TEMPE – In what appeared to be a forthcoming pitcher’s duel between NiJaree Canady and Meika Lauppe turned into an offensive showcase during the middle innings of Texas Tech’s eventual 7-5 series-clinching win over Sun Devil Softball.
After the pair of right-handers tossed scoreless first and second innings, Texas Tech broke the 0-0 tie with four unearned runs in the top of the third following a trio of fielding errors by the Sun Devil defense.
Tanya Windle and Emily Schepp were able to cut the deficit with a pair of home runs off Canady (19-3) to bring the Sun Devils to within a run. But the Red Raiders answered right back with a pair in the fourth to extend their lead back out to three.
The three-run lead only stood for a few minutes as Brooklyn Ulrich connected for a two-run home run off Kaitlyn Terry, who failed to retire either batter she faced after starting the frame as a relief pitcher for Canady.
With momentum and energy quickly swinging towards the Sun Devils’ dugout following back-to-back scoreless innings from Kenzie Brown over the fifth and sixth innings.
The scoreless streak was snapped in the top of the seventh, when Victoria Valdez doubled home to Desirae Spearman to give the Red Raiders a two-run cushion heading into the bottom of the seventh. Despite the momentum, Canady struck out two of the three Sun Devils for a scoreless bottom of the seventh.
FROM HEAD COACH MEGAN BARTLETT
“Today was really a heartbreaker, to be honest. I thought we started to hunt better pitches and execute the offensive game plan better than last night. We were even able to run into a few pitches that left the yard. But Texas Tech is a very good ballclub that just kept putting pressure on us and the dam finally broke. It’s certainly a game of momentum, but we are going to come back tomorrow and fight like crazy and get momentum on our side.”
GAME NOTES
- Saturday’s game marked the first time since March 13, 2026 that an opposing team has been hit by a pitch and draw a walk against Texas Tech’s NiJaree Canady, who hit a batter and walk two in four innings of work against Arizona on the aforementioned day.
- After having 2,051 fans in attendance for Friday night’s game and 2,035 for Saturday afternoon’s contest, it marks the first time since March 11, 2023 (2,134) and March 12, 2023 (2,105) that Arizona State has announced an attendance of 2,000-or-more in back-to-back home games at Farrington Stadium.
- With Emily Schepp’s two-run home run in the bottom of the third, Schepp became the fourth different Sun Devil with 10-or-more home runs this season, marking the most Arizona State student-athletes to reach the mark during the same season since five – Cydney Sanders (21), Alynah Torres (16), Jazmine Hill (15), Yannira Acuña (14) and Jazmyn Rollin (13) – did so during the 2022 season.
- Arizona State’s three home runs against Texas Tech pitching on Saturday tied for the most home runs surrendered by the Red Raiders in a single game this season.
- On Saturday afternoon, Arizona State became the second team – Arizona (3) – to hit multiple home runs off Texas Tech’s NiJaree Canady.
- Tanya Windle’s solo home run to spark a three-run bottom of the third was the first home run for the senior since Feb. 26, 2026, when she connected for one against UC Riverside.
UP NEXT
Arizona State (35-15, 8-12) and Texas Tech (46-4, 18-2) will wrap up its three-game conference series at 1 p.m. MST on Sunday, April 26 at Farrington Stadium.
FOLLOW US
For the latest information on the team, follow @SunDevilSoftball on X, Facebook and Instagram. General athletic news can also be found at @TheSunDevils on X, Instagram and Facebook.