Feb. 5, 2018
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The San Diego State softball team has been picked to win the Mountain West in a preseason poll voted on by the league’s nine head coaches, the conference announced Monday. The Aztecs have won a league-record seven MW regular-season titles.
SDSU picked up 63 points in the preseason poll, including seven of the nine first-place votes. San José State is predicted to finish second with 57 points and the other two first-place votes, while Fresno State (44), Utah State (43) and Nevada (37) rounded out the top five. Colorado State (30) is slated to come in sixth, and Boise State (27), UNLV (14) and New Mexico (9) are pegged to finish seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively.
Last week, San Diego State received 12 votes in the preseason USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll, tied with Notre Dame for the 35th-most points in the poll and 59 points away from the top 25.
The Aztecs are coming off a 31-18 overall record in 2017 - their 12th consecutive 30-win season - and a 15-9 mark and runner-up finish in MW play. SDSU, however, did not receive an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament, despite finishing second in the sixth-best conference in the nation (out of 32 leagues).
San Diego State led the country last year with a .356 average, shattering their previous best of .310. In all, the Aztecs set seven school records, including batting average, on-base percentage (.418), slugging percentage (.516), hits (497), RBIs (295), sacrifice flies (23) and runs (324, tied).
SDSU begins its season on the road this weekend at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz. San Diego State kicks off the 2018 slate on Thursday, Feb. 8 with games against No. 25/25 Georgia (11:30 a.m. MT) and Stanford (7:15 p.m. MT), followed by another doubleheader on Friday, Feb. 9 with games vs. Western Michigan (5:15 p.m. MT) and Northwestern (7:30 p.m. MT), and single games against Nebraska (Saturday, Feb. 10 at 2 p.m. MT) and UC Davis (Sunday, Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. PT).
2018 MW Softball Preseason Poll
(First-place votes in parenthesis)
1. San Diego State (7) - 63
2. San José State (2) - 57
3. Fresno State - 44
4. Utah State - 43
5. Nevada - 37
6. Colorado State - 30
7. Boise State - 27
8. UNLV - 14
9. New Mexico - 9