The next home run queen possibly
For Arizona State to remain as Home Run U, Alynah Torres will need to lead the way. Torres finished second on the team in long balls last season with 12. Even in her shortened freshman year, she was able to blast nine balls out of the year.
However, entering her third season in Tempe, Torres will now be asked to be the main slugger in the Sun Devil lineup. The former Cactus high school star is talented to do so, but there comes a lot of pressure. With the graduations of Alli Tatnall, Maddi and Kindra Hackbath as well as the transfers of DeNae Chatman and Harleigh Braswell, 45 of Arizona State’s 95 home runs from 2021 have departed.
Torres will certainly be helped by the bats of Jazmine Hill, Makenna Harper, Yanni Acuña and more than likely incoming freshman Cydney Sanders. She’ll be the one asked to be the next big-time power bat next season.
Despite early struggles in her first go around in Pac-12 play, Torres found more consistency as the season went on. In the last three conference series, the shortstop hit safely in eight of 11 games. That’s the growth a program hopes to see in a player it sees as a future cornerstone.