Utah State softball falls to Boise State
Utah State’s softball team could not come up with a third straight win against Boise State over the weekend, losing the series finale 13-1 on Saturday afternoon.
The trouble for the Aggies began at the top of the first inning when sophomore pitcher Denay Smith gave up a two-run home run to Boise State’s designated hitter Sydney Groves after retiring the first two hitters of the game.
Junior shortstop Ariel Fifita responded quickly to the Broncos’ lead, launching a homerun that caromed off the right fielder’s glove and over the wall. Boise State pitcher Taylor Caudill was able to settle down in the circle after Fifita’s leadoff home run, retiring the Aggies lineup to close out the inning. Fifita’s first-inning strike would be the only run that crossed the plate for the Aggies as Caudill pitched all five innings while recording six strikeouts.
Boise State came back and scored five runs in the top of the second inning to solidify a six-run lead that the Aggies were never able to threaten. Boise State added on three runs in the third and fourth innings to extend their lead to twelve and incur a mercy rule victory after the completion of the fifth inning.
After the game, head coach Todd Judge acknowledged the challenges of pitching against Boise State.
“This is a really good team that won the conference last year and can really hit, so fooling hitters at that level for three games in a row is really tough,” Judge said. “Our pitchers have had an amazing year and have been the strength of our team, so sometimes results like this just happen.”
The loss led to Utah State falling to 19-12 on the season and 3-3 against Mountain West competition. The Aggies still had a successful weekend, winning the first game of yesterday’s doubleheader against Boise State 2-1 in addition to winning the second game 9-1. Historically, the Broncos have been a challenge for Utah State and had won the 17 straight games in the series dating back to 2017 before Friday’s matchups.
Although Judge was disappointed with how the series ended, he was still happy with how his team competed throughout the series.
“I mean we haven’t beaten Boise in 17 games, so taking two out of three in the series is definitely a great accomplishment for us,” Judge said. “We’re not going to hang our heads from it, we’re disappointed in our game today, but we’re definitely satisfied with the weekend.”
Coach Judge has led the Aggies to their best start to a season since 2017 in his first year at the program’s helm. The Aggies hope to build off their series win against Boise State next weekend as they travel to Las Vegas to take on the UNLV Rebels in a three-game set before returning to the Beehive State to take on the Utah Utes in Salt Lake City. The Aggies’ next home games will be in another doubleheader against Nevada on April 3rd.