SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State softball team resumes Mountain West play this weekend with a three-game series against the New Mexico Lobos at SDSU Softball Stadium. The teams are scheduled to play at 6 p.m. on Friday, 4 p.m. on Saturday and 12 p.m. on Sunday. All three games will be broadcast on the Mountain West Network.
SDSU (18-10, 2-1) holds an 82-36 lead in the all-time series against New Mexico (16-13-1). Over the last two seasons, San Diego State is 5-0 against the Lobos. Since the series was canceled due to the pandemic in 2020. SDSU has won the series each of the last four years with a combined record of 10-1.
Last weekend, the Aztecs began MW play with a three-game series at Utah State. On Friday, Cali Decker and Angie Yellen each homered and Decker had four RBIs in a 13-8 win to begin the series. They started the second game afterwards and Decker homered again to help the Aztecs to a 7-4 advantage before the game was suspended due to darkness. After taking Saturday off, play resumed Sunday morning and SDSU held on for an 8-6 victory. The teams played again afterwards and the Aztecs scored three times to tie the game at four in the seventh inning but the Aggies got a walk-off home run by Grace Matej after a controversial call at home plate. SDSU dominated San Diego, scoring ten times in the first three innings and allowing just two infield singles in a 10-0 win in five innings on Wednesday night.
San Diego State has fared very well in Mountain West play through the first three seasons of Stacey Nuveman Deniz’s tenure as head coach. In 2022, the team went 20-4 during conference play to win the Mountain West title. The next year, SDSU finished with a 16-6 Mountain West record, finishing a half game shy of another championship, however the team went 3-0 in the conference tournament to win that title. A season ago, the Aztecs won both MW championships, going 15-7 during the regular season and 3-0 in the tournament.
Cece Cellura (3.54 ERA, 37 Ks, 7.40 K:BB, 1.20 WHIP, 57.1 IP) has pitched well this season as have Grace Uribe (3.48 ERA, 38 Ks, 54.1 IP) and freshman Ava Schaffel (0.76 ERA, 19 Ks, 27.2 IP), who began her career with 18.1 scoreless innings. Decker (1.299 OPS, .534 OBP, .459 BA, 25 RBI, 16 R, 4 HR, 12 2B, 1 3B) is the reigning MW Player of the Week and Shannon Cunningham (.872 OPS, 3 HR, 20 RBI, 13 R, 9 2B), Jazmin Williams (.794 OPS, 1 HR, 14 RBI, 16 R, 7 2B, 1 3B), Uribe (.963 OPS, 3 HR, 16 RBI, 13 R, 5 2B), Bella Espinoza (.793 OPS, .417 OBP, 9 RBI, 24 R, 15 SB, 2 2B) and Yellen (.911 OPS, 3 HR, 17 RBI, 19 R, 2 2B, 1 3B) have all been regulars in the Aztec lineup and contributed significantly to the offense. Defensively, Quinn Waiki has been making flashy plays all season long.