SAN DIEGO -- San Diego State, the defending Mountain West champion with a league-record eight regular-season titles, plays host to the 2023 MW Softball Championship this weekend at SDSU Softball Stadium. The Aztecs (32-15, 16-6) received the No. 2 seed in the six-team tournament and received a bye into the double-elimination portion with top-seeded Boise State (31-15, 16-5 MW).
SDSU will play the winner of third-seeded Colorado State (31-20, 11-10 MW) and sixth-seeded Nevada (30-17, 10-12 MW) at 6:30 p.m. PT Thursday. Fourth-seeded San Jose State (23-26, 11-11 MW) and No. 5 Fresno State (23-30, 10-12 MW) also qualified for the first MW tourney since 2006. Overall, there will be four games on Thursday, three on Friday and one (two if necessary) on Saturday.
Despite having the eight regular-season titles, San Diego State is looking for its first MW Tournament championship. The postseason tournament was contested from 2000-06 with all six teams at the time competing for the league's automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. The Aztecs were the top seed in three of those seven tournaments, but never captured the championship, finishing runner-up and falling in the championship game an amazing five times (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006). Utah (four) and Brigham Young (two), which are no longer in the league, combined for six of the seven MW championships with Colorado State winning the other in 2003. From 2007-22, the team with the best conference record received the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
SDSU is 11-11 all-time in the MW Tournament, including 1-1 as the No. 2 seed. San Diego State earned the second seed in the 2004 MW Tournament, beating No. 6 New Mexico before falling to fourth-seeded Utah in the championship game of what was a different format at the time.
Mac Barbara (.373, 12 HR, 41 RBI, 28 R, .472 OB%, .701 SLG%), Bella Espinoza (.367, 47 R, 26 SB), Cali Decker (.355, 3 HR, 27 RBI, 25 R, .462 OB%), Jillian Celis (.345, 5 HR, 39 RBI, 33 R) and Macey Keester (.306, 1 HR, 21 RBI, 22 R, 14 SB) are all hitting over .300 for the Aztecs.
Four SDSU pitchers have logged at least 45 innings this year, including four-time MW Pitcher of the Week Allie Light (10-6, 1.85 ERA, 7 SV, 106.0 IP), Sarah Lehman (10-4, 2.58 ERA, 3 SV, 78.2 IP), Dani Martinez (3-2, 3.42 ERA, 45.0 IP) and Dee Dee Hernandez (7-3, 3.46 ERA, 4 SV, 64.2 IP).
The entire Mountain West Championship will be broadcast on the Mountain West Network with live links for stats available on GoAztecs.com.
Aztecs Ready to Host MW Championship This Weekend
