TEMPE – Looking to continue riding momentum created from Tuesday afternoon’s non-conference win over UTEP, Sun Devil Softball will step back into Big 12 Conference play this weekend when No. 23/RV Arizona State welcomes No. 25/22 UCF to Tempe for a three-game series slated to begin at 6 p.m. MST on Friday, April 10.
SERIES SCHEDULE:
- Friday, April 10 – vs. UCF, 6 p.m. MST (ESPN+)
- Saturday, April 11 – vs. UCF, 4 p.m. MST (ESPN+)
- Sunday, April 12 – vs. UCF, 12 p.m. MST (ESPN+)
TELEVISION:
- Alex Coil (play by play) and Kelly Burke (analyst) will serve as the broadcast team for Friday and Sunday’s broadcasts, while Erica Beach (analyst) will step in for Kelly for Saturday’s broadcast.
THE OPPOSITION:
- Friday’s game will mark the first time UCF has played a softball game against Arizona State in Tempe since Feb. 6, 2009, when the Sun Devils won, 10-7, behind 3-RBI performances from Kaylyn Castillo and Christina Zambrana.
- With a win on Friday, Arizona State will have won back-to-back games over UCF for the second time in the series history.
- The Sun Devils won, 6-0, on March 18, 2023 at the Oklahoma State Mizuno Classic in Stillwater, Okla., before winning last season’s series-opening contest, 3-0, on March 14 in Orlando.
- Arizona State dropped the middle game, 3-0, before winning the series finale, 11-0, in six innings.
- Arizona State will enter Friday’s contest with a 4-2 all-time record against UCF, dating back to the first-ever meeting between the two during the 2009 season.
- The Sun Devils won, 6-0, on March 18, 2023 at the Oklahoma State Mizuno Classic in Stillwater, Okla., before winning last season’s series-opening contest, 3-0, on March 14 in Orlando.
LEADING OFF:
- Arizona State’s softball media relations contact Chris Allen Brown and UCF’s softball media relations contact Ryan Ladika, who is a Spring 2020 graduate of Arizona State’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, will both be participating in Saturday morning’s “Pat’s Run” presented by TEK Systems.
- The 4.2-mile run is in its 22nd year and is in conjunction with the Pat Tillman Foundation, a non-profit organization named after the Sun Devil For Life, College Football Hall of Famer and Arizona Sports Hall of Famer Pat Tillman, who was named the 1997 Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year to cap a four-year collegiate football career at Arizona State.
- Arizona State will enter Friday evening’s contest having scored 312 runs in 41 games this season.
- The 312 runs scored are the most by a Sun Devil squad since 2022, when Arizona State scored 370.
- Following a five-double performance against UTEP on Tuesday afternoon, Arizona State now has 72 doubles on the season, marking the first time the Sun Devils have had 70-or-more doubles in back-to-back seasons since 2018 (76) and 2019 (98).
- With two more RBI, Katie Chester (48) will turn in the 32nd 50-RBI season in program history.
- Chester will become the first Sun Devil to drive in 50-or-more runs in a single season since Cydney Sanders (63) and Jazmine Hill (54) did so throughout the 2022 campaign.
- Katie Chester (15) and Kaylee Pond (13) have combined for the most home runs by a Sun Devil softball duo (28) since Jordyn VanHook (19) and Yannira Acuna (10) combined to hit 29 during the 2023 season.
- Jazmyn Rollin (10) also hit double-digit home runs during the 2023 campaign, marking the last time three Sun Devils hit 10-or-more home runs in a single season.
- Ashleigh Mejia is two home runs shy of joining Chester and Pond with 10-plus home runs in 2026.
- Jazmyn Rollin (10) also hit double-digit home runs during the 2023 campaign, marking the last time three Sun Devils hit 10-or-more home runs in a single season.
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