TEMPE – Tuesday marked a historical morning for the Sun Devil Softball program as Samantha Swan was named the Big 12 Conference’s Player of the Week in addition to the NFCA’s National Player of the Week, while Kenzie Brown was selected as the Big 12’s Pitcher of the Week, both organizations announced.
It’s the first time Arizona State has been awarded a conference’s player and pitcher of the week in the same week since Yannira Acuña and Marissa Schuld were selected as the Pac-12’s Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, on March 28, 2022.
Swan is Arizona State’s first conference player of the week since Feb. 20, 2023, when Jordyn VanHook was selected as the Pac-12’s Player of the Week. She is also the Sun Devils’ first NFCA National Player of the Week since Marisa Stankiewicz was chosen on April 3, 2018.
Brown’s honor is the second for the senior right-hander this season, becoming the first Sun Devil to earn multiple conference pitcher of the week awards since Giselle Juarez was selected as the Pac-12’s Pitcher of the Week four separate occasions.
Swan finished Arizona State’s four-game slate last week by going 9-for-10, while setting single-game career highs in RBI (6) and home runs (2). She also tied her single-game career high with three hits against UCF on Saturday, April 11 and hit her first career grand slam against UTEP on Tuesday, April 7. Her .900 batting average was the highest by any Big 12 student-athlete with 1-or-more at bats in the week, while her nine hits were the most by any Big 12 student-athlete regardless of the number of at-bats. She was the only student-athlete in the Big 12 to drive in 10-or-more runs during the week.
In the series finale against UCF on Sunday, April 12, Swan became just the second student-athlete to ever have a multi-home run game against the Knights’ Isabella Vega, who allowed a career-high six earned runs during a 2-for-3 performance by Swan on Friday, April 10. By the end of the weekend, UCF failed to retire Swan during her last seven plate appearances.
In the pitching circle, Brown led the Big 12 in strikeouts and finished the week as the only pitcher in the Big 12 with 20-or-more strikeouts. She was the only pitcher in the league with multiple double-digit strikeout performances throughout the week as well. Her 1.24 ERA was the lowest by any Big 12 pitcher with 10-or-more innings pitched. Of her 17 innings pitched, 14 (or 82.4 percent) were scoreless. She struck out at least one batter in 16-of-17 (94.1 percent) of her innings pitched, while striking out multiple batters in 11 of 17 (64.7 percent) innings. She also did not allow an extra base hit in 17 innings of work.
During Sunday’s series finale, Brown retired a stretch of 17 consecutive batters from the top of the second to two outs in the top of the seventh. She also became the first pitcher this season to strike out UCF’s Sierra Humphrey, the then-reigning Big 12 Player of the Week, multiple times in a single game. She also became the first pitcher to strikeout UCF’s Kendall Yarnell multiple times in multiple games this season.
Brown’s 13 strikeouts in seven innings of work against UCF on Friday, April 10 were the most by any opposing Big 12 pitcher against UCF since the Knights joined the league. The 13-strikeout outing was also the most by any Arizona State pitcher in any game against UCF.
Up next
Arizona State (31-13) will take the field at GCU Softball Stadium at 7 p.m. MST on Tuesday, April 14, when the No. 25/RV Sun Devils take on No. 19/24 Grand Canyon (41-4).
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