ASU softball opens NCAA Tournament with boost from Big 12 tourney win

The Arizona State softball team, which barely qualified for the eight-team Big 12 tournament after going 11-13 in the regular season, begins NCAA Tournament play at the Bryan-College Station Regional Friday, May 15, with a 1:30 MST matchup against McNeese.

ASU is led by the standout pitching of staff ace senior Kenzie Brown, who went 15-6 this season with a 2.29 ERA and 238 strikeouts over 143.2 innings.

“She’s epic,” coach Megan Bartlett said. “She has all the tricks. She’s just a great kid. That is a loyal kid, proud Sun Devil. She graduated a year ago, could have left for the highest bidder. She chose to stay. This is her home, this is her family.”

The offense, which came alive in a conference tourney semifinal 11-7 upset over Oklahoma State, is on a roll.

Junior infielder Katie Chester hit .356 this season and leads the team in home runs with 19 and in RBIs with 64. Chester had to overcome a chronic foot injury that plagued her at Missouri.

“I think she deserves Comeback Player of the Year because all the things she went through to get here and how hard she worked,” said sophomore outfielder Ashleigh Mejia, who is also one of the top hitters for the Sun Devils this season, with nine home runs and 36 RBIs.

“Everybody can see how much of a hard worker she is. She’s very deserving of it. The fact that she can come back this hard and this successful is very inspirational.”

Junior catcher/infielder Emily Schepp has been key as well, leading the Sun Devils with 64 hits this season and finishing with 45 RBIs.

Senior infielder Brooklyn Ulrich came up clutch as ASU beat Arizona, 2-1; Oklahoma State, 11-7; and top-seeded Texas Tech, 4-0, in the conference tourney championship run. 

In the 2-1 win over Arizona, Ulrich drove in the game-winning run in the top of the seventh inning with a home run, going 3 for 3 in the game. In the wild 11-7 win over Oklahoma State, Ulrich got the scoring started with an RBI single in the top of the second inning. Then, in the top of the fifth inning, she uncorked a two-run home run to put the Sun Devils up 10-2, finishing 3-for-4 with three RBIs in the game.

It’s a special moment for the local product, who attended Mesa Westwood before transferring to Mesa Red Mountain.

“She’s been very important,” Mejia said. “The defensive side, she’s been killing it all year. The fact that she understands 'this is my last season' – she keeps bringing up that her career’s almost over – she’s making the best out of it. Although her glove has been really good for us, her bat has been even more impressive. We’re really proud of her.”

The vision that coach Megan Bartlett, who took over at ASU in 2022, preached is finally coming to fruition. There’s a deep legacy of success in the program.

ASU has made 12 College World Series, appearing 35 times in NCAA Regionals and 10 times in the NCAA Super Regional. Coach Clint Meyers led the Sun Devils to two College World Series titles in 2008 and 2011. The 2008 team, which went 66-5, is regarded as one of the elite teams in NCAA history.

Bartlett is trying to follow in those footsteps. The past week showed her a lot about the team.

“To go into a week where you knock off a three, two seed and then a one seed, who is probably going to compete for a national title, is tremendous for the program,” Bartlett said. “When you have momentum at your back in the postseason, you become real dangerous, real quick. The girls are competitive, feisty. Don’t back down to anybody.”

This year’s team has a come a long way. 

After starting off hot with a 19-3 record, including playing a tough and competitive game against powerhouse Oklahoma in a 2-1 loss, the Sun Devils hit a snag. 

“At one point, we were telling each other, ‘Guys, we may not even make the (Big 12) tournament. We have to put the pieces together. We have to fight for each other, do it for the seniors,’” senior outfielder Yannixa Acuña said. “Putting all those pieces together, knowing we have the depth, going into the regional, it’s good momentum for us. We’re pretty confident.”

McNeese (40-20) won the Southland Conference tournament in a three-game series against Lamar.

The winner plays Saturday, May 16, at noon MST against the winner of the UConn-Texas A&M game; the losers of those two Friday games meet at 2:30 p.m. MST Saturday.