the Sun Devils on and off the field. She’s helped with her trek up the Sun Devil record books with her .433 batting average thus far this season and team-leading 14 home runs while sitting second on the squad with 45 RBI. Her .830 slugging percentage leads the team by nearly 200 points, and she also leads the squad with a career-high 14 doubles (after having 10 in the entirety of 2014). Freeman has been among ASU’s most clutch hitters to date, batting 22-for-47 (.468) with two outs on the board and leading the team with 22 two-out RBI out of her 45 total. She leads the team with 17 multi-hit games in 45 games to date. In 2014, she led the team with a .406 batting average that went down as the 13th-best single season mark in program history. Freeman led the team with 69 hits and a .480 OBP this season as well, while ranking second on the team in RBI with 44. Freeman hit safely in all but 11 games on the season and reached base in all but five games of the 57 appearances she made. Freeman was the 11th overall pick in the 2015 National Pro Fastpitch League draft, taken in the third round by the USSSA Pride.
Leading the Pac
Amber Freeman has taken her game to the next level in Pac-12 action, batting .512 in conference games with six home runs to go along with 16 RBI and four doubles. Her .512 average is tops in the conference in Pac-12 games while her 1.049 slugging percentage and .588 on-base percentage are first and third, respectively. Additionally, Freeman has successfully advanced runners on 19-of-29 chances in Pac-12 games, a whopping .655 average. Freeman has homered in three straight games and is currently sixth in conference play with six home runs.
Doing It On and Off the Diamond
Thirty of the top NCAA softball student-athletes who excel both on and off the field were selected as candidates for the 2015 Senior CLASS Award® in collegiate softball and Arizona State University senior catcher Amber Freeman was among those selected. Freeman joined an exceptional list of former Sun Devils to be honored as a candidate for the yearly award, joining Jackie Velasquez (2008), Jessica Mapes (2009), Lesley Rogers (2011), Katelyn Boyd (2012), Dallas Escobedo (2014) and Bailey Wigness (2014) as other Sun Devil candidates in their respective years with Mapes, Boyd and Escobedo all advancing to become finalists. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
Chelsea Lately
Sophomore Chelsea Gonzales has shown she has no qualms replacing All-American Cheyenne Coyle with several highlight reel plays so far this season at shortstop with 93 assists and 81 putouts to just eight errors (.956 fielding percentage). She was a part of 10 of the 21 outs against Oregon State in the first game of the series and has been errorless in the last two Pac-12 series. Her .956 fielding percentage is third among Pac-12 shortstops behind only Arizona All-American Kellie Fox (.970) and Utah’s Anissa Urtez (.963). She’s currently sitting at a .293 averahe for the season and fourth on the team with 10 home runs - including a game-winning grand slam against Arizona - surpassing her season total of eight from a year ago. . As a freshman, Gonzales finished the year batting .333 on the season and struck out just 14 times - the least among Sun Devil starters - while posting a .356 on-base percentage. She finished with a team-leading 19 two-out RBI of her 45 total RBI that were second on the team. Finishing second on the team with 45 RBI, Gonzales’ effort was even more impressive as she she it in 138 at bats, between 30-50 fewer at bats than the majority of the ASU starters. She one of 25 semifinalists for the National Freshman of the Year trophy while she was also named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team for her efforts. She also became the first Sun Devil in postseason history to hit a home run in three consecutive games.
Going...Going...GONE-Zales!
Chelsea Gonzales has made the most of her move to the three-hole in the ASU batting order. Since the start of Pac-12 play, Gonzales has played all but one game in the three hole, posting a .280 average and leading the team with 16 RBI in conference games with four home runs. Gonzales has 10 home runs on the season, passing her season total from her freshman year. Her grand slam in the seventh inning against Arizona helped pave the way for a game-one comeback and eventual series victory. With 18 career homeruns, the sophomore is currently 20th in ASU career history in the category
‘Ru-sci-o, ‘Ru-sci-o, ‘RU-SCI-OOOOOO
Elizabeth Caporuscio has been slowly finding some of her gap-to-gap power that made her so efficent last season and has steady bumped her average week-by-week to .303 on the season while third on the team with nine doubles. Caporuscio has turned things on in Pac-12 play and is fourth on the team with a .289 average in Pac-12 games with eight RBI. Last season, Caporuscio batted .322 (fifth on the team) with a team-leading 17 doubles in the process - good for second in the Pac-12 and second in ASU single-season history. . She was second on the team with 16 two-out RBIs and proved she was the hitter you want with the bases loaded, with five hits in 11 opportunities (.455) and a grand slam on the season. She also led the team overall with 18 multi-hit games.
