March 6, 2017
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State plays host to Detroit Mercy at 6 p.m. PT Tuesday in its final non-conference home game of the year at SDSU Softball Stadium. Currently in a stretch of 18 games in 20 days, the Aztecs are 11-7 on the season.
SDSU is coming off a 3-2 weekend at the San Diego Classic I, where four of its five opponents made the NCAA tournament last year. San Diego State lost to 2016 NCAA tourney foes McNeese State (7-6) and Brigham Young (5-1), before beating NCAA tourney opponents Boston University (8-0 in five innings) on Friday and Miami (10-4) on Saturday. The Aztecs also defeated UC Davis, 5-4, on Sunday.
Out of SDSU's seven losses on the year, four have come against top-25 schools, including three against teams in the top 10 (then No. 8/8 UCLA, then No. 8/9 Washington and then No. 1/1 Florida State), and six vs. teams that made last year's NCAA tournament.
Through three weekends of play, San Diego State continues to swing a hot bat, posting a .351 average with 113 runs (6.3 runs per game), a .490 slugging percentage and a .411 on-base percentage. Out of 291 teams in NCAA play, the Aztecs rank 12th in batting average, 26th in on-base percentage, 35th in runs per game and 36th in slugging percentage, despite their tough schedule thus far.
Sophomore Molly Sturdivant leads SDSU with a .455 average (20-for-44), seven doubles and a .750 slugging percentage, while adding two homers, 12 RBIs and a .529 on-base percentage. Junior Taylor Stewart (Bellflower, Calif.) is hitting .410 with team highs of 10 walks and a .531 on-base percentage, while sophomore Katie Byrd (Santee, Calif./West Hills HS) is batting an even .400 with two home runs, 17 runs, 13 RBIs and six doubles. Junior Jenavee Peres (Garden Grove, Calif.) (.393, 4 HR, 20 RBI, 19 R) and senior Sydnee Cable (Huntington Beach, Calif.) (.361, 1 HR, 21 RBI) have combined for 41 RBIs in the team's 18 games, and redshirt freshman Kiera Wright (Riverside, Calif.) (.344) leads the squad with eight stolen bases.
Four SDSU players have pitched at least 20 innings, led by freshman Marissa Moreno (Torrance, Calif.) (5-2, 3.09 ERA, 31.2 IP), senior Erica Romero (Corona, Calif.) (3-1, 3.25 ERA, 36.2 IP), sophomore Julie McDonald (Carlsbad, Calif./Carlsbad HS) (1-2, 3.75 ERA, 28.0 IP) and junior Alex Formby (Orange, Calif.) (2-2, 5.17 ERA, 21.2 IP).
The Titans enter Tuesday's showdown with a 3-12 record after going 0-5 at the San Diego Classic. Detroit Mercy plays a doubleheader at UC Riverside today (Monday) and at San Diego on Wednesday before returning to Detroit.
DM is batting .256 with four home runs and 45 runs on the season, averaging 3.0 runs per game. Grace Schmeiser leads the squad with a .333 average.
Detroit Mercy had posted a 5.31 ERA on the year, led by Liz Murphy (3-5, 3.94 ERA, 53.1 IP).
Later in the week San Diego State travels to the Louisville Slugger Invitational with games at Cal State Fullerton (6 p.m. PT Thursday), Boston U. (11:30 a.m. PT) and Harvard (2 p.m. PT) on Friday, Eastern Michigan (10 a.m. PT) and Longwood (12:30 p.m. PT) on Saturday, and Harvard at 12:30 p.m. PT Sunday (at Long Beach State).