June 9, 2004
SAN DIEGO - Missed opportunities. Staying close with the top dogs. Never out of a game. Those were the themes of the 2004 San Diego State softball team as it compiled an impressive 37-23 record (.617 winning percentage) and 14-6 mark in Mountain West Conference play (.700). The Aztecs played 12 games against teams who finished the 2004 season ranked in the top 25 of both national polls and, bolstered by the strength of their three-prong pitching staff, stayed right in almost every game throughout the season. Unfortunately for San Diego State, the Aztecs went 1-11 against those teams, including a 1-6 mark in one-run contests versus the elite competition.
The Aztecs did record the fourth-highest winning percentage in school history and are on a four-year run of finishing with a .600 or higher winning percentage. The three seniors, second baseman Joann Figueroa (Phoenix, Ariz.), center fielder Janna Kovensky (San Diego, Calif.) and third baseman Kelcy Murphy (San Diego, Calif.), helped lead SDSU to its four best records in school history and are by far the winningest class in school history, compiling a 158-91-1 mark (.634). As freshmen, the trio were part of SDSU's first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance (and advancement to the regional final versus host UCLA) and as juniors, they returned to regionals, going 1-2.
To begin the 2004 campaign, the Aztecs followed up a pair of road wins against NAIA power Point Loma Nazarene with a trip to the very competitive Long Beach State Tournament to face No. 4/5 and eventual national champion UCLA, No. 8/7 Washington (twice), No. 19/18 Long Beach State and Santa Clara, who would end up winning the Pacific Coast Softball League championship. (rankings are as of the dates of the games)
A blow-out loss to Washington, 8-0, gave SDSU the immersion into top-notch softball it needed and the Aztecs bounced back with a 4-1 victory over Santa Clara and 4-1 loss to Long Beach State before finishing the tourney with a pair of intense hard-fought games against a pair of teams who would both advance to the Women's College World Series. The final day of the tournament saw the Aztecs miss opportunities for a pair of huge wins against Washington and UCLA. San Diego State took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth against the Huskies, along with subsequent 4-3 and 6-4 leads in extra innings, before falling in 11 innings, 7-6. Against the Bruins, the Aztecs took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth but eight Aztec errors proved too costly as UCLA pulled out a 6-2 win.
The Aztec Invitational followed, as SDSU played its first home games of the season, which it did with success by topping Mississippi State and Oklahoma State twice each and falling to UC Santa Barbara in a tight one, 1-0. The 4-1 mark that weekend won the tournament title for the Aztecs.
San Diego State next hosted the prestigious Campbell/Cartier Classic in Poway, Calif., defeating Iowa State and Hawai'i, while falling to Washington and Auburn. The Aztecs hit five doubles against Hawai'i to break the previous school record of four, set in a 2000 game versus the University of San Diego. An under-par road trip followed as the Aztecs went 2-3 at San Diego (a win), Cal Poly (two defeats) and UC Santa Barbara (a twin-bill split) before the Aztecs returned home to play host to the SDSU Tournament and a rematch with UCLA.
The Aztecs went 3-1 in the tournament with the only setback an epic contest against the top-ranked Bruins in which San Diego State stood tooth-and-nail with the national champions, finally succumbing in 10 innings, 1-0. Aztec hurler Deanna Richards (Visalia, Calif.) tossed the magnificent game, allowing only an unearned run against the powerful Bruin offense. The 701 Aztec fans compiled the largest crowd in school history. In other tournament games, SDSU defeated Nevada, Syracuse and Cal Poly to earn a second-place finish.
A tight 3-2 loss to Florida set up a trip to the Clovis Auto Row Softball Classic, hosted by No. 15/17 Fresno State. The Aztecs then proceeded to earn what would be SDSU's biggest win of the season, topping the host Bulldogs and their first team all-American pitcher, Jamie Southern, by a 1-0 tally. Cori Janelli (Visalia, Calif.) tossed the complete-game shutout for the Aztecs. The crowd of 1,817 would be the largest to see an Aztec game this season. The Aztecs finished the classic with a win over North Texas and three tight losses to nationally-ranked opponents: Oregon State, UCLA and Long Beach State.
The Aztecs then fell at home to Oklahoma, 4-1, before rolling through the San Diego Classic, easily topping Southern Utah, Indiana, Dartmouth, Buffalo and UC Riverside to earn their second tournament title of the season.
Against SUU, left fielder Erin Mahoney (Westchester, Calif.) swiped three bases to tie the school record. A pair of records fell in the victory over Buffalo. Head coach Kathy Van Wyk tallied the 254th win of her career, surpassing all previous Aztec coaches, including previous record holder Linda Spradley. In the same game, the Aztec base runners aggressively stole eight bases, shattering the previous record of six and setting a new Mountain West Conference record.
MWC play now awaited the Aztecs, who entered with a 21-16 mark, impressive considering the high quality of the opposition and the closeness of the contests they had played up to that point.
A pair of road splits in a couple challenging places to win, BYU and Utah, got the Aztecs off to a 2-2 conference start. Both of the contests versus the Utes went extra frames as the hosts claimed game one in 11 innings, 4-3, before the Aztecs rebounded in a victorious game two in eight innings, 4-3.
A pair of clutch home wins over Colorado State, the eventual MWC regular season champs, followed. Game one saw SDSU go to extra innings for the third consecutive contest and claiming a 2-1 win, while the Aztecs completed the sweep in game two with a 3-2 regulation win. A doubleheader sweep of New Mexico followed two days later to move the Aztecs into sole possession of first place in the MWC.
