SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego State softball team plays host to New Mexico this weekend in its final home series of the regular season. The Aztecs (27-12, 11-5 MW) and Lobos (17-25, 4-10 MW) will play at 6 p.m. PT Friday, 4 p.m. PT Saturday and noon PT Sunday at SDSU Softball Stadium.
SDSU, which has a league-record eight regular-season titles, enters the weekend one game behind Boise State (10-2) in the MW regular-season race, although the Broncos have nine games remaining on their MW schedule and San Diego State just has six. The two teams meet next weekend in Boise, Idaho.
BS and the Aztecs are followed by Nevada (7-6), Colorado State (7-8), Utah State (6-7), Fresno State (6-7) and San Jose State (7-9), while UNLV (5-9) and UNM (4-10) round out the standings so far. The top-6 teams in the regular-season standings will qualify for the league's first conference tournament since 2006 with the top-2 teams automatically making the double-elimination bracket portion (two of the other four teams would have to win their first-round MW tournament game to advance to the double-elimination rounds). The winner of the MW tournament, set for May 11-13 at SDSU Softball Stadium, will earn the automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.
Mac Barbara, Bella Espinoza, Jillian Celis and Cali Decker have been the top hitters for SDSU, which owns a .305 average. Barbara, who was named the MW Player of the Week on Tuesday for her play last week against UNLV and Nevada (6-for-10, 2 HR, 4 RBI) leads San Diego State in average (.376), home runs (10), RBIs (37) and slugging percentage (.725). Espinoza, meanwhile, his hitting .374 with team highs in runs (42), hits (49) and stolen bases (24), Celis (.362) leads the Aztecs in doubles (10) to go along with four home runs and 30 RBIs, and Decker (.361) has team bests of 23 walks and a .484 on-base mark, while adding 23 runs and 19 RBIs.
Four SDSU pitchers have logged at least 40 innings this year, including Allie Light (8-5, 1.78 ERA, 5 SV, 82.2 IP), Sarah Lehman (9-3, 2.22 ERA, 3 SV, 66.1 IP), Dani Martinez (3-2, 2.93 ERA, 40.2 IP) and Dee Dee Hernandez (5-2, 3.61 ERA, 4 SV, 52.1 IP).
Following Sunday's game will be a special senior ceremony honoring San Diego State's six departing seniors, including Lehman, Martinez, Taylor Okada, Alyssa Pinto and Karina Faasisila.
The Friday game will be broadcast on SDSU softball's YouTube page, while the Saturday and Sunday games will be featured on the Mountain West Network.
SDSU Welcomes New Mexico in Final Home Series
