OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – When Megan Bartlett needed a delivery to Devon Park on Saturday morning, the fourth-year Arizona State softball head coach made the call to Kenzie Brown. And the senior right-handed pitcher came through with a seven-inning complete game shutout of the No. 3/4 Texas Tech Red Raiders to cap Sun Devil Softball’s 4-0 win in the championship game of the Big 12 Softball Tournament.
Brown (15-6) and NiJaree Canady (22-5) battled during the early stages of the contest with matching back-to-back scoreless frames, before Arizona State broke through against a Big 12 Pitcher of the Year contender for the second consecutive day.
Tanya Windle, who hit a home run off Oklahoma State’s Ruby Meylan in ASU’s semifinal win on Friday night, broke the 0-0 tie by sending a 3-1 pitch from Canaday over the right field fence to her eight long ball of the season.
Sun Devil Big 12 Champions
2025-26 (5): volleyball, men's swim and dive, women's swim and dive, women's tennis, softball (tournament)
2024-25 (4): volleyball, football, men’s swimming, women’s swimming
Despite Texas Tech (52-6) immediately making a pitching change to its left-handed ace Kaitlyn Terry, the Sun Devils continued to put the bat on the ball as Emily Schepp extended the lead with a two-run home run, before Katie Chester went back-to-back with her corner infield teammate to make it 4-0 Sun Devils.
The four-run lead was more than enough for Brown as she continued to limit Texas Tech’s high-powered offense.
Outside of a leadoff double by Taylor Pannell to start the bottom of the second, Brown did not allow another base hit until a one-out, infield single by Logan Halleman in the bottom of the seventh. Between the two innings, Brown allowed just two base runners: Jackie Lis via a two-out walk in the bottom of the third and hitting Terry with a 3-2 pitch to begin the bottom of the fourth.
By the end of the contest, Brown had struck out nine – pushing her tournament total to 16 in 14 innings of work – including Mihyia Davis, Jasmyn Burns and Desirae Spearman a combined six times. She also struck out Mia Williams, Taylor Pannell and Lauren Allred each one time.
The performance was the first seven-inning complete game shutout for a Sun Devil since Brown blanked the Baylor Bears – in a 5-0 Sun Devil win – in Tempe on April 17, 2025. The victory also gives Arizona State its fourth conference championship in program history, joining the 2008, 2011 and 2022 squads which all earned Pac-12 Championships.
ASU won its ninth Big 12 title since joining the conference, and has five conference titles in 2025-26, it also notched five in 2007-08.
FROM HEAD COACH MEGAN BARTLETT
“All of this might sink in tomorrow … some time … maybe … I don’t know. I’m just so grateful for this group of young women; so proud of just everything that’s gone into this season by everyone. There were newcomers like Emily Schepp who bought into what we were saying during the summer and how we were building this program over the last four season. And then people like Kenzie, who stayed when she could’ve left and believed and trusted us. We did this the right way.”
FROM SENIOR PITCHER KENZIE BROWN
“Honestly, it felt like my B game. I felt like I was just sort of working through and fighting my own body parts at times and sometimes that can be a struggle. But (Arizona State pitching coach) John (Bargfeldt) kept my grounded, so that was good and then that four spot in the third inning really helped our confidence.”
FROM JUNIOR INFIELDER EMILY SCHEPP
“Yeah, we just wanted to stick to the plan during that top of the third. Even with the pitching change, we still wanted to continue to look for our pitches. I think I had two strikes at the time, so I was just looking for a pitch I could do something with."
GAME NOTES
- Tanya Windle’s solo home run in the top of the third marked the first run allowed by Texas Tech over the last 31 innings played – five complete games – at the Big 12 Softball Tournament.
- It was the first run allowed by a Red Raider pitcher at the tournament under second-year head coach Gerry Glasco.
- With her third inning home run against Texas Tech on Saturday morning, Tanya Windle connected for home runs against both Big 12 Conference Co-Pitchers of the Year – Oklahoma State’s Ruby Meylan and Texas Tech’s NiJaree Canady – in less than 12 hours.
- Windle now shares the honor of being one of just two student-athletes in the Big 12 – UCF’s Beth Damon – to hit a home run off both Meylan and Candy during the 2026 season.
- Arizona State becomes the first team in league history to knock off the top three seeds of the Big 12 Softball Tournament en route to a championship.
- The Sun Devils swept through the three-day conference tournament in less than 42 hours.
- The time span from the first pitch of Thursday night’s quarterfinal win over Arizona at 7:56 p.m. CDT to the final out of Saturday’s championship game against Texas Tech at 1:24 p.m. CDT was 41.467 hours.
- Kenzie Brown held the nation’s best offense – team batting average wise (.393) – to a season-low two hits.
- The two hits by the Red Raiders were the fewest by a Texas Tech team since Houston held TTU to only one hit on April 27, 2024.
- Katie Chester’s third inning home run was her 19th on the season, marking the most by a Sun Devil hitter in a single season since Jordyn VanHook, who is a current graduate assistant on the Arizona State softball program, connected for 19 throughout the 2023 season.
UP NEXT
Arizona State (41-16) left any doubt of a NCAA Regional berth in Oklahoma City as the Sun Devils fly back to Tempe with the Big 12’s postseason conference tournament trophy and the league’s automatic qualifier token for the forthcoming NCAA Division I Softball Tournament. The NCAA Tournament appearance will be the 35th all-time NCAA Regional appearance for the Sun Devils.
ASU will learn of its postseason destination on Sunday, May 10, when ESPN broadcasts the NCAA Division I Softball Selection Show at 4 p.m. MST / 7 p.m. EDT.
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