Arizona State softball may look like a different team after losing 11 players last season, including fifth-year stalwarts Maddi and Kindra Hackbarth, but the younger team isn’t seen as a weakness to sixth-year head coach Trisha Ford.
The team will return nine starters to its roster of 19 and will also feature a young, but experienced rotation.
“We just look different and that's not a bad thing. I’m actually kind of excited about it. Our leadership has never been in a better position and our team is in a really good spot both on and off the field. Over the years, we’ve just got better and better each year and I’m really proud of where we’re at this year,” Ford said.
To address the hole left by Maddi Hackbarth at catcher, Ford brought in graduate transfer Jessica Puk from Ole Miss. Puk led Ole Missin runs (34) and walks (29) last season.
Puk’s contributions on the field are matched by her contributions off the field, impressing both her teammates and coaching staff. Ford wishes Puk was in the program for four years and said she has been “wonderful” fitting into her spot.
“She has slid in here seamlessly and the team loves her. She just enjoys life and has a great head on her shoulders and all these characteristics are what make her a successful catcher,” Ford said. “You’ve got to be able to manage different personalities, you can’t take things too seriously. She knows when to get on pitchers, she knows when to kind of displace their thought process. If you find someone who doesn’t like Jessica Puk, I probably already have a problem with that person.”
Puk’s experience behind the platewill help with the up-and-coming pitchers on staff, including sophom*ore Allison Royalty and freshman Mac Morgan.
Royalty, a Pac-12 All-Freshman last season,is healthy after being sidelined from an injury in the later part of the season and has added more pitches to her repertoire over the offseason.In her first season, Royalty had 19 starts in 32 games andcompiled an 11-6 record with a 3.20 ERA, leading the pitching staff with 121 strikeouts.
Ford’s willingness to start freshmen early into the season will continue as Morgan is expected to start early in the nonconference schedule that begins Thursday. Morgan, theMissouri Gatorade Player of the Year in 2019, adds even more of a competitive edge for an area on the field that Ford sees as a major strength.
“You’re going to see her intensity on the field. She loves softball and she loves it from the core of her body. She gets out on that circle, she is fierce, she is not nice. She has to win. Off the field, she’s a happy-go-lucky person and it’s nice to see her go back and forth. She’s going to get baptized by fire and I think it’s good for them,” Ford said.
Ford certainly has challenged her pitching staff throughout the preseason, even going as far as not handing out the practice plans and making her players get accustomed to game situations and being uncomfortable.
Even with the challenges at practice, the players don’t have a tense atmosphere on the field.
“We play better when we’re loose, so I just think we all have a lot of trust in another. We know that we can all get the job done as a team. So just keeping a loose atmosphere, and getting things done, but we’re not playing like we have 20-pound plates on our shoulders,” left fielder Makenna Harper said.
The changes have helped her team grow together and prepare for facing top-ten programs in the nation in the first few weeks of the season.
“They spend so much time with each other off the field that I feel like they trust each other in ways that we really haven’t had here yet. That’s what’s going to make us a special team this year,” Ford said.
Extending to the offense, ASU returns heavy hitters Harper, Jazmine Hill and Yanni Acuña, on top of bringing in Jazmyn Rollin. Rollin, a transfer from Mizzou, hit .364 with five doubles, a triple, and seven home runs in the limited season in 2020.
Rollin is expected to start at second base with redshirt senior Halle Harger coming in as a defensive replacement.
The long ball came in handy for ASU last season as returners Harper and Hill were key parts of last year’s team that hit 95 home runs, the most since 2013. Harper is coming off a season where she hit .342 with 10 HRs and 34 RBI, while Hill hit .347 with 10 HRs and 40 RBI.
ASU softball opens its season on Thursday with a doubleheader starting at 4 p.m. against Cal Baptist and against Oklahoma State at 6:30 p.m.from Farrington Field in the Kajikawa Classic.
“I’m super excited, I’m expecting big things for this team. We have a lot of young talent. I’m really excited for this year,” Harper said.
Reach the reporter at jenna.ortiz@arizonarepublic.com or 602-647-4122. Follow her on Twitter @jennarortiz.
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