TEMPE – The Sun Devil Softball program will conclude a month-long stretch of 22 consecutive home non-conference games to begin the 2026 season when Arizona State hosts the Tempe portion of the ASU/GCU Invitational.
Arizona State will begin its portion of the four-day round robin tournament – in conjunction with GCU – on Thursday, Feb. 26, when the Sun Devils square off against UC Riverside at 6:00 p.m. MST at Farrington Stadium.
Those wishing to see games at both sites must buy separate tickets as a ticket for Farrington Stadium will not be accepted at GCU Softball Stadium and vice versa.
ASU GAME SCHEDULE:
- Thursday, Feb. 26 – vs. UC Riverside, 6:00 p.m. MST (ESPN+)
- Friday, Feb. 27 – vs. Eastern Illinois, 3:30 p.m. MST (ESPN+)
- Friday, Feb. 27 – vs. UNLV, 6:15 p.m. MST (ESPN+)
- Saturday, Feb. 28 – vs. Wisconsin, 3:30 p.m. MST (ESPN+)
- Saturday, Feb. 28 – vs. Cal Baptist, 6:15 p.m. MST (ESPN+)
- Sunday, Mar. 1 – vs. CSU Bakersfield, 12:45 p.m. MST (ESPN+)
The full schedule for the Tempe portion of the ASU/GCU Invitational can be found here.
TEMPE TELEVISION SCHEDULE:
|
Day, Date |
Game |
Play by Play |
Analyst |
|
Thu., Feb. 26 |
UC Riverside vs. Arizona State |
Jordan Hamm |
Jody Jackson |
|
Fri., Feb. 27 |
Eastern Illinois vs. Arizona State |
Jordan Hamm |
|
|
Fri., Feb. 27 |
UNLV vs. Arizona State |
Jordan Hamm |
|
|
Sat., Feb. 28 |
Wisconsin vs. Arizona State |
Jordan Hamm |
|
|
Sat., Feb. 28 |
Cal Baptist vs. Arizona State |
Jordan Hamm |
|
|
Sun., Mar. 1 |
CSU Bakersfield vs. Arizona State |
Jordan Hamm |
Jody Jackson |
Only games featuring Arizona State will be available to stream on an ESPN platform.
SERIES HISTORY:
UC Riverside
- Thursday night’s matchup between Arizona State and UC Riverside will mark the first since Feb. 12, 2017, when the Sun Devils won, 4-1, behind a Giselle Juarez, Alyssa Loza and Dale Ryndak combining to allow just one run over the game’s seven innings.
- ASU and UCR first met on a softball diamond on Friday, Feb. 15, 1985, when the Sun Devils beat Highlanders, 3-1 and 5-0, in a doubleheader.
- Overall, Arizona State holds an 8-0 all-time record against UC Riverside with the Sun Devils outscoring the Highlanders 63-12.
Eastern Illinois
- Arizona State and Eastern Illinois have met once prior to this weekend: February 18, 2000, when the Sun Devils won, 12-1, behind a seven-inning complete game by Kirsten Voak, who allowed just a single unearned run in the fourth.
UNLV
- Arizona State holds a 25-5 all-time record against UNLV dating back to the first-ever meeting during the 1980 season.
- Similar to her 2025 success against Cal Baptist, Kelsey Hall provided an insurance run for Arizona State during its 4-1 win over the Rebels on March 18, 2025, when she doubled home Tiare Ho-Ching on a two-out base hit during the bottom of the fourth.
Wisconsin
- This weekend will mark the first time Wisconsin has played Arizona State in Tempe since Feb. 29, 2020, when the Badgers earned a 10-1 victory.
- Overall, Arizona State, though, holds a 7-2 all-time record against Wisconsin, a mark that includes a 5-2 record in games played in Tempe.
- Over the course of the first four games of the series history, the Arizona State pitching staff held Wisconsin scoreless. In fact, the Badgers did not score their first run against the Sun Devils in Tempe until a March 2, 2019 matchup. The game also marked the first time Wisconsin scored more than one run against ASU following a pair of neutral-site games in Fullerton, Calif.
Cal Baptist
- Arizona State and Cal Baptist met on Feb. 21, 2025, marking just the second all-time meeting between the two programs. During last season’s meeting, Kelsey Hall opened the Sun Devils’ eventual 8-1 win with a two-run home run in the bottom of the third. Hall went 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBI and a run scored during the contest.
- Having just joined the Division I ranks prior to the 2019 season, Cal Baptist and Arizona State first met on Feb. 10, 2022, when the Sun Devils won, 8-0, in five innings behind a combined one-hit shutout from Marissa Schuld and Mac Morgan.
CSU Bakersfield
- Arizona State and CSU Bakersfield have meet only one throughout the Sun Devils’ history: Feb. 7, 2009.
- During the contest, Megan Ellsworth tossed a seven-inning complete game, scattered four hits and allowed just one run while striking out six and not issuing a walk.
LEADING OFF:
- Arizona State senior right-handed pitcher Kenzie Brown will enter her next pitching appearance having struck out at least one opposing batter in 35 of 36 full innings of work so far this season.
- The top of the fifth against Pacific on Sunday, Feb. 15 was the lone full inning Brown did not strikeout a batter.
- She opened the 2026 campaign with at least one strikeout in 26 full innings of work.
- On Friday, Feb. 6, Brown made a relief appearance against Texas State and faced just one batter in 0.1 innings of work and struck out her out thus having at least one strikeout in all eight of her pitching appearance so far in 2026.
- Overall, Brown has struck out at least one batter in her last 43 consecutive appearances in the pitching circle.
- When the latest USA Softball/ESPN.com Top 25 poll was released on Tuesday, Feb. 24, it marked the third consecutive week Arizona State was featured as one of the 25 teams ranked. The three-week span of being ranked inside the USA Softba//ESPN.com Top 25 is the longest for the Sun Devils since being ranked in 39 consecutive polls from January 298, 2020 to Fune 14, 2022.
- From January 30, 2007 to April 12, 2016, ASU was among the softball programs ranked inside the poll for a program-best 149 consecutive weeks.
- With her next strikeout, ASU’s Kenzie Brown will pass Roxanne Tsosie (1995-98) for seventh place on the program’s career strikeout leaderboard. Brown will enter her next pitching appearance with 431 strikeouts over the course of her three-year Sun Devil career. Brown’s career strikeout total is the most by any Sun Devil pitcher since Dallas Escobedo (2011-14) concluded her All-American career following the 2014 season with 1,224.
- Current UC Riverside head coach Brittany Matta, CSU Bakersfield head coach Letty Olivarez, Cal Baptist head coach Brandon Telesco, CBU Director of Operations Sashel Palacios all have ties back to Arizona State.
- Matta began her collegiate softball career as a player in 2007, when she walked onto the Sun Devil softball program.
- Olivarez served as a co-intern head coach of the Sun Devil softball program during the 2015 campaign.
- Telesco earned a degree in organizational leadership from ASU in 2018.
- Palacios, who played with Team Mexico during the 2020 Olympics, was a four-year letter winner as a Sun Devil from 2014 to 2017.
- On Friday, Feb. 6, Brown made a relief appearance against Texas State and faced just one batter in 0.1 innings of work and struck out her out thus having at least one strikeout in all eight of her pitching appearance so far in 2026.
- She opened the 2026 campaign with at least one strikeout in 26 full innings of work.
- The top of the fifth against Pacific on Sunday, Feb. 15 was the lone full inning Brown did not strikeout a batter.
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