ASU softball 1 win away from Women’s College World Series after shocking Texas
The Sun Devils will have two chances to beat Texas one more time and clinch a Women's College World Series appearance, riding a season-best 10-game winning streak.
Watch: State of the Sun Devils: Who will start for ASU football this season? | 30 mins
Arizona State softball is one win away from the Women’s College World Series after it shocked defending champion Texas, 4-1, in the best-of-three opener on Friday.
Texas (45-11) is ranked third in the nation, according to ESPN/USA Softball. ASU (45-16) is No. 19 by the same metric.
It would be the Sun Devils’ first time since 2018 back in Oklahoma City for the final postseason destination (which includes eight teams) and just a few weeks removed from their Big 12 Tournament victory in OKC at the same venue where the WCWS is held, Devon Park.
ASU, which last won the NCAA Championship in 2011 and only once before that in 2008, has won 10 straight games dating to a sweep in its final regular-season series at BYU.
Ace Kenzie Brown has carried the torch through that stretch, having given up just four earned runs over 31 innings pitched in the postseason (5-0). She has struck out 34, including 10 in Friday’s Super Regional win, and walked eight.
Catcher Samantha Swan, who won Big 12 Player of the Week twice in April, has been a catalyst at the plate with multiple hits and RBIs in three of four NCAA Tournament games, including one home run.
Brown and Swan were named First Team All-Big 12 along with infielder Katie Chester. Outfielder Kaylee Pond was a Second Team honoree.
Game 2 of the three-game series starts at 5 p.m. MST on Saturday, televised on ESPN. The rubber match, if necessary, will be played on Sunday.
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Comments
2 Comments
About time ASU Softball was shown some love by Arizona Sports. Gigantic game for ASU
Tough loss for ASU today. ASU had a chance to seize control of the game in the 3rd, when they loaded the bases, scored a run to go up 2-0, with no one out, Schepp, Chester and Mejia coming up. Instead of that 1 run, should have scored at least 2, 3 or 4 runs which would have changed the nature of the game. Whereas I thought they played free and easy, very confident on Friday, today IMHO, they were thinking about it way too much, and lost a ton of the confidence that fueled the 10 game winning streak which ended tonight.
Going to be a Herculean task to beat Texas in Game 3 in Austin in front of their crowd. ASU will need their best effort of the season.