TEMPE – Samantha Swan gave Sun Devil Softball fans plenty of reason to dance around Club Farrington on Saturday night, especially after the Texas native belted a game-ending, two-out, two-run home run to cap a five-run bottom of the sixth and seal Arizona State’s 8-0 victory over Northwestern.
The 5-foot-3 junior first got the 1,368 in attendance on their feet during the bottom of the second, when she singled an 0-2 pitch back up the middle to score JazMarie Roberts from third base and give ASU a quick 1-0 lead out of the gates.
🦢🦢🦢
— Sun Devil Softball (@ASUSoftball) February 8, 2026
the 😈 go (back) up as @samswan26325464 goes back up the middle. #ForksUp /// #BeElite pic.twitter.com/kltOCHBbmj
The one-run would have been plenty for Arizona State starting pitcher Kenzie Brown (1-1) as the fifth-year senior was perfect through the game’s first four frames before Emma Raye singled a 1-1 pitch down the left field line to begin the fifth.
But Katie Chester wanted to make sure the Sun Devil ace got more than enough run support against the Wildcats.
Moments after Tiare Ho-Ching was hit by a pitch to start the bottom of the fifth, Chester sent a 1-0 pitch from Northwestern’s Riley Grudzielanek 256 feet for a two-run home run and expand ASU’s lead out to three.
the name is Chester, Katie Chester 😈#ForksUp /// @KChester_12 pic.twitter.com/ExqBDctTl0
— Sun Devil Softball (@ASUSoftball) February 8, 2026
Similar to the fifth, the Sun Devil offense came alive in the bottom half of a frame when Brown surrendered a base knock.
This time, a two-out triple by Northwestern’s Grace Nieto in the top of the sixth resulted in a five-run sixth by the Sun Devils that started with an Emily Schepp run-scoring double and cumulated with Swan’s swan song on the evening.
FROM HEAD COACH MEGAN BARTLETT
“We kept it a little bit more simple with our approach from the get-go tonight. That was pretty much it, because Northwestern is a very good team. They will, probably, finish in the top three in the Big Ten and be a postseason team. So, those were certainly quality arms we faced tonight. We just tried to keep the approach a bit simpler, and the girls did a nice job of that tonight. Hitting is a little bit contagious and you’ll find that out, if you watch enough elite-level softball. Once you come up with a run or two and a couple big hits, you’ll watch the floodgates open.”
FROM JUNIOR CATCHER SAMANTHA SWAN
“I was looking to hit a ball in the grass, but it felt good, though. We took an inning off of (Kenzie Brown’s) arm, which is really important this early in the season. It felt amazing to get back out there. We’ve been working hard in the (hitting cages), so it was awesome to see that time spent begin to pay off.”
GAME NOTES
- Saturday night’s win marked the first run-rule victory for the Arizona State softball program since Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, when the Sun Devils bested the Yale Bulldogs, 9-1, in five innings during the ASU Invitational.
- With her 12-strikeout performance against Northwestern on Saturday evening, Arizona State’s Kenzie Brown has now struck out 10-or-more opposing batters in back-to-back home starts since April 4 and April 6, 2025, when she struck out 16 and 13 Kansas Jayhawks, respectively, in seven-inning contests.
- Second-year Sun Devil Katie Chester recorded her first multi-hit contest since going 2-for-2 against LSU on March 22, 2024, as a member of the Missouri softball program.
- Saturday’s action marked Kenzie Brown’s first complete game shutout at Farrington Stadium since April 17, 2025, when she did not allow a run to Baylor over the course of seven innings of work.
UP NEXT
- Arizona State will look for it’s a second 4-1 start to a season in as many years when the Sun Devils (3-1) close out the 2026 Kajikawa Classic against Memphis (2-1) at 12:45 p.m. MST on Sunday, Feb. 8. The Tigers will begin the day squaring off against Northwestern with first pitch slated for 10 a.m. MST.
FOLLOW US