A Steele Trap
Haley Steele awoke in a big way in the trek to the Southwest against New Mexico State and UTEP with a performance that shot her yearly average up 40 points. Steele now has a .325 average is squarely in on pace for the team’s RBI title with 53 on the season - eight more than any other Sun Devil - and setting a new career high in the process. Her 11 home runs are currently third of the team. She has done exactly what she’s supposed to do with a runner on third and less than two outs, bringing that runner home on 11-of-15 opportunities (.733) which included a walk-off grand slam against New Mexico State. Her 16 multi-RBI games this season are three more than any other Sun Devil. She has posted a team-leading 23 hits with runners in scoring position on 61 at-bats (.377) and has statistically been ASU’s best hitter with the bases loaded, going 8-for-14 (.571) with two grand slams this season. In the final three games of the NMSU/UTEP road trip, Steele went 10-for-12 with 12 RBI and three home runs. The senior finished the 2014 season batting .349 (second on the team) on the year with 12 home runs (second on the team) while knocking in a team-leading 50 RBI. Steele became the only player last season to reach four hits in a game, doing so in a 10-inning, 3-2 loss to Washington. She finished tied for the team lead with Freeman for most games with three or more hits at five.
B’s In the Trap
Bethany Kemp is yet another senior Sun Devil looking to help leave a legacy at ASU and she is currently tied for the team lead 14 home runs - three of which have been grand slams - and has set a new career single season best with the effort. Kemp has homered in five straight games and needs to do so in the next two contests to match the ASU and NCAA record of seven straight games with a home run, set by Kaitlin Cochran in 2009. The senior has been exceptional at getting on base, maintaining a .415 on-base percentage despite a .281 batting average, a byproduct of being second the team with 30 walks, a total that is seventh in the Pac-12. Kemp has also been one of ASU’s most consistent hitters when it comes to not leaving runners on base, stranding just 24 total runners in the last nine weeks after stranding 23 in the first two weeks of the season. The senior finished 2014 second on the team 11 home runs. Kemp is fourth on the team with a .579 slugging percentage while drawing 32 walks on the season, which was good for third on the roster. With 34 career home runs to date, she has moved up the 10th on ASU’s all-time home run list. All of her home runs have come in the last three seasons.
Hear No Evil, Si No Evil
Senior Sierra Rodriguez has made the most of her starting role in 2015 and has been one of the biggest highlights early on for the Sun Devils. Batting out of the leadoff spot, Rodriguez is currently third on the team with a .348 average and leads the team a .511 on-base percentage. She has reached base safely on 38-of-73 opportunities (.521) when serving as the leadoff batter in an inning and has shown ample base-running ability with a team-leading 39 runs scored. She also leads the team with 36 walks, good for a tie for third in the Pac-12. She has gotten on-base without harm in 41 of the team’s 45 games this season. She has been one of ASU’s most consistent batters in moving the base runners, successfully advancing her teammates on 45-of-76 opportunities (.592), leading the team’s starters in the category. She hit her first career home run against Oklahoma and led the team with two in the series against Cal.
Oh My Sash!
Sophomore catcher Sashel Palacios is another Sun Devil on a recent tear, now sitting fifth on the team with a .310 average this season. Her .464 on-base percentage is currently fifth on the team and she has been incredibly proficient at advancing baserunners, doing so 38 times in 65 opportunities, a .585 average that is second among the team’s starters. Her 98 putouts are second on the team and she leads the team with four runners thrown out attempting to steal base this season. Her three-run shot against San Jose State at the Judi Garman Classic was just the second in her career but proved to be the difference in the game, breaking a 3-3 tie and helping the Devils to a 6-4 final score.
Abs of Spiel
Junior Abby Spiel has quietly become a steady contributor to the Sun Devils and suddenly finds herself leading the team with a .371 batting average on 26-of-70 hitting, though she has been prone to the strikeout in leading the team with 16 this season. She earned the first two RBI of her career at the Lousiville Slugger Invitational.