The Aztecs kept their red-hot home streak alive with another doubleheader sweep the following weekend, this time over UNLV, to move to 8-2 in conference play. The wins extended SDSU's home MWC winning streak to 15 games dating to the 2003 MWC home opener.
San Diego State then hit the road, once again sweeping New Mexico, although game one was not easy as first baseman Lacey Craft (Valley Center, Calif.) slammed a two-run homer with one out in the seventh to tie the game, 4-4, and San Diego State then proceeded to score three more runs and win, 7-4. The Aztecs blew out the Lobos in game two, 10-3.
A showdown with Colorado State awaited two days later. If the Aztecs could manage a challenging road sweep, they would put themselves in an almost insurmountable lead for the MWC regular season championship. The Rams however had other ideas, rebounding from a 2-1 Aztec victory in game one to claim an intensely contested game two by an identical 2-1 count. All of SDSU's runs on the day came in their first and final at-bats, tallying both runs in the first inning of game one before rallying in the seventh frame of game two, cutting the CSU lead to 2-1 and having the tying and go-ahead runners on second and third with one out before the Rams closed out a 2-1 victory. Following the doubleheader, the Aztecs (32-19, 11-3 MWC) led CSU (33-12, 9-3 MWC) by one game in the MWC standings with six contests remaining.
Following a road sweep of UNLV and a non-conference victory over Louisiana Tech, the Aztecs moved into the final weekend of the regular season with a 13-3 MWC record, one game ahead of CSU's 12-4 mark, but the Aztecs' third consecutive MWC regular season championship was not to be. A loss to Utah in game one of a doubleheader, 2-1, snapped the squad's 15-game home MWC winning streak, although SDSU did bounce back for a 2-0 game-two victory. Unfortunately for San Diego State, on the following day BYU swept the final two Aztec games to be played at SDSU Field, dropping SDSU into second place heading into the MWC Tournament, hosted by Colorado State.
The tournament to determine the MWC's automatic representative into the NCAA Tournament began late due to a snow and rainfall and was subsequently changed to a single-elimination format throughout to ensure that the tournament could be completed (it was originally scheduled to be double-elimination with a single-game championship).
The Aztecs benefited from the format change by needing only one victory to reach the championship game, but that also meant that one loss would send San Diego State home early. In the semifinal versus New Mexico, catcher Danielle Touhey (Fresno, Calif.) homered in the third and the three seniors - Figueroa, Kovensky and Murphy - manufactured the game-winning run in the sixth inning of the 2-1 victory with a pair of singles and a sacrifice fly. The Aztecs escaped a bases loaded one-out situation in the seventh before pitcher Celena Velasquez (Tucson, Ariz.) struck out the next batter on three pitches and induced an 0-2 ground out back to the circle.
Alas, the Aztecs fell in the championship, but not to Colorado State as Utah topped UNLV, 1-0, and Colorado State, 2-1, the day before to reach the championship contest. The Utes defeated San Diego State, 3-0, with a run in the first and a two-run homer in the top of the seventh. With hope still out for an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament, SDSU had its bubble burst the next day as it was not one of the lucky teams selected to regionals.
Velasquez earned MWC pitcher of the year honors for the second straight season while shortstop Meagan Hartung (San Diego, Calif.), Kovensky and Murphy were also named to the all-MWC squad. Velasquez led the league with a 0.85 ERA in MWC games, while compiling a 1.39 ERA in all contests and saving five games, tied for 15th most among NCAA Division I players. Janelli led the Aztecs in overall ERA at 1.31, while Deanna Richards (Visalia, Calif.) completed the nationally-ranked staff with a 1.67 ERA, third lowest in the MWC. The three combined for a 1.45 ERA, which ranked San Diego State 23rd nationally.
Offensively, Hartung and Kovensky had almost identical seasons with Hartung batting .364 (64-for-176) with a .477 slugging percentage, while Kovensky hit at a .363 clip (62-for-171) to go with a .474 slugging percentage. The two finished third and fourth in the MWC in batting average, while Hartung led the MWC with 28 walks and Kovensky's 17 steals (in 17 attempts) paced the rest of the conference. Murphy led the Aztecs in RBI with 35, which are 12 more than everybody else on the team, and hit .317. Mahoney and right fielder Bree Boyer (Huntington Beach, Calif.) each compiled 16 sacrifice hits to tie for the conference lead in that category.
Velasquez earned three MWC pitcher of the week awards, while Janelli was honored twice. Kovensky and Murphy earned co-player of the week awards once each. Velasquez, Kovensky and Murphy made the NFCA second team all-region squad for their impressive seasons.
Numerous school records were overcome, tied and almost touched throughout the season. Kovensky completely rewrote the Aztec career record book, moving into the top spot in three offensive categories (games, runs and walks), the second spot in five categories (at-bats, hits, home runs, total bases and stolen bases), the third slot in two categories (doubles and RBI) and is fourth in triples and sacrifice hits. Her spectacular senior season also gave her the fifth-highest season batting average in school history (.363) and the third-most runs (37), walks (26) and on-base percentage (.449).
Hartung's sophomore season was also spectacular as she compiled the third-highest batting average in school history at .364 to go along with record-setting numbers in runs, hits, doubles and walks. She also tied for the best on-base percentage in Aztec history at .462.
Murphy completed her Aztec career tied for the top spot in RBI and third in homers. Fellow senior Figueroa was fourth all-time in games played and runs scored and third in sacrifice hits.
The Aztecs now look to keep their successful trend going in 2005 as they enter a new facility and welcome an excellent recruiting class, complimenting an outstanding group of returning players. San Diego State has now compiled its four winningest seasons in each of the past four seasons and seven of eight all-time winning seasons during the last eight years of the 28-year history of Aztec softball.