The San Diego State Aztecs softball team was awarded an NCAA Tournament bid for winning last weekend’s Mountain West Tournament.

SDSU now heads to familiar territory, traveling up the five freeway to UCLA’s campus.

The Aztecs, along with UCLA, Arizona State, and UC Santa Barbara, are the four teams participating in the regional. This will be the third straight season the Aztecs make the trip to UCLA for the NCAA Tournament. Last year, the Aztecs went 0-2, losing to Virginia Tech and Grand Canyon.

SDSU is hoping to have a repeat of the 2023 regional at UCLA.

The Aztecs will start their regional matchup with Arizona State.

The two schools have a cool connection between their rosters. Shannon Cunningham played for Arizona State for two seasons before transferring to SDSU this past season, and AJ Murphy was with SDSU for two seasons before transferring to Arizona State this season. The two will play after host UCLA faces off against UC Santa Barbara at 4:30 p.m. All games will be on ESPN2 and ESPN+.

The Arizona State offense is led by the aforementioned Murphy, as well as Tanya Windle. The Sun Devils are a team that can do a little bit of everything. They can slug, they can hit for average, and they can play small ball. Two Sun Devils account for just under half of their home runs on the year. Graduate student Kelsey Hall has 10 home runs so far this year. Then, True Freshman from about an hour and a half away from SDSU, Ashleigh Mejia, has 13 home runs. Between Hall and Mejia, those two can change a game in the blink of an eye with one swing.

The Aztecs will likely not see Arizona State run when they get on base. Cali Decker is electric when it comes to throwing base runners out. The Aztecs pitchers do not have to worry about a runner stealing, which makes it easy for them to focus on the hitters.

The trio of Cece Cellura, Grace Uribe, and Dee Dee Hernandez will have their hands full in this first matchup.

The Aztecs will likely start their ace, Cellura, versus Arizona State’s Kenzie Brown. As mentioned before by Coach Nuveman-Deniz, she trusts her pitching staff no matter who is in. Expect Cellura to start with one, if not both, of Uribe and Hernandez to come in relief. Depending on how the game begins, Nuveman-Deniz could leave the door open on a potential re-entry of Cellura to close out the game.

Two main pitchers lead Arizona State’s pitching staff.

The Brown above and Meika Lauppe. Brown has been one of the best pitchers in all of college softball. In 157.2 innings of work, Brown has an ERA of 1.29 with a WHIP of 0.99 and a staggering 265 strikeouts on the year. The Aztec batters will have their hands full with Brown in the circle. She does not walk many batters, and opponents have a BA of just .167 against her.

The two key players for the Aztec offense are Bella Espinoza and Decker. Before the regional, Decker was named All-West Region Third Team by the NFCA. A well-deserved honor for the Aztec backstop. Decker came up with some much-needed clutch hits last week, and the Aztecs will need a repeat of that. Espinoza is considered by some an on-base machine. When Espinoza is on fire, the Aztecs behind her follow her lead tenfold. With this being her last ever regionals appearance and NCAA Tournament title shot, you can expect to see Espinoza try and lift her team to a second Super Regionals performance in three years.

Coach Nuveman-Deniz will have a message similar to that of her players, as she did last weekend. Do not play scared, and start playing aggressively. If the Aztecs are going to be eliminated and have their season over this weekend, potentially, you can be sure that they will not play scared and play like a dangerous team that has something to lose, just like they did last week.

Bryant Thursby

Assistant Coach at Heritage High School. A big time SDSU fanatic and Padres fan.