SDSU Season Kickoff on the Docket for This Weekend

Aztecs Begin 2023 Campaign by Hosting San Diego State Season Kickoff
The San Diego State softball begins the second season of the Stacey Nuveman Deniz head coaching era this weekend when it hosts the four-day, six-team, 15-team San Diego State Season Kickoff at SDSU Softball Stadium.

The Aztecs, who are receiving votes in both the USA Today/NFCA and ESPN.com/USA Softball preseason coaches polls, will play CSUN (3:30 p.m. PT) and No. 22/rv Arizona State (6 p.m. PT) on Thursday, Notre Dame at 7 p.m. PT Friday, Memphis at 11:30 a.m. PT Saturday and Northern Illinois at 11:30 a.m. PT Sunday.

Last year, SDSU posted a 39-16 record (.709), the second-best record in program history, before falling to No. 8/5 Arizona State, 8-4, in the NCAA Tempe Regional final. San Diego State also captured its league-record eighth Mountain West title with a 20-4 conference record. The 20 league victories were the program's most ever and tied for the second most in MW history.

The Aztecs return four all-MW players from a year ago, including the MW Player of the Year, first-team NFCA All-West Region and NFCA third-team All-American Mac Barbara. Among the SDSU single-season leaders, Barbara ranked second in RBIs (61) in 2022, third in total bases (138), tied for third in home runs (18) and extra-base hits (33), fourth in on-base percentage (.493), slugging percentage (.802) and OPS percentage (1.295), tied for fourth in walks (34), tied for sixth in doubles (14), seventh in batting average (.395) and eighth in hits (68).

Other returning all-conference players for San Diego State include first-team selection Bella Espinoza (.381, 39 R, 15 SB), and second-team picks AJ Murphy (.304, 2 HR, 26 RBI, 20 R) and Dee Dee Hernandez (9-4, 1.98 ERA, 85.0 IP, 3 SV).

The Aztecs' three combined games on Thursday and Friday will be broadcast live on the Mountain West Network (https://goaztecs.com/watch/).