Just In The Nikk of Time
Much of ASU’s success this season has come from its proficiency in the bottom half of the batting order and leading that charge has been Nikki Girard. The junior has come on strong in recent weeks and was the team’s leading hitter at the Judi Garman Classic, posting a .438 average of 7-of-16 hitting with three RBI and a .500 overall on-base percentage that also paced the team through the weekend. Girard is batting .252 on the season - one of few Devils whose batting average went UP against Oregon - with eight doubles. She has also been a menace to strike out, doing so just three times this season in 119 at bats and is currently ranked as the second-toughest person to strikeout in the Pac-12 and sixth toughest nationally. Girard is one of just three players from a power conference school to have three or fewer strikeouts this season.
One...Two...Three Strikes...Macha-ha-ha-ha
Freshman pitcher Breanna Macha (pronounced maw-haw) is starting to rack up the strikeouts and leads the team with 119 this season, a total that currently ranks fourth in the Pac-12 while her 35 batters struck out looking are third-most in the league. Macha leads the team with a 3.89 ERA. The youngster made history made history against Binghamton, pitching the first extra-inning no-hitter in ASU history in a 1-0, eight-inning victory. The youngster went 2-1 with a save at the Judi Garman Classic, becoming one of just two pitchers nationally to take home wins against two top-10 teams on the weekend (Michigan/Baylor) and was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week for her performance, the first weekly award by any Sun Devil this season.
A Dale of Two Cities
True freshman RHP Dale Ryndak is a long ways from her home in Downers Grove, Ill., but that hasn’t stopped her from asserting herself as the same solid pitcher those watching her in high school remember. The frosh carries an 13-7 record so far in 2015 and is tied with Macha for third in the Pac-12 with 35 batters struck out looking this season. She has shined the most with the lights brightest, not giving up a single earned run in 11 of 12 innings pitched against No. 4/3 Oklahoma and she responded to a three-run, game-tying sixth-inning by the Sooners last weekend with a 1-2-3 inning against the murderer’s row of OU hitters in the top of the seventh to set up ASU’s walk-off grand slam victory. Ryndak has been helped by her own capable defense, as she is fourth on the team with 30 assists on defense.
The New Dynamic Duo?
On a squad looking to replace the exceptional pitching tandem of Dallas Escobedo and Mackenzie Popescue, the ASU Softball program is one of just five teams nationally to bring in two Gatorade Players of the Year this season in pitchers Breanna Macha and Dale Ryndak. Macha achieved the accomplishment for the state of Arizona while Ryndak was the Illinois Player of the Year. It is the first time in ASU history it has gained two Gatorade Players of the Year in one signing class.
What’s The Catch?
With two true freshman pitchers in the circle, the job of the Sun Devils catchers becomes that much more critical and ASU’s trio of catchers have been exceptional. Between Sashel Palacios, Amber Freeman and Katee Aguirre, there have been 216 recorded putouts and 16 assists with ZERO errors for a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage. The trio’s perfect fielding percentage is notable as there are just 10 players in the Pac-12 conference who meet the minimum number of innings played an error and ASU represents three of them.
Double the Fun
Without question, one of the biggest turnarounds for the Sun Devils this season has actually come on the defensive end of the ball. Last season, ASU was ranked 203rd out of 289 programs in double plays per game, turning just 13 total on the season for a 0.22 double play per game average. ASU has already turned 25 double plays in 2015, a 0.56 per game average that is ranked eighth nationally and second in the Pac-12.
Not Going Down Swinging
In some facets of life, going down swinging is considered a compliment. That’s not the case in softball and there aren’t many better than the Devils at avoiding it. ASU has struck out just 115 times this season, a total that is 21 fewer than any other team in the Pac-12, 16 fewer than any power conference school and the fewest of ANY NCAA team that has played at least 31 games this season. More importantly, ASU has 212 walks on the year to create almost a 2:1 walk to strikeout ratio. ASU has worked the count full 181 times this season and on the 99 of those full counts where the ball was not put into play, ASU has drawn 75 walks on the payoff pitch to just 23 strikeouts, an incredible 3.3 to 1 ratio. Bethany Kemp has worked the count full 26 times this season and drawn a walk on the payoff pitch 16 times to just four strikeouts.
Dinger Derby
Arizona State has developed a reputation for knocking the ball out of the park and has done so 70 times this season, a total that is currently second in the Pac-12 and 11th in the nation. The team’s 1.45 home runs per game are third in the Pac-12 and 12th nationally. ASU has three or more home runs in eight games this season and have a home run in all but eight of the 45 games it has played thus far. One out of every 5.7 hits for the Devils finds its way out of the park. Unfortunately, ASU has also given up 59 bombs this year and that ranks as the third-worst total in the entire nation. Of the 212 runs scored against the Devils this season, 96 have come as a result of home runs. There were plenty of longballs in 2014 for the Sun Devils, who finished third in the Pac-12 and ninth nationally with 74 over the course of the season - the seventh highest total in ASU history.
