NOTES - Utah State Softball Travels to Northern California for Capital Classic

Full Notes (PDF)

Softball 2/29/2024 12:13:00 PM

PLAY BALL!

Utah State softball (7-7, 0-0 Mountain West) continues its 2024 campaign this weekend at the Capital Classic in Northern California. The Aggies will face off versus BYU (Friday, March 1, 1 p.m. (MT)), UC Davis (Friday, March 1, 3:30 p.m. (MT)), Sacramento State (Saturday, March 2, 12 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. (MT)) and UC Santa Barbara (Sunday, March 3, 10:30 a.m. (MT)) as part of the tournament.

FOLLOW ALONG

Live stats for all of this weekend's games will be available via StatBroadcast. Links and live updates will be available on the USU softball social media pages and through UtahStateAggies.com.

AGGIES VS COUGARS

• BYU leads Utah State 49-33 in a series dating back to 1976. The Cougars have won six-straight meetings, including a 10-5 win in Provo last season. In neutral site games, BYU holds a 4-3 advantage in the series.

• The Cougars enter the weekend 12-3 overall. In 2023, BYU went 35-17 overall, including an 11-4 mark in league play to finish the season second in the WCC. The team returned five starters and 12 letterwinners, while welcoming in eight newcomers this year.

AGGIES VS AGGIES

• UC Davis leads Utah State 7-4 in a series dating back to 2005. UC Davis has won four-straight meetings, including a 7-6 win in the Silicon Valley Classic last season. In neutral site games, UC Davis holds a 7-4 advantage in the series.

• The Aggies enter the weekend 6-5 overall. In 2023, UC Davis went 29-22 overall, including a 15-12 mark in league play to finish the season fourth in the Big West. The team returned seven starters and eight letterwinners, while welcoming in four newcomers this year.

AGGIES VS HORNETS

• Sacramento State leads Utah State 27-9 in a series dating back to 1978. The Aggies won the most recent meeting between the sides, an 8-2 neutral site victory on Feb. 25, 2022. In games played in Sacramento, Sacramento State holds a 6-1 advantage in the series.

• The Hornets enter the weekend 7-5 overall. In 2023, Sacramento State went 27-20 overall, including a 10-5 mark in league play to finish the season tied for first in the Big Sky. The team returned eight starters and 10 letterwinners, while welcoming in six newcomers this year.

AGGIES VS GAUCHOS

• Utah State leads UC Santa Barbara 34-28 in a series dating back to 1984. The past six meetings have been split, with Utah State winning on the road in the most recent contest 8-7 on Feb. 12, 2022. In neutral site games, the series is tied 3-3.

• The Gauchos enter the weekend 3-10 overall. In 2023, UC Santa Barbara went 26-22 overall, including a 13-14 mark in league play to finish the season sixth in the Big West. The team returned six starters and eight letterwinners, while welcoming in nine newcomers this year.

ICYMI

• Utah State played its third tournament of the season last weekend with five games in the Utah Tech Classic, going 2-3 in those contests. The Aggies opened the weekend with back-to-back 5-4 losses to Weber State on Friday and Saturday, but bounced back with a 12-2 five-inning win over Eastern Kentucky on Saturday and a 3-2 win over Eastern Kentucky on Sunday. The Aggies wrapped up in St. George with a 3-2 loss to host Utah Tech on Sunday.

• Six different Aggie pitchers saw time in the circle, with graduate Katie Zuniga and senior Jessica Stewart being credited with the wins. Zuniga pitched a team-high 9.2 innings, allowing just one run and posting 10 strikeouts.

• Junior infielders Ariel Fifita and Giselle Gonzalez led the Aggie bats, each going .444 (8-of-18) at the plate. Gonzalez hit three home runs and a pair of doubles for 19 total bases, bringing in six RBIs and totaling four runs.

KEEPING IT CLOSE

Close games have been a theme early in the season for Utah State. Eight of the team's 14 games have been determined by a single run. Six of the team's seven losses have been by just one run, the exception being its season-opening loss to No. 9 Oklahoma State.

WARMING UP

Utah State junior infielder Giselle Gonzalez enters the weekend on fire after closing out the Utah Tech Classic with three strong games at the plate. In those games, she hit .636 (7-of-11) with three home runs and two doubles, including home runs in back-to-back innings against Eastern Kentucky. She also had six RBIs and four runs during that stretch.

THE MAGIC NUMBER

When allowing two or fewer runs this season, Utah State is 7-0. When allowing three or more runs, the team is 0-7.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

• Junior infielder Ariel Fifita was recognized as the America First Credit Union USU Student-Athlete of the Week for the week ending Feb. 18.

• Fifita went 7-of-11 (.636) at the plate on the week, while posting a .727 slugging percentage and a .706 on base percentage. She was responsible for four runs and four RBIs, and added three bases on balls. She also had a team-best four steals on four attempts. In the field, Fifita totaled four putouts and 10 assists.

A NEW ERA AT UTAH STATE

On June 5, 2023, Todd Judge was named head coach of Utah State softball, the 10th head coach in program history. Judge joins the Aggies after spending the past two seasons as a part of the coaching staff at BYU. He has over 15 years of softball coaching experience and 10 years of baseball coaching experience. The Arizona native helped coach the Cougars to a combined 77-27 overall record during his two years in Provo. Prior to that, he coached travel and high school baseball for 10 years, travel softball for 15 years and junior college softball for one year.

WELCOME BACK

Utah State returns seven starters and seven letterwinners from last year's squad, as well as four pitchers. Of returning starters, four made at least 30 starts while all seven started at least 25 games.

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR

Outfielder Jaden Colunga returns for the Aggies this year, fresh off of a stellar freshman campaign in which she was named the Mountain West Freshman of the Year. In 2023, Colunga made 37 starts for USU, including all 22 games in league play. Against MW competition, she batted .338 (23-of-68), while recording a .456 slugging percentage and an on-base percentage of .395. Colunga finished league play with 31 RBIs, 31 putouts, nine runs and one sacrifice fly.

NEW YEAR, NEW FACES

Utah State welcomes in 10 newcomers this season, including six transfers and four freshmen. Transfer additions include graduate left-handed pitcher Katie Zuniga (Quartz Hill, California / Utah Valley), senior outfielder Ali Ashner (Phoenix, Arizona / Arizona), junior catcher Kaylee Erickson (Phoenix, Arizona / BYU), junior outfielder Brooklyn Pritchett (Layton, Utah / Salt Lake CC), redshirt sophomore right-handed pitcher Denay Smith (Mesa, Arizona / Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) and sophomore infielder Alex Bunton (San Mateo, California / San Diego State). Incoming freshmen include outfielder Tatum Silva (Rescue, California / Ponderosa HS), infielder Emerson Meggers (Vacaville, California / Vacaville Christian HS), infielder/outfielder Paige McLeod (Encinitas, California / San Dieguito Academy) and catcher Zereniti Sousa (Wheatland, California / Wheatland Union HS).