TEMPE – Despite previously agreeing to move the start time for Sunday’s series finale up an hour to accommodate post-game travel plans, the nearly three-hour game prevented Sun Devil Softball from being able to complete the come-from-behind efforts as Utah left town with an 11-6 victory to close out the three-game conference series.
After Kenzie Brown (4-2) firing in the first pitch of the game – a called strike – at 12:06 p.m. MST, Utah went on to score five first-inning runs, before adding two more in the second to take a 7-0 lead.
By the end of the bottom of the second at 1:18 p.m., ASU had already started chipping away at its deficit by scoring a run on a two-out, bases loaded walk to Kaylee Pond. But the rally quickly ended moments later when Ryan Brown swung and missed on a 3-2 pitch to leave three Sun Devils on base.
Thirty-one minutes later, the Utes’ seven-run lead was chipped down to just four following a one-out, two-run double off the bat of Samantha Swan in the bottom of the third.
Two hours after the first pitch was thrown, Utah had extended its lead back out to 11-3 following a four-run top of the fourth that concluded at 2:07 p.m.
But, again, Arizona State – despite potentially being down to its final two offensive innings – continued to claw its way back when Pond and Katie Chester both hit solo home runs during the fourth inning to make it a six-run contest. The following inning, Swan joined the festivities with a solo home run as well as to, again, cut the ASU deficit.
With momentum shifting towards the Sun Devil dugout as Aissa Silva just completed her second consecutive scoreless frame, Utah used its second challenged of the game on an ASU pinch runner leaving first base early on a successful two-out steal attempt. As a result of the duration of the challenge and the commercial break during the ESPN+ broadcast, the time at Farrington Stadium had reached 3:00 p.m. MST.
But since Silva, who had finished throwing her warm-up pitches and was ready on the pitching rubber waiting for the Utah batter to step in, had not received a “play ball” call from the umpire to begin the top of the seventh, the inning had not yet officially started thus forcing the umpiring to declare the game over in six innings, preventing the Sun Devils from having an offensive opportunity in the bottom of the seventh, despite having scored at least one run in four of the last five innings.
FROM HEAD COACH MEGAN BARTLETT
“The bats started to figure it out and heat up there at the end. It was just a rough weekend overall, but we’ll get back to the drawing board. The reality is this is a very good pitching staff. Kenzie (Brown) hasn’t had a ton of time over the last couple of weeks, so she just wasn’t very sharp today. Utah is a very good hitting ball club, and they make good on it quickly. As (Kenzie) continues to progress back and gets back into the swing of things, we fully expect her to be back to her old self.”
GAME NOTES
- Arizona State right-handed pitcher Kenzie Brown extended her streak of consecutive pitching appearances with at least one strikeout to 44 consecutive games.
- Additionally, Brown has struck out at least one opposing batter in 36 of 37 full innings of work across all nine of her pitching appearances so far this season.
- With her pair of first-inning strikeouts in Sunday’s contest, Kenzie Brown passed Roxanne Tsosie (1995-98) for seventh place on the program’s career strikeout list.
- First-year Sun Devil Yazzy Avila earned her first start at third base of the season after previously starting three contests – the last against Portland State on Feb. 14 – at second base.
- Ashleigh Mejia’s third-inning leadoff single not only extended her on-base streak to 22 consecutive games but also tied Tanya Windle for the longest active hitting streak by a Sun Devil at 11 straight contests.
- Arizona State’s sophomore infielder Tiare Ho-Ching registered her first career multi-walk contest as the California native earned back-to-back four-pitch walks in the second and third innings, respectively.
- Sunday’s contest marked the second time Katie Chester (8) and Kaylee Pond (7) – the top two home run hitters for the Sun Devils – connected for home runs during the same game as the pair also did so during ASU’s eight-run win over Michigan on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026.
UP NEXT
Following a stretch of 25 consecutive home games at Farrington Stadium to begin the 2026 regular season Arizona State will hit the road for its first away game of the young campaign as the Sun Devils will travel to El Paso, Texas to square off against UTEP (9-12) at Helen of Troy Softball Complex on Tuesday, March 10 (1 p.m. MST).
ASU (19-6, 0-3) will resume Big 12 Conference play on Friday, March 13, when the Sun Devils begin a three-game series against No. 19/12 Oklahoma State (17-7, 1-2) at 6 p.m. MST on ESPN+.
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