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By JULIAN LOPEZ
Cronkite News
PHOENIX — It was a busy offseason for the Arizona State softball team. They graduated five seniors and lost their head coach, who resigned in October.
But with a lineup that will feature a lot of fresh faces and two returning starting pitchers, the Sun Devils are confident that they can make the NCAA Tournament for the 12th straight year.
“I feel like everyday we are getting better and everyday we are getting closer,” freshman Ulufa (Fa) Leilua said at ASU Softball Media Day. Leilua is expected to take over as the cleanup hitter in the batting lineup after the graduation of Amber Freeman.
After the resignation of Craig Nicholson in October, ASU will go with an unconventional approach as they will have co-interim head coaches for the 2016 season.
Robert Wagner, who enters his seventh season in two stints with the program, will work primarily with the offense and the defense while Letty Olivarez will work with the pitchers among her other duties. Olivarez spent the 2015 season at California State, Northridge where, as the pitching coach, the Matadors finished in the top 25 in the country with a 2.42 team earned run average.
With only one power hitter returning (junior shortstop Chelsea Gonzales had 11 home runs last year), Wagner emphasized that the Sun Devils, a team that has finished in the top three in the conference in home runs in four of the past five years, will bring a fresh approach to the plate in 2016.
“We are going to be a different looking team but we are going to be effective none the less,” Wagner said. “We are not going to be able to sit back and wait for the home run anymore, we’re going to force the issue a little bit and be a little more aggressive on the bases.”
Besides Gonzales, the Sun Devils bring back outfielder Abby Spiel (second on the team with a .364 batting average in 2015), Sashel Palacios (hit .323 in her first year as starting catcher), Nikki Girard (started 56 of the Sun Devils 58 games at second base), and Jennifer Soria ( who was voted as the hardest worker on the team by her teammates and started in 42 games and appeared in 53).
“We are going to be asking people that played last year to kind of step up and do a little more than they done in the past,” Wagner said. “To fill the void, we are also going to have people that haven’t performed at this level, to step in and play those roles whether it be freshmen or seniors that haven’t played a lot until now.”
However, despite the uncertainty in the lineup, the Sun Devils return both of their starting pitchers from last year. Breanna Macha had an impressive freshman campaign last year, leading the Sun Devils in wins (18), earned run average(3.69), and innings (212.2). Macha also became the first Sun Devil in school history to throw a no-hitter in an extra inning ball game when she accomplished that feat against Binghamton in late February last year.
“We are ready to go,” Macha said. “Fourteen days (till the season starts). That is just the talk of the locker room right now. We are excited, amped up. Every single time we come out to practice, it’s go time. We are all just loud and rambunctious. We are ready to go.”
Dale Ryndak also returns for her sophomore year. Ryndak served as the number two pitcher behind Macha last year and went 14-8 in 38 appearances. The Sun Devils could have a dominant 1-2-3 rotation with Kelsey Kessler joining the staff. Kessler redshirted last year after spending two years at Kansas. The redshirt junior went 32-21 in two season as a Jayhawk and sees a lot of herself in Wagner.
“He’s real sarcastic,” Kessler said. “He’s kind of like me; I like it. He will tell you how it is. He’s not afraid to tell you if you suck that day or he’ll tell you if you are doing good. I like that. I respect that.”
ASU opens the season at home against Utah State on Feb. 11th when the Sun Devils play host to the Kajikawa Classic.
