TEMPE – Sun Devil Softball rode its pitching staff to a pair of wins on Saturday at the ASU Invitational and extended their winning streak to eight. Arizona State bats also contributed in an 11-4 win over UTEP in game one and then pitching dominated in game two to beat Utah State 4-1.
Entering the day having scored in eight consecutive innings, the Sun Devils quickly jumped on UTEP with runs in the first three innings on Saturday. Yannixa Acuña delivered a two-run single in the first inning with Lillian Holtje doing the same in the second.
ASU blew the game open with five runs in the third inning. Ashleigh Mejia led off the frame with a home run. Later in the inning, Takyla Davis smacked a two-run double before Kelsey Hall added an RBI single. Tanya Windle closed the scoring in the fifth with an RBI on a fielder's choice.
UTEP used two runs in the top of the sixth to pull within 9-3, but Sydney Saenz and AJ Murphy each drove in runs in the ASU half of the sixth to quickly push the lead to 11-4.
Julianne Tipton was the benefactor of the offensive attack. She held the Miners to just five hits while recording a season-best 10 strikeouts. Titpon only walked one in her five innings to improve to 2-0.
Making her first start of the season against Utah State in the nightcap, Kenzie Brown threw a complete game and locked up her seventh win of the season. She limited Utah State to four hits and one run while striking out 12.
Murphy doubled in the first Sun Devil run in the second. The lead move to 3-0 in the third with a two-run home run from Hall. USU scored its run in the top of the fifth, only to see Windle add an RBI double in the bottom of the inning for the 4-1 advantage.
Brown had two strikeouts in each of the first five innings and two more in the seventh. The Aggies loaded the bases in the top of the seventh, but again Brown settled in and forced a foul out down the first base line to end the game.
Notable
Arizona State Head Coach Megan Bartlett
On the success of the pitchers on Saturday
"Anytime you play a doubleheader and both players of the game are pitchers, you are probably going to have a pretty good day. So much of your momentum and tempo starts on the mound and I was super proud of all of them today."
On how the pitching success impacts the defense
"It certainly takes a ton of pressure off the defense. They are not having to make a ton of decisions or plays. Nobody is complaining about all the strikeouts."
Senior Kenzie Brown
On her thoughts throughout her first complete game of the season
"I was trying to stay within myself and not do too much. I know I've been struggling a little bit with getting sped up. I wanted to stay within my timing and my rhythm."
On what was working today with her pitching range
"My rise ball has come a long way, and so has my change-up. Whenever you start a ball in the zone, and it looks like it's gonna be a strike that finishes out of the zone, that's the key. It's what I've been doing."
On her energy when on the mound
"It helps the team. You build off that. This game is a privilege, and I only have one and a half years left. I want to give it everything that I've got, and it's how I play."
Freshman Julianne Tipton
On how she felt about her outing today
"Every day is a good day to have a good day. I felt more confident than I had in the past. In the past few weeks, I felt I was struggling a lot with timing, but I feel I found that pretty quickly tonight."
On how the team builds off wins
"We have a saying in our postgame where we talk about stacking days a lot. You take little things that you learn every day. Good, bad, and even losses, you can just learn from each thing you do. You make a mistake, you don't dwell, you learn. You make so many mistakes, in a way you mess up more times than you're gonna do things right. Winning is always fun, it's always encouraging, competitive, and awesome. But, it's more important to come back and try and be better even on a win."
On how her mentality changed since the beginning of the season
"First few weekends, I had been closing a lot and had different roles. I found out that I was starting today and that was, again, just trying to keep myself together under control. It's the same thing, you're still playing the same game. Nothing changes about what you're doing, you go out there and do the same thing. I am a lot more comfortable. I am more excited."
Up Next
The Sun Devils close out the ASU Invitational on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. against Oregon State.
Entering the day having scored in eight consecutive innings, the Sun Devils quickly jumped on UTEP with runs in the first three innings on Saturday. Yannixa Acuña delivered a two-run single in the first inning with Lillian Holtje doing the same in the second.
