From staff reports
San Diego State University’s softball team recorded a dramatic 13-4 run-rule victory in Las Vegas on May 4 to snap a tie atop the Mountain West Conference standings with the host Lady Rebels to claim outright possession of this year’s MW regular season championship.
The teams entered the game with identical 14-7 conference records; SDSU finished regular season play 15-7 while UNLV finished 14-8 in advance of the MW tournament in which the Lady Aztecs received the No. 1 seed.
SDSU (28-18 overall) broke open the pivotal May 4 encounter with a 10-run explosion in the fourth inning – its largest outburst of the season — to erase a 4-3 deficit. Angie Yellen (Santa Margarita) plated the first two runs with a bases loaded single to flip the score to 5-4 in favor of the Lady Aztecs.
A.J. Murphy (Goodyear, Ariz.) stroked a double to increase the SDSU lead to 7-4.
Makena Broki (Chino Hills) laced a double to up the lead to 9-4. Long Beach’s Mac Barbara — the MW Co-Player of the Year — later homered for a 12-3 advantage. It was her second home run of the game to go with a double.
MW queens
The Lady Aztecs picked up three more wins in Boise to reign as conference tournament champions, beating fifth-seeded Boise State twice by scores of 9-1 and 6-3 sandwiched around a 4-1 win over third-seeded Nevada.
Mater Dei Catholic alumna Alyssa Garcia, Barbara, Katie Goldberg (Atlanta) and Allie Light (Lexington, S.C.) represented the Lady Aztecs on the all-tournament team in the May 9-11 event. Garcia hit a home run in the championship game.
Barbara tops SDSU with a 0.383 hitting average, 14 home runs and 48 RBI, followed by Garcia at 0.325 with two home runs and 24 RBI. Junior Cali Decker (Lake Mary, Fla.) ranks third on the squad with a 0.305 hitting average and 23 RBI.
Junior Dee Dee Hernandez (La Crecsenta) leads SDSU pitchers with a 10-4 record and 2.53 earned-run average while freshman Cece Cellura (Glendale) is 8-5 with a 2.60 ERA.
Light is 12-7 with a 2.63 ERA.
SDSU (31-18) will meet No. 15 Virginia Tech (39-12-1) in Friday’s NCAA Los Angeles regional.
