TEMPE – Sun Devil Softball’s first Big 12 Conference victory of the 2026 season was just 120 feet away. But it was the visiting Utah Utes leaving Farrington Stadium on Friday night with a 9-5 win instead.
Entering the bottom of the seventh with the scoreboard deadlocked at 2-2, Yannixa Acuña beat out a throw for a leadoff infield bunt single. Acuña, however, was erased at second base on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Brooklyn Ulrich. Corie Shull, who entered the game as a pinch runner, suffered the same fate as Acuña when Ryan Brown, who pinch hit for JazMarie Roberts, grounded into a fielder’s choice to third base.
Brown, the third different Sun Devil representing the game-winning run to reach base during the frame, moved up 60 feet to second base on a two-out, infield single off the bat of Ashleigh Mejia.
But Brown was unable to fully travel the remaining 120 feet on the base paths as Mejia was the inning’s third out when she was out at second base on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Tiare Ho-Ching.
Using momentum from escaping the bottom of the seventh, Utah went on to score seven unearned runs on just three hits and three Arizona State errors to take a 9-2 lead.
Staying true to who they are, though, the Sun Devils capitalized on the Utes’ eighth-inning mistakes as Katie Chester, Samantha Swan and Roberts all delivered run-scoring hits throughout the frame.
In fact, Roberts and Acuña, representing the potential sixth and seventh ASU runs, respectively, were stranded on base at the conclusion of the game.
FROM HEAD COACH MEGAN BARTLETT
“Tonight was a tough way to open conference play. But I’m expecting a better response and a different team when we take the field tomorrow afternoon.”
GAME NOTES
- With her five-pitch walk to open the bottom of the eighth, first-year Sun Devil Kaylee Pond earned her 100th career walk over her collegiate softball season.
- As a result of her seventh-inning infield single, Arizona State’s Ashleigh Mejia extended her streak of safely reaching base to 20 consecutive games, the longest by any Sun Devil this season.
- By drawing a walk to begin the ASU eighth, Kaylee Pond recorded her second multi-walk contest of the season and first since drawing a pair on Feb. 8 against Memphis.
- Because of her eighth-inning single to score Kaylee Pond from first base, Katie Chester recorded her eighth multiple RBI game this season and tied Pond for the team lead with six two-RBI contests in 2026.
- Samantha Swan became the fourth different Sun Devil to register five-or-more multiple hit games through the 2026 season as the Georgetown, Texas native was credited with a pair of doubles in the second and eighth innings, respectively.
UP NEXT
- Arizona State (19-4, 0-1) will look to bounce back following Friday’s result at 4 p.m. MST (ESPN+), when the Sun Devils and Utes (19-5, 1-0) return to the dirt of Farrington Stadium for the second of the weekend’s three-game series.
- ASU has not lost back-to-back games all season. In fact, the Sun Devils have responded to each of its previous three losses by winning – at least – its next three straight contests.
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