TEMPE – Sun Devil Softball continued the ASU Invitational by defeating Seattle U and Yale on Friday night at Farrington Stadium. Arizona State won the first game against Seattle 7-6 in an extra-innings thriller and then dominated Yale 9-1 in five innings.
In the first game, the Sun Devils found themselves down 4-0 into the bottom of the fourth. Samantha Swan hit a solo home run to get ASU on the board, and with two outs in the inning, Tiare Ho-Ching beat out a throw at first and scored Takyla Davis to make it a 4-2 game.
In the bottom of the sixth, Ho-Ching delivered an RBI double to bring the Sun Devils within one. Seattle got its two-run lead back in the top of the seventh, but Arizona State refused to quit.
Lillian Holtje smashed a solo shot to start the bottom of the seventh. Tanya Windle came through with a two-out single and she scored on a double from Swan that sent the game to extra innings knotted up at five.
The Redhawks brought home the ghost runner in the eighth, but once again, ASU responded. Takyla Davis scored on a Ho-Ching fielder's choice with an impressive slide at home plate to tie the game at six. Kenzie Brown stranded the ghost runner in the top of the ninth with a pair of strikeouts. In the bottom of the inning, Tanya Windle's leadoff double scored AJ Murphy to win the game for the Sun Devils.
ASU had a season-high 13 hits, with four from Ho-Ching and another three from Swan. Brown worked the first two innings to notch her sixth win while posting four strikeouts. Julianne Tipton allowed just one run and three hits during her 4.1 innings in the circle.
After scoring in the final four innings of the opener, ASU tallied a run in all four innings they batted against Yale. It started with another hit from Ho-Ching, and her coming around to score on an error as she successfully stole third base.
Kelsey Hall, who was robbed of a two-RBI hit in game one, made it 3-0 against Yale by driving in a pair of runs in the second. AJ Murphy and Takyla Davis added RBI singles in the third with the final runs coming in hts from Windle, Swan, Yannixa Acuna, and Nehanda Lewis in the fourth.
Cambree Creager was the benefactor of the scoring outburst in game two. She worked around seven hits allowed to give up just one run while striking out six in a complete game victory.
Notable
Arizona State Head Coach Megan Bartlett
On Tanya Windle's walk-off hit
"It's exciting for Tanya. She's a very good hitter, an all-region hitter. I think the last couple of weeks just got away from her a little bit. She tried to do too much, like chasing pitches. She dialed her pitch selection back in today. We spent a lot of time working on that this week and she got good results tonight."
On keeping cool when facing adversity
"They've done it all year. I feel that every weekend they get a little bit sharper and a little bit tougher. They're just finding ways to win ball games, and we're just ebbing and flowing with them a little bit. We're starting to learn their personalities and how they're going to both mentally and physically manifest the philosophy in-game. Just continue to keep fighting and figure out ways to win. That's the name of the game at this point. There's no ugly win. We are certainly welcoming all of them, so learning to win when it's ugly is a skill at this level."
Freshman Tiare Ho-Ching
On how it felt to get both wins in the double-header
"This was our first time getting two wins in one day. It feels good to accomplish that goal as a team."
On how the team prepares for their offense
"It's more than coming here in the physical game but doing your homework. Our coaching staff and our team do a good job of doing that."
Sophomore Samantha Swan
On how the team kept the energy up throughout the double-header
"The Dugout. They are the life of the party. They kept us in the whole time whether they were playing or not. They're always into it, and it helps us."
On freshman Julianne Tipton's performance tonight during high-tense situations
"It's great to see (Julianne Tipton) have that opportunity. She's been working hard for it. In the bullpen, everywhere. I was excited for her."
Up Next
The ASU Invitational continues on Saturday as the Sun Devils face UTEP at 4 p.m. and Utah State at 6:30 p.m. These games will follow the 1:15 contest between UTEP and Utah State. Both AS games will be available on ESPN+.
In the first game, the Sun Devils found themselves down 4-0 into the bottom of the fourth. Samantha Swan hit a solo home run to get ASU on the board, and with two outs in the inning, Tiare Ho-Ching beat out a throw at first and scored Takyla Davis to make it a 4-2 game.
In the bottom of the sixth, Ho-Ching delivered an RBI double to bring the Sun Devils within one. Seattle got its two-run lead back in the top of the seventh, but Arizona State refused to quit.
