The Sun Devils greet outfielder Annie Lockwood after she hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning to give ASU a 6-1 lead.
Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com.

As the Arizona State softball team huddled on the field for its postgame talk, a small group of Sun Devils fans began chanting from beyond the bullpen.

“Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!”

That’s what it was Saturday as Arizona State completed the three-game sweep over Arizona with an 8-3 victory at Hillenbrand Stadium against the strangest set of pitchers Wildcats coach Mike Candrea has ever used in 26 years at the school.

Second-ranked ASU took advantage of pitching-thin Arizona, getting three-run homers from Krista Donnenwirth and Annie Lockwood. Arizona State won the previous two games with the help of grand slams in the seventh inning.

“I tell you what, it was a great series,” said ASU coach Clint Myers. “You had two very good programs playing. … They have a great tradition and we have not been very successful here in the past.”

Which is a just a teeny, tiny understatement.

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Akamine

The Arizona softball team began the season Friday afternoon with a no-hitter in a 13-0 five-inning victory over Western Michigan at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe.

Senior Sarah Akamine, coming off offseason back surgery, threw the first no-hitter of her career, striking out three and walking one.

Coach Mike Candrea sent out touted freshman Kenzie Fowler to make her much-anticipated debut in Arizona’s second game of the day, against Purdue, which lost to the Wildcats in last season’s NCAA regionals.

Fowler came through with a one-hitter, striking out eight and walking two, in a 10-0 five-inning victory. Brittany Lastrapes, Stacie Chambers and freshman first baseman Baillie Kirker hit home runs against Purdue.

In the first game, Arizona scored 13 runs on only seven hits as two Western Michigan pitchers combined to walk 14 batters. UA junior centerfielder Lauren Schutzler went 2-for-2 with three RBIs. Shortstop K’Lee Arredondo was the other Wildcat with multiple hits, as she went 2-for-4 with three RBIs.

The Wildcats scored seven runs in the first and six in the fourth.

The right arm of Kenzie Fowler could very well be the story of Arizona's season/2008 Tucson Citizen photo by Cisco Medina

The Arizona softball team begins practice Monday afternoon, with coach Mike Candrea back for his 23rd season and pitcher Kenzie Fowler ready to begin her first.

Sounds like a pretty good combination.

Fowler is the hard-throwing 6-foot pitching machine, a local kid from CDO, a two-time national Gatorade Player of the Year for softball, a bright, smart student who grew up going to games at Hillenbrand Stadium, all of 18 years old and already with the inspirational story of overcoming life-threatening blood clots in her pitching shoulder in 2007.

All she is expected to do is descend upon Hillenbrand and deliver a couple of national championships. At least. Right?

All Candrea is expected to do is keep expectations somewhere in the ballpark.

In any case, it’s an exciting new pitching chapter for Arizona, which was last seen giving up an unholy 14 runs to Alabama while getting swept out of the Women’s College World Series. The Wildcats could have used Fowler last season. Maybe the season before.

No doubt, she is the headline story as practice begins, but here are three other subheds to whet the appetite.

Brigette Del Ponte is here
The freshman infielder from Sunrise Mountain High in Peoria didn’t enroll in the fall because of some academic issues, but she made it here for the spring semester and will try to find a role as a utility player. Del Ponte was rated the fourth-best recruit in the nation by ESPNU.

Arizona has only two positional vacancies from last season — third base and first base. Freshman Matte Haack appears to have dibs on third, with powerful freshman Baillie Kirker having designs on first.

Brittany Lastrapes is back
The junior outfielder hit a team-best .481 last season and slugged 17 home runs in 63 games. The lefty-hitting Lastrapes just finished competing at a tryout camp for Team USA, which will compete in this summer’s World Championships. The squad is expected to be announced Monday.

Two former Cats — pitcher Jennie Finch and outfielder Caitlin Lowe, both Olympic veterans — are locks for the team. Another ex-Cat, third baseman Jenae Leles, is up for a spot on the team after getting national team experience last summer.

Candrea hires a Red Sox fan
The Wildcats have a new volunteer assistant coach — a position that is always more valuable than it sounds — and Candrea, the ol’ Yankees fan, must really like the new guy, who is from Boston.

That would be Nick French, who spent the past two seasons as an assistant at Piedmont College in Georgia. French used to cover prep sports as an intern for the Boston Globe, so we’re guessing an unpaid position as a softball assistant is a step up from journalism.

We hear that the left-hander throws a mighty fine batting practice, which means he will more than earn his pay at Arizona.

Arizona softball coach Mike Candrea has a theme for his fall camp: Character counts.

“I really felt we have been lacking a really strong team chemistry in which the athletes enjoyed being around one another,” he said. “There was just way too much selfishness that has been plaguing us for a while.”

Mike Candrea wants to use last season's College World Series as motivation/2009 Tucson Citizen photo

He’ll be repeating that phrase and working on the mindset — and all the usual fundamental stuff that comes with fall camp — while not wanting to forget what happened last spring.

Arizona was last seen losing 14-0 to Alabama at the Women’s College World Series in May — the worst loss in the history of the program.

“We use it as a reminder,” Candrea said. “You can always use experiences as a motivator if you’re smart enough to learn from it. The kids who were here last year surely have that in the back of their minds.”

Arizona has four freshmen who will be seeing the field for the first time when the Cats begin their fall exhibition schedule Sunday against Yavapai College. Yavapai is coached Stacy Iveson, who was a catcher and assistant coach at Arizona, and the head coach at Pima Community College.

The star of UA’s freshman class is pitcher Kenzie Fowler, a two-time Gatorade softball national player of the year at Canyon del Oro High School. Candrea is hoping to keep the hype under control.

“You just don’t want expectations that are unrealistic,” he said.

“She needs to grow and get better. We have a great tradition to fall back on, talking about the great players we have had here and the trials and tribulations they had to go through.”

Fowler and Ashley Ralston-Alvarez, a walk-on from Pima, are expected to pitch this fall. UA’s other pitcher, senior Sarah Akamine, is recovering from back surgery and is expected to be good to go when the real season begins in February, Candrea said.

Other newcomers are infielder Baillie Kirker (the career high school home run leader in California), outfielder Becca Tikey and infielder Matte Haack. As first reported on wildaboutazcats.com, freshman recruit Brigette DelPonte, an infielder rated the fourth-best recruit in the nation by ESPNU, will try to enroll for the spring after running into admission problems.

FALL SCHEDULE

Sunday — vs. Yavapai, 2 p.m.
Oct. 9 — vs. Arizona Western, 4 p.m.
Oct. 10 — vs. New Mexico, 5:30 p.m.; vs. Central Arizona, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 11 — vs. Cypress, 3 p.m.; vs. Pima, 5 p.m.
Oct. 28 — vs. Pima, 4 p.m.