SAN DIEGO -- Fresh off closing out its Mountain West season with a series win at league-leading Boise State, the San Diego State softball team travels to Los Angeles for a pair of non-conference games on Friday. The Aztecs (32-13, 16-6 Mountain West) first play LMU (25-17, 11-1 WCC) at 3:30 p.m. PT at Easton Stadium before taking on No. 2/2 UCLA (47-4, 21-3 Pac-12) at 6 p.m. PT.
SDSU (16-6), which has a MW-record eight regular-season titles, enters the weekend tied with BS (14-4) atop the league standings, but the Broncos, who have a higher winning percentage, play three games at Fresno State this weekend and need two wins to clinch the regular-season title.
Both San Diego State and Boise State have already locked up the top-2 seeds (and byes) for the first MW Tournament since 2006, set for May 11-13 at SDSU Softball Stadium. The winner of the six-team tournament, which moves to double elimination when it gets down to four teams, will earn the automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.
Bella Espinoza, Mac Barbara, Cali Decker and Jillian Celis have been the top hitters for SDSU, which is hitting at a .308 clip. Espinoza tops San Diego State in average (.371), runs (47) and stolen bases (26), while Barbara (.370) leads in home runs (11), RBIs (40), total bases (88), walks (24, tied) and slugging percentage (.693). Decker (.368) paces the Aztecs in walks (24, tied) and on-base percentage (.477), and Celis is hitting .357 with five home runs, 39 RBIs, 33 runs and 11 doubles.
Four SDSU pitchers have logged at least 40 innings this year, including four-time MW Pitcher of the Week Allie Light (10-5, 1.64 ERA, 7 SV, 102.1 IP), Sarah Lehman (10-3, 2.28 ERA, 3 SV, 76.2 IP), Dani Martinez (3-2, 3.05 ERA, 43.2 IP) and Dee Dee Hernandez (7-3, 3.78 ERA, 4 SV, 59.1 IP).
SDSU Set for Non-League Games vs. LMU & No. 2/2 UCLA
