The Boise State softball team remained in first place in the Mountain West with a 9-6 win over second-place San Diego State on Sunday afternoon at Dona Larsen Park.
The Broncos, who would have been eliminated from title contention with a loss, now can clinch the Mountain West regular season crown by winning two of three games in Fresno in the final series of the regular season next weekend in Fresno.
Mykenzie Hanna had a triple and home run and also robbed a home run for the Broncos, who led 6-0 after two innings but let the Aztecs pull within 6-4.
A record-crowd of 1,006 filled the grandstands behind the plate and the grass berm in the outfield on a sunny, 89-degree day in Boise. And they were treated to quite the game.
Pitcher Taylor Caudill (13-8) allowed two earned runs in 5 2/3 innings and had six strikeouts to earn the win.
Boise State (29-14, 14-4 MW) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a home run by Eliyah Flores. The Broncos got five runs in the second inning on an RBI double from Alycia Flores, an RBI single from Kelsey Hall and an RBI single from Abby Bymcrot. Hanna’s two-run homer, her ninth of the season, extended the Broncos’ lead to 6-0.
But San Diego State scored three runs in the third and another in the fourth to pull within 6-4.
Hanna then tripled and scored on a single by Eliyah Flores, who scored on an Aztecs error. Ashlyn Whalen then hit a solo home run in the fifth – which came with some controversy when San Diego State argued unsuccessfully she should have been ruled out for missing home plate – to put the Broncos up 9-4.
San Diego State scored twice in the sixth to make it 9-6, and would have pulled even closer to start the ninth before Hanna robbed Jillian Celis of a home run by reaching above the fence to catch the would-be homer.
The Broncos, who lost the first two games of the series against San Diego State on Friday and Saturday, will travel to face Fresno State in a 3-game series starting on Friday.
Watch video interviews with coach Justin Shults and players from the BNN YouTube channel below…