ASU blew the game open with five runs in the third inning. Ashleigh Mejia led off the frame with a home run. Later in the inning, Takyla Davis smacked a two-run double before Kelsey Hall added an RBI single. Tanya Windle closed the scoring in the fifth with an RBI on a fielder's choice.
UTEP used two runs in the top of the sixth to pull within 9-3, but Sydney Saenz and AJ Murphy each drove in runs in the ASU half of the sixth to quickly push the lead to 11-4.
Julianne Tipton was the benefactor of the offensive attack. She held the Miners to just five hits while recording a season-best 10 strikeouts. Titpon only walked one in her five innings to improve to 2-0.
Making her first start of the season against Utah State in the nightcap, Kenzie Brown threw a complete game and locked up her seventh win of the season. She limited Utah State to four hits and one run while striking out 12.
Murphy doubled in the first Sun Devil run in the second. The lead move to 3-0 in the third with a two-run home run from Hall. USU scored its run in the top of the fifth, only to see Windle add an RBI double in the bottom of the inning for the 4-1 advantage.
Brown had two strikeouts in each of the first five innings and two more in the seventh. The Aggies loaded the bases in the top of the seventh, but again Brown settled in and forced a foul out down the first base line to end the game.
Notable
- ASU had a season-high 16 hits against UTEP. That is the most hits since they had 16 against Iowa State on Feb. 27, 2021.
- The current eight-game winning streak is the longest for ASU since they also won eight straight from Feb. 17-Mar. 5, 2023.
- This is the first time the Sun Devils have had double-digit strikeouts in consecutive games since Feb. 27 and March 5, 2022.
- The last time ASU starting pitchers recorded 10-plus strikeouts in consecutive games was against Iowa and Washington on March 14 and 17, 2018, respectively.
- With 10 strikeouts against UTEP, Julianne Tipton became the first ASU freshman with double-digit strikeouts in a game since Alyssa Loza against Maine on March 8, 2017.
- Brown picked up her second 10-plus strikeouts outing of the season, becoming the first Sun Devil since Cielo Meza in 2020 to do so.
- Kelsey Hall had a hit in both games, which extended her hitting streak to nine games.
Arizona State Head Coach Megan Bartlett
On the success of the pitchers on Saturday
"Anytime you play a doubleheader and both players of the game are pitchers, you are probably going to have a pretty good day. So much of your momentum and tempo starts on the mound and I was super proud of all of them today."
On how the pitching success impacts the defense
"It certainly takes a ton of pressure off the defense. They are not having to make a ton of decisions or plays. Nobody is complaining about all the strikeouts."
Senior Kenzie Brown
On her thoughts throughout her first complete game of the season
"I was trying to stay within myself and not do too much. I know I've been struggling a little bit with getting sped up. I wanted to stay within my timing and my rhythm."
On what was working today with her pitching range
"My rise ball has come a long way, and so has my change-up. Whenever you start a ball in the zone, and it looks like it's gonna be a strike that finishes out of the zone, that's the key. It's what I've been doing."
On her energy when on the mound
"It helps the team. You build off that. This game is a privilege, and I only have one and a half years left. I want to give it everything that I've got, and it's how I play."
Freshman Julianne Tipton
On how she felt about her outing today
"Every day is a good day to have a good day. I felt more confident than I had in the past. In the past few weeks, I felt I was struggling a lot with timing, but I feel I found that pretty quickly tonight."
On how the team builds off wins
"We have a saying in our postgame where we talk about stacking days a lot. You take little things that you learn every day. Good, bad, and even losses, you can just learn from each thing you do. You make a mistake, you don't dwell, you learn. You make so many mistakes, in a way you mess up more times than you're gonna do things right. Winning is always fun, it's always encouraging, competitive, and awesome. But, it's more important to come back and try and be better even on a win."
On how her mentality changed since the beginning of the season
"First few weekends, I had been closing a lot and had different roles. I found out that I was starting today and that was, again, just trying to keep myself together under control. It's the same thing, you're still playing the same game. Nothing changes about what you're doing, you go out there and do the same thing. I am a lot more comfortable. I am more excited."
Up Next
The Sun Devils close out the ASU Invitational on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. against Oregon State.