TEMPE, Ariz. -- Mac Barbara had two of San Diego State's NCAA tournament-record four home runs in a 10-5 victory over No. 22/20 LSU in the first game of the NCAA Tempe Regional Friday night at Farrington Stadium. The third-seeded Aztecs (38-14) will now play host, No. 8/5 and top-seeded Arizona State at 2 p.m. PT Saturday in the winner's bracket of the double-elimination regional.
Taylor Adams and Jillian Celis also homered for SDSU, which won a game in the NCAA tournament for its seventh consecutive appearance. San Diego State has now won at least one game in the NCAA tournament in 11 of its 12 appearances.
Barbara also walked and finished with three RBIs, while Adams (2-for-4, 2 R), AJ Murphy (2-for-3, RBI, R, BB) and Alexa Schultz (2-for-4, RBI) added two hits apiece.
Allie Light picked up the win for the Aztecs tossing three scoreless innings of relief with two hits allowed and two strikeouts. Light is now 6-3. Maggie Balint started and yielded five runs on six hits and two walks over three innings, striking out two. Dani Martinez came into the game in the seventh and worked around a pair of one-out singles to finish the 10-5 win.
SDSU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning on back-to-back home runs by Barbara and Adams. Barbara first took a 3-1 pitch over the left-center field fence off the scoreboard. Adams followed with a home run to left field, her fifth of the year.
LSU answered in the bottom of the second on a two-run home run by Morgan Smith. The ball appeared to bounce off the glove of San Diego State center fielder Alexa Schultz and stay on the top of the wall before falling back into play, but the play was deemed to not be reviewable because it left the park.
The Aztecs responded with runs in the third. Murphy first connected on a one-out single to score Bella Espinoza from second. A Celis sacrifice fly knocked in Adams for the second run of the inning before a Schultz single plated Murphy to make it a 5-2 game.
The Tigers once again answered in the bottom of the third. After getting consecutive groundouts, Balint gave up back-to-back singles and Ali Newland followed with a homer over the center-field wall to tie the game up at 5-5.
In the fourth, Brocki led off with a single and later scored on a wild pitch. Barbara followed with a two-run homer to center field to SDSU back up by three runs. It was the second game this season with multiple home runs for the MW Player of the Year. Barbara now has 17 home runs on the season, tied for the fourth most in San Diego State single-season history and three shy of tying the school record of 20 set by Hayley Miles in 2012.
The Aztecs added to their lead in the sixth when pinch runner Macey Keester scored on fielding error by LSU second baseman Sydney Peterson.
Celis then led off the seventh with a homer off the glove of Smith in right field.
THE NOTE
SDSU improved to 31-1 on the season when scoring first and 36-4 when leading at any point in the game.
THE NOTE II
San Diego State had back-to-back home runs for the first time this season (Mac Barbara and Taylor Adams in the top of the first inning).
STAT OF THE DAY
The Aztecs won their 64th straight game when scoring at least 10 runs (5-0 this year).
UP NEXT
SDSU plays No. 8/5 Arizona State at 2 p.m. PT Saturday.
NCAA Tempe Regional
Tempe, Ariz. - Farrington Stadium
May 20-22, 2022
Double-Elimination
Friday, May 20
Game 1: [3] San Diego State 10, No. 22/20 [2] LSU 5
San Diego State (38-14) 203 301 1 -- 10 11 0
LSU (34-22) 023 000 0 -- 5 10 3
Balint, Light (4), Martinez (7) and Romanello; Kilponen, Sunseri (3), Wickersham (7) and Calland
W - Light, 6-3; L - Sunseri, 8-7
HR: San Diego State, Mac Barbara 2 (16, 17), Taylor Adams (5), Jillian Celis (1); LSU, Smith (2), Newland (7)
Game 2: No. 8/5 [1] Arizona State 5, [4] Cal State Fullerton 2
Saturday, May 21
Game 3, 2 p.m. PT: [3] San Diego State vs. No. 8/5 [1] Arizona State
Game 4, 4:30 p.m. PT: No. 22/20 [2] LSU vs. [4] Cal State Fullerton
Game 5, 7 p.m. PT: Loser of Game 3 vs. winner of game 4
Sunday, May 22
Game 6, 3 p.m. PT: Winner of Game 3 and Game 5
Game 7, 5:30 p.m. PT: If necessary