TEMPE – The Sun Devil Softball program remains unbeaten on Saturdays through the first month of the season after Arizona State picked up a 15-7 win over Wisconsin in five innings, before knocking off Cal Baptist, 10-5, to move to 7-0 in games played on Saturday in 2026.
High-scoring innings were the name of the game for the Arizona State offense on Saturday as the Sun Devils scored five runs in the bottom of the first, then followed it with six in the second to race out to an 11-2 lead over Wisconsin (12-6) before the contest was 30 minutes old. Samantha Swan, Tiare Ho-Ching and Katie Chester all connected for multi-run home runs to fuel the offensive outburst.
Outside of the trio of long balls, a Kaylee Pond two-run double in the bottom of the third sandwiched a trio of run-scoring plate appearances by Emily Schepp: a two-run single in the first, a sacrifice fly in the second and a game-ending, two-run single in the bottom of the fifth to push the Sun Devils ahead by eight.
Despite Cal Baptist (17-4) scoring a first inning run, Arizona State answered right back with six over the second and third innings. Similar to Saturday’s afternoon contest, Schepp scored the Sun Devils’ first run of the contest when she hit a solo home run in the second.
The 1-1 score stayed on the scoreboard only for a moment as ASU went on to score five runs on six hits and one Lancer error throughout the third, before the two offenses traded four runs over the game’s final three frames.
FROM HEAD COACH MEGAN BARTLETT
“The bats were hot today, so it helps a lot when you’re getting great production up and down the lineup. I’m proud of the effort. We will continue to clean up on defense, but Meilka (Lauppe) threw beautifully today. She got in a couple of tight spots, but that’s where her maturity shows. She’s a junior now and it’s starting to show when she does not get rattled. She immediately gets back to business and gets herself out of jams. She threw six or seven beautiful changeups tonight. I don’t know if I’m the only person jumping out of my shoes at this point, but if she can throw a changeup on command when she’s working 71, 72, that changes your career and changes our stars a little bit.”
FROM JUNIOR CATCHER EMILY SCHEPP
“We’re a really good team when we get rolling, so we try to keep the lineup rolling over, and get hits for our pitchers. We have confidence in our pitchers, and it means a lot for them to have confidence in us back. I love playing for this team, it’s very competitive. This team is fiery and everyone has the competitiveness to them; it brings everybody up and hooks us together.”
FROM JUNIOR FIRST BASEMAN KATIE CHESTER
“We knew (Wisconsin and Cal Baptist) would come out with a lot of energy and fight, so that’s what we needed to do as well. A lot is going right with our offense right now; we’re sticking to plans that our hitting coach gives us and we’re going up from there. We aren’t waiting to see where the pitch is, we’re able to hit multiple heights, speeds, and locations.”
GAME NOTES
- It took Arizona State just two innings to reach the double-digit mark, but the Sun Devils’ 25 runs scored against Wisconsin marked the most runs by an ASU team in a game against Wisconsin throughout the 10-game series history. The previous mark was nine scored during a five-inning ASU victory on March 8, 2014 in Fullerton, Cali.
- Against three different Wisconsin pitchers, eight different Sun Devil starters were credited with at least one hit. Of those eight, Tiare Ho-Ching, Yannixa Acuña and Emily Schepp all finished the five-inning contest against the Badgers with two hits.
- Saturday’s pair of victories marked the first time Arizona State has won consecutive games after scoring 10-or-more runs since April 29 (10-3 vs. Cal) and April 30 (13-5 vs. Cal) during the 2022 campaign.
- Wisconsin became the third different Big Ten softball program that Arizona State has beaten via the mercy rule – not just on a Saturday, but – this season. The Sun Devils beat Northwestern and Michigan, 8-0, in six innings on Saturday, Feb. 7 ad Saturday, Feb. 21, respectively, prior to beating the Badgers by eight runs in five innings on Saturday, Feb. 28. ASU also beat Indiana, 7-6, but the game took place on Thursday, Feb. 12.
UP NEXT
- Arizona State (18-3) will look to wrap up the four-day ASU/GCU Invitational with a sixth consecutive win when the Sun Devils return to the diamond at Farrington Stadium to square off against CSU Bakersfield at 12:45 p.m. MST on Sunday, March 1.
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