The Arizona State Sun Devils opened their fall ball schedule with a dominant 22-2 win over Central Arizona.
The Sun Devils were in roster overhaul this off season as they lost many of their starters, and six of those new additions were making their debut.
“This is a fun group. 11 of 22 new ones,” head coach Megan Bartlett said. “I thought they were locked in and they played with great enthusiasm for each other. They really are a pleasure to coach every day.”
Those new additions fueled the offense Wednesday starting with graduate transfer shortstop Alesia Denby with a dead center home run in her first at-bat.
The Sun Devils kept getting hotter in the sixth inning with sophomore transfer second baseman Ayden Allen hitting two home runs followed by graduate transfer right fielder Kelsey Hall hitting her first home fun of the season.
Sophomore center fielder Alivia Del La Cruz had the only hit of the night for Central Arizona in the sixth inning.
Graduate student first baseman Jordyn VanHook picked up right where she left off after she led the Pac-12 in home runs with 19 last season. Her first swing of the fall was a three-run shot over the center field fence to put ASU up 3-0 in the first inning. Later on, she homered again, driving in two to make it 19-2 in the eighth inning.
VanHook threw the final punch in the ninth hitting another home run.
“I felt like keeping it simple, not trying to do too much,” VanHook said. “Usually in these types of games with fall ball, I like to think gap to gap, and they went over.”
Pitching was not a worry in the off season as ASU returned all of their pitchers from last season in addition to adding freshman Meika Lauppe. Pitching coach Jeremy Manley has been hard at work with the pitchers, and helped sophomore Kylee Magee and graduate student Marissa Schuld completely reform their motions.
“He’s done an outstanding job, they were basically the rock of that team last year,” Bartlett said. “He was rebuilding a lot of motions.”
The off season work showed as junior pitcher Kenzie Brown was dominant in her three-inning start. She faced just ten batters, striking out nine and walking one. Her rise ball was the catalyst in that.
“I’ve been struggling with the rise ball in practice,” Brown said. “Tonight it just came alive and I was very thankful to have that.”
Bartlett is even more confident in the pitching following this dominant start from the Sun Devils.
“Kenzie Brown worked her tail off this summer. She’s working an easy 68-69,” Bartlett said. “Marissa Schuld was outstanding tonight. She rebuilt her pitching motion.”
ASU will continue the fall ball schedule with a game against Embry-Riddle on Friday.
Leave a Reply