SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State softball team returns to America’s Finest City this weekend, for a three-game series against the UNLV Rebels. The teams are scheduled to play at 6 p.m. PT on Friday, 4 p.m. on Saturday and 12pm PT on Sunday. The games on Friday and Sunday will be broadcast on the Mountain West Network.
SDSU (24-14, 8-5) enters the weekend tied for the most conference wins in the Mountain West. However the Aztecs and Fresno State are tied for third place behind Nevada and Utah State who have the same amount of wins but three more losses. Meanwhile, UNLV (18-19, 2-9) sits in ninth place in the league.
San Diego State leads 69-50 in the all-time series against the Rebels. The last time the teams played, SDSU scored ten runs in the fourth inning for a 13-4 run-rule victory to win the 2024 Mountain West regular season championship on the final day of the regular season in Las Vegas. The Aztecs have won six of the 11 games since the canceled 2020 campaign and are 5-3 against UNLV in the Stacey Nuveman Deniz era. In the Mountain West era, SDSU is 52-25 against the Rebels in the regular season and 54-27 overall.
On Wednesday, the Aztecs hosted a doubleheader against Fresno State. A two-run home run by Grace Uribe was enough offense for Cece Cellura and Dee Dee Hernandez in the first game as the Aztecs earned a 2-1 victory. The second game was scoreless after four innings, but the offenses woke up and combined for ten runs over the final three innings as Fresno State emerged victorious 7-3. SDSU came up short in a 2-1 final against Colorado State on Saturday but home runs from Shannon Cunningham and Uribe propelled the Aztecs to a 10-2 win in five innings on Sunday.
San Diego State has fared very well in Mountain West play during 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.
Cellura (2.78 ERA, 56 Ks, 5.60 K:BB, 1.19 WHIP, 85.2 IP) has pitched well this season as have Uribe (3.18 ERA, 46 Ks, 70.1 IP) and freshman Ava Schaffel (1.29 ERA, 23 Ks, 32.2 IP), who began her career with 18.1 scoreless innings. Cali Decker (1.126 OPS, .493 OBP, .385 BA, 29 RBI, 17 R, 4 HR, 13 2B, 1 3B), Cunningham (.887 OPS, 5 HR, 26 RBI, 19 R, 9 2B, 1 3B), Uribe (.891 OPS, 5 HR, 22 RBI, 15 R, 5 2B), and Bella Espinoza (.734 OPS, .388 OBP, 10 RBI, 28 R, 17 SB, 2 2B) 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.