TEMPE – Off to the best start of a season under fourth-year head coach Megan Bartlett, the Sun Devil Softball team will return to action at Farrington Stadium during the upcoming Sun Devil Classic that is slated to begin at 10:00 a.m. MST on Friday, Feb. 20.
Michigan and New Mexico State will open the three-day, round robin weekend tournament in the 10 a.m. slot on Friday, before the host Sun Devils take the diamond for the first time five-and-a-half hours later against the Wolverines.
Sun Devil game schedule
- Friday, Feb. 20 – vs. RV/RV Michigan, 3:30 p.m. MST (ESPN+)
- Friday, Feb. 20 – vs. Southern Utah, 6:15 p.m. MST (ESPN+)
- Saturday, Feb. 21 – vs. RV/RV Michigan, 3:30 p.m. MST (ESPN+)
- Saturday, Feb. 21 – vs. New Mexico State, 6:15 p.m. MST (ESPN+)
- Sunday, Feb. 22 – vs. New Mexico State, 11:45 a.m. MST (ESPN+)
The full Sun Devil Classic schedule can be found here.
Television
|
Day, Date |
Game |
Play by Play |
Analyst |
|
Fri., Feb. 20 |
Michigan vs. Arizona State |
Jesse Ough |
Kelly Burke |
|
Fri., Feb. 20 |
Southern Utah vs. Arizona State |
Jesse Ough |
Kelly Burke |
|
Sat., Feb. 21 |
Michigan vs. Arizona State |
Jesse Ough |
|
|
Sat., Feb. 21 |
New Mexico State vs. Arizona State |
Jesse Ough |
Kelly Burke |
|
Sun., Feb. 22 |
New Mexico State vs. Arizona State |
Alex Coil |
Kelly Burke |
Only games featuring Arizona State will be available to stream on an ESPN platform.
Series history
Michigan
- The Wolverines travel down to Tempe from Ann Arbor with an 18-12 all-time record against the Sun Devils, with the most recent meeting occurring on March 7, 2019, when Michigan won, 7-6, during the ASU Invitational in Tempe.
- Arizona State will be looking for its first win over Michigan in Tempe since May 17, 2014, when the Sun Devils won, 4-1, during the NCAA Regional.
- The Sun Devils have not beaten the Wolverines in a regular-season softball game in Tempe since Feb. 22, 1994, when Arizona State outlasted Michigan, 7-6, in 10 innings during the Arizona State Classic.
New Mexico State
- Last season’s 5-1 Arizona State win during the 2025 Sun Devil Classic marked the 40th all-time win for the Sun Devils over New Mexico State dating back to the first-ever meeting between the two on May 10, 1975, which ASU won 11-1.
- Of those 40 Arizona State victories, 25 – in 29 games – have occurred at Farrington Stadium. Despite NMSU winning a 2024 matchup, the Sun Devils have beaten the Aggies 17 of the last 20 times in Tempe.
- In last season’s matchup, Ashleigh Mejia, AJ Murphy and Kelsey Hall accounted for all the Sun Devil runs as the trio connected on a three-run, solo and solo home run, respectively.
Southern Utah
- Friday night’s matchup against the Thunderbirds will mark the first time Arizona State has played Southern Utah since Saturday, Feb. 29, when the Sun Devils won, 12-0, in five innings behind a two-hit combined shutout by Lindsay Lopez and Samantha Mejia. Current ASU graduate assistant Jordyn VanHook is the only active member of the Sun Devil softball program to participate in that game as the then-freshman came off the bench and recorded a pinch-hit single down the right-field line during the bottom of the fourth.
- Arizona State will enter Friday night’s contest with a 20-0 all-time record against Southern Utah. The Sun Devils have not beaten a team more without dropping a contest throughout its program history. Portland State is the next closest with a 19-0 record following last weekend’s Littlewood Invitational.
Leading off
- This weekend’s action will mark the first time the Arizona State softball program has been ranked inside the top 25 of both the NFCA and USA Softball/ESPN.com polls at the same time since March 7, 2023, when the Sun Devils were No. 22 in the coaches’ poll and No. 25 in the media poll.
- This week also marked the first time Arizona State has been ranked inside the top 25 of the USA Softball/ESPN.com poll in back-to-back polls since the Week 14 (May 17) and Final (June 14) polls to conclude the 2022 campaign.
- Arizona State will enter Friday afternoon’s contest ranked third in all of Division I in cumulative attendance with 15,104 total fans in 11 home games so far this season. Only Arizona (20,488) and Louisiana (15,628) rank higher than the Sun Devils in that category. Additionally, ASU is one of just 10 Division I softball programs (Alabama, Texas, Texas A&M, Louisiana, Auburn, Arizona, Florida, Clemson and South Florida) averaging 1,000-or-more fans per home game so far this season.
- When she toes the pitching rubber for her next start, Arizona State senior right-handed pitcher Kenzie Brown will be looking for her fifth consecutive home start with 10 or more strikeouts and her ninth consecutive start overall – dating back to the 2025 season – with double-digit strikeouts.
- With 14 strikeouts throughout the Sun Devil Classic, Kenzie Brown (418) – in just her third season wearing the ASU Maroon and Gold – will pass Roxanne Tsosie (431; 1995-98) for eighth on the program’s career strikeout list. Brown is just 82 strikeouts shy of becoming just the eighth pitcher in program history with 500 or more strikeouts.
- Entering the upcoming weekend action, Kenzie Brown has struck out 48.6 percent of the batters she’s faced. In the 28.1 innings worked during six appearances so far in the 2026 season, Brown has struck out 53 of the 109 opposing hitters who have stepped into the batter’s box.
- Kenzie Brown will make her next pitching appearance as one of just 24 Division I pitchers averaging 10 or more strikeouts (13.1) per seven innings. In fact, Brown is one of just two Big 12 pitchers (Texas Tech’s Kaitlyn Terry, 11.5) to average double-digit strikeouts per seven innings pitched.
- With a win over Michigan on Friday, Feb. 20, Arizona State will run its active winning streak to 10 consecutive games, marking the first double-digit winning streak by the Sun Devils since winning 20 consecutive games from Sunday, March 6 to Saturday, April 16 during the 2022 season.
- A sweep of the five-game Sun Devil Classic slate for Arizona State would push the Sun Devils’ record to 15-1, marking the best start to a season through 16 games for ASU since going 17-1 over an 18-game span to start the 2021 campaign.
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