Lillian Holtje smashed a solo shot to start the bottom of the seventh. Tanya Windle came through with a two-out single and she scored on a double from Swan that sent the game to extra innings knotted up at five.
The Redhawks brought home the ghost runner in the eighth, but once again, ASU responded. Takyla Davis scored on a Ho-Ching fielder's choice with an impressive slide at home plate to tie the game at six. Kenzie Brown stranded the ghost runner in the top of the ninth with a pair of strikeouts. In the bottom of the inning, Tanya Windle's leadoff double scored AJ Murphy to win the game for the Sun Devils.
ASU had a season-high 13 hits, with four from Ho-Ching and another three from Swan. Brown worked the first two innings to notch her sixth win while posting four strikeouts. Julianne Tipton allowed just one run and three hits during her 4.1 innings in the circle.
After scoring in the final four innings of the opener, ASU tallied a run in all four innings they batted against Yale. It started with another hit from Ho-Ching, and her coming around to score on an error as she successfully stole third base.
Kelsey Hall, who was robbed of a two-RBI hit in game one, made it 3-0 against Yale by driving in a pair of runs in the second. AJ Murphy and Takyla Davis added RBI singles in the third with the final runs coming in hts from Windle, Swan, Yannixa Acuna, and Nehanda Lewis in the fourth.
Cambree Creager was the benefactor of the scoring outburst in game two. She worked around seven hits allowed to give up just one run while striking out six in a complete game victory.
Notable
- The win over Seattle is ASU's seventh come-from-behind win of the season and the third time they have won when trailing by at least four runs.
- The Sun Devils are now 2-1 in games that go extra-innings. They improve to 3-1 in games ending by run-rule.
- ASU has recorded 10-plus hits in three straight games. The Last time an ASU team had double-digit hits in three straight games was March 12-15, 2022.
- Tiare Ho-Ching went 4-for-5 against Seattle for the first four-hit game by a Sun Devil this season. She finished the two games with five hits.
- It was also the fifth time this season that Ho-Ching recorded multiple RBIs in a game.
- Samantha Swan also had five hits during the two games, including her first home run of the season against Seattle.
- Kenzie Brown followed her 13-strikeout performance on Thursday night with four strikeouts in two innings on Friday. She has struck out 17 of the 30 batters faced this weekend.
- Kelsey Hall recorded her fifth multi-RBI game against Yale. She had driven in a run during five of the past six games.
- Lillian Holtje walked three times against Yale, becoming the first Sun Devil with three walks in a game since Kelsey Hall vs. UTEP on Feb 21, 2024.
- Cambree Creager had a career-high six strikeouts to record her first career complete game. She entered the day with only nine strikeouts in 18 innings.
Arizona State Head Coach Megan Bartlett
On Tanya Windle's walk-off hit
"It's exciting for Tanya. She's a very good hitter, an all-region hitter. I think the last couple of weeks just got away from her a little bit. She tried to do too much, like chasing pitches. She dialed her pitch selection back in today. We spent a lot of time working on that this week and she got good results tonight."
On keeping cool when facing adversity
"They've done it all year. I feel that every weekend they get a little bit sharper and a little bit tougher. They're just finding ways to win ball games, and we're just ebbing and flowing with them a little bit. We're starting to learn their personalities and how they're going to both mentally and physically manifest the philosophy in-game. Just continue to keep fighting and figure out ways to win. That's the name of the game at this point. There's no ugly win. We are certainly welcoming all of them, so learning to win when it's ugly is a skill at this level."
Freshman Tiare Ho-Ching
On how it felt to get both wins in the double-header
"This was our first time getting two wins in one day. It feels good to accomplish that goal as a team."
On how the team prepares for their offense
"It's more than coming here in the physical game but doing your homework. Our coaching staff and our team do a good job of doing that."
Sophomore Samantha Swan
On how the team kept the energy up throughout the double-header
"The Dugout. They are the life of the party. They kept us in the whole time whether they were playing or not. They're always into it, and it helps us."
On freshman Julianne Tipton's performance tonight during high-tense situations
"It's great to see (Julianne Tipton) have that opportunity. She's been working hard for it. In the bullpen, everywhere. I was excited for her."
Up Next
The ASU Invitational continues on Saturday as the Sun Devils face UTEP at 4 p.m. and Utah State at 6:30 p.m. These games will follow the 1:15 contest between UTEP and Utah State. Both AS games will be available on ESPN+.