Grand Slama Jamma
The ASU offense knocked six grand slams last season, two more than the 2013 season and just two shy of the total from 2012 and 2013 combined (8). The Devils already have eight in 2015 and have lived and died by their success with the bases loaded. Three of those grand slams have resulted in “walk-off” victories, two by the true definition and one forcing a run-rule ending. The Devils are just 2-for-27 (.074) with the bases loaded in the team’s 12 losses this season - going 0-for-4 in the team’s 13-inning loss to Washington and 0-for-4 in a 11-1 run-rule loss against Arizona - while hitting 30-for-70 (.429) in the team’s wins with the bases loaded. All eight grand slams have come in victories.
Don’t Miss Your Chance
ASU’s losses this season haven’t come from a lack of chances. The Sun Devils have struggled at times to get run-plating hits in clutch situations and it has hurt them in the win column. In ASU’s 15 losses, the Devils are just 2-for-27 (.074) with the bases loaded and an inauspicious 25-of-139 (.180) with two outs on the board, unable to keep innings alive. In those games, ASU is just 9-of-25 (.360) in bringing home a runner from third with less than two outs and just 27-of-161 (.168) with runners in scoring position. In ASU’s victories, the Devils are 30-for-70 (.429) with the bases loaded and 96-for-270 (.356) with two outs. The Devils are 118-of-297 (.397) with runners in scoring position in victories and have brought a runner from from third with less than two outs on 58-of-92 (.630) chances. The biggest difference, however, has been that ASU’s left 143 runners on base (9.0 per game) over the course of 16 losses compared to 199 in 29 wins (6.8 per game).
Taking Offense
If the first month of any indication, it has become apparent that run production is going to be more important than previous seasons while the team works through the growing pains of two true freshmen pitchers. ASU is 25-3 this season in games where it has scored six or more runs compared to a paltry 4-13 mark in contests where the team scores five or fewer runs.
A Beginning and an End
The ASU offensive attack has been come early and often in games this season, but it has struggled to keep the momentum going at times. The Devils have outscored opponents 48-22, 35-23 and 61-30 in the first, second and third innings of games (+69 runs or +1.53 runs per game) but that number does not hold true for the remainder of the inning. ASU holds just a +29 total scoring advantage (.64 runs per game) in the in the fourth inning and beyond (including extras).
A Look Back - 2014 Season
The Sun Devils earned a third place finish in the Pac-12 a season ago and finished the year 46-12-1 overall and 15-7 in conference play. The team advanced to the NCAA Tournament, where it was eliminated in heart breaking fashion as what appeared to be an Amber Freeman walk-off home run was robbed at the wall in center field to send Michigan on to the Super Regional round. ASU finished the season with Dallas Escobedo and Amber Freeman each earning All-America second team honors while Escobedo was also named a Senior CLASS Award All-American. Nine Sun Devils earned Pac-12 All-Conference accolades while eight earned Pac-12 All-Academic honors after having just four the season prior. Amber Freeman and Bailey Wigness both earned Academic All-America honors as well.
Postseason Successes
The Sun Devils are coming off their 26th appearance in NCAA Tournament history, the fourth-highest tally of the 64 teams in last year’s tournament behind only UCLA, Arizona and Florida State. Last season marked the 10th consecutive NCAA appearance for ASU. ASU is 85-51 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and is 55-17 since 2006 in the tournament with two NCAA Championships and seven trips to the WCWS in that time with an incredible 32-5 record at home in the span.
Note on WCWS
The Sun Devils have advanced the WCWS in seven of the last nine seasons, two more than any other program in the nation in that time frame. Florida is second with five in that span. In that nine-year span, ASU has one of the top winning percentages in the country with a 473-114-1 record since 2006. The .804 percentage is tied for third nationally with Michigan behind only Alabama (.837) and Florida (.810).
Winning Percentage Since 2006 (Prior to 2015)
1. Alabama - .833 (485-97)
2. Florida - .812 (492-114)
3. Arizona State - .807 (473-114-1)
4. Tennessee - .803 (467-114-1)
5. Oklahoma - .800 (435-108-1)