Brown’s dominant outing not enough to extend the Sun Devils’ season
(Los Angeles, CA) Sun Devil Softball saw its 2025 season come to an end with a 4-3 loss to UC Santa Barbara in 10 innings on Saturday evening at Easton Stadium.
ASU got a dominating performance from Kenzie Brown in the circle to give the team a chance. She allowed just two hits and one unearned run while striking out 11 in 9.2 innings of work. The two hits were a seeing-eye single in the fourth and an infield single in the 10th.
Kelsey Hall gave the Sun Devils a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning when she singled home Tanya Windle. Hall moved to third on a single from AJ Murphy and then scored on an Ayden Allen sacrifice fly.
With one out in the fifth inning, Tiare Ho-Ching reached on an error, and moved to third when Ashleigh Mejia doubled. Windle then grounded out to score Ho-Ching and open a 3-0 lead.
Santa Barbara responded in the bottom of the fifth. With two outs, Meika Lauppe entered in relief of Brown, and the Gauchos put together four straight hits to score three runs and tie the game.
It was all pitching from that point forward. Neither team was able to cross the plate over the next four innings. UCSB walked off with two outs in the 10th when a throw from AJ Murphy got away and the winning run scored.
ASU ends its season at 35-21 overall with a trip to the NCAA Regionals for the first time since 2022.
NOTABLE
- Brown’s 9.2 innings pitched are the most by a Sun Devil in a postseason game in program history.
- Her 11 strikeouts are tied for fourth-most in an ASU postseason game.
- Brown’s 24 strikeouts in the two games of the regional are tied for the most by a Sun Devil in consecutive postseason starts. (Escobedo, 2011)
- This was the 13th game with double digit strikeouts by Brown this season which is the third-most in program history.
- Brown ends the season with 289 strikeouts to rank 10tn in ASU history. That total is currently second in the NCAA.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Josh Fisher
Click on Logo
