Finally, we have reached the end of our preseason preview journey in Logan, Utah, home of the Utah State Aggies. Unlike on the hardwood, where USU is a consistent powerhouse, and the gridiron, where they go through phases of being good and bad, Utah State’s softball program has historically one of the absolute worst in the country.
The Aggies were a powerhouse in the days before the NCAA began to sponsor softball, winning back-to-back AIAW National Championships in 1980 and 1981, consistently beating
the teams that would go on to be known as giants of the softball world such as UCLA, Arizona, and CSU Fullerton. The Aggies continued to have relative success in the early days of NCAA-sanctioned ball, even making it to a WCWS in 1984. However, the Aggies’ last NCAA Tournament appearance was all the way back in 1993.
Even worse, since legendary head coach Lloydene Searle retired in 1997, the Aggies have finished a full season with a winning record just three times: in 2016, 2017, and the COVID-shortened season of 2020. In that same time span, the Aggies have had a staggering 20 seasons where they finished at least 10 games below .500, including five seasons where they finished at least 30 games below .500. In other words, the once-proud Aggies have served as little more than the doormat of the collegiate softball world for nearly 30 years.
After Steven Johnson retired in 2022, having authored all three of those winning seasons in his 10 years in Logan, the reins were passed to current head coach Todd Judge, who has gone 66-80 in his three seasons with USU. This includes the 2025 season, where the Aggies had a historic breakthrough: reaching a regular season record over .500 for the first time since 1996 under a non-Steven Johnson skipper, making the MWC tournament for the first time ever. However, the Aggies finished the season losing 11 of their last 14 games, including their last five in a row, plummeting down to another .500 record at 26-26.
The Aggies’ softball program is not one looking for a conference championship, rather they are just hoping for a season where they can compete for wins on a regular basis. Can they finally finish above .500 for the first time since 2017? Let’s see what they will have to do to finally break the cycle.
Schedule
For the second straight year, the Aggies begin their season at the Aggie Classic, hosted by Texas A&M. Here they will face Abilene Christian (x2), preseason #11/11 Texas A&M, Bryant, and Providence. Texas A&M will obviously be the headliner here, having been ranked as the #1 team in the country for the majority of 2025 before being the first national #1 seed to lose in the regionals, falling to mid-major powerhouse Liberty. The Aggies will be looking to make a statement against their name-copycats to the west, but the rest of the tournament looks manageable for USU outside of them.
Next, the Aggies head over to Riverside, California, to take part in the Cal Baptist Classic. Here, the Aggs will face Saint Francis, Loyola Marymount, CSU Bakersfield, and Hawai’i (x2). The Rainbow Warriors were the best of these teams a year ago, finishing 33-20, falling to eventual conference representative UC Santa Barbara in the Big West Championships. This should be another good opportunity for the Aggies to stack wins early.
Afterwards, the Aggies head across the country for their hardest MTE of the year: the Georgia Classic in Athens, Georgia. Here, the Aggs will face preseason #21/20 Virginia Tech, Seton Hall (x2), and preseason #15/17 Georgia (x2). The three games against ranked teams will be tough enough, but Seton Hall is also no pushover, having gone 29-23 a year ago, meaning they will be a similar caliber of team to the Aggies. If the Aggies could win one of these five games, I would consider this tournament to be a success.
Next, the Aggies will head to, strangely enough, their final MTE of the season, the Beehive Classic, hosted by in-state rival Utah Tech. Here, the Aggies will face Southern Utah, Utah Valley (x2), Utah, and Utah Tech. Whereas one might assume the power-conference Utes would be the best team of the group, Utah was arguably the worst power-conference team in the country in 2025, going an abysmal 13-40. In reality, they still likely are, as the other three teams finished at least nine games below .500 in 2025, meaning the Aggies will, hilariously enough, be the favorites here.
Now, the reason Utah State only has four MTEs in 2026 is because of their robust nonconference slate, which features nine games. First, the Aggies will visit Kansas, a team that went 22-28 last year, for a three-game series. Then, they will undergo a home-and-home with preseason mid-major #21 Idaho State surrounding their first conference series.
The Aggies’ next nonconference game will be a potentially program-altering matchup, arguably the biggest game the Aggs have seen since their glory days of the 80s: a true home game with preseason #1/2 Texas Tech. I need not explain what winning this game could potentially do for this program.
The Aggies’ remaining nonconference games are a home-and-home with Weber State and one final away game at Utah Valley. Weber State is notable, having upset Idaho State in the Big Sky Tournament, snatching the conference’s autobid into the NCAA Tournament with a 29-32 record before falling to regional host Oregon.
Finally, the Aggies’ conference slate consists of five home series and four road series. On the road, the Aggies will face Fresno State, San Diego State, UNLV, and New Mexico. At home, they will face Nevada, GCU, Boise State, San Jose State, and Colorado State.
This is a pretty even balance of easy and difficult opponents, both at home and on the road. That, combined with having more home series than away series means that I could easily see the Aggies doing well with this schedule. Question is: do they have the team to pull it off?
Hitting Core
A year ago, Utah State was one of the best-hitting teams in the conference, ranking behing only Boise State in terms of batting average, with a team-wide mark of .341. However, as has been the theme with so many teams in this series, the Aggies have lost a significant portion of their hitting going into the 2026 season.
Their top four players in terms of batting average are gone: Ariel Fifita (.382), Olivia Marble (.372), and Claudia Medina (.367) to graduation, while star sophomore Tatum Silva (.381) left for projected SEC contender Mississippi State. In addition, All-MWC Second Team star Giselle Gonzalez, who led the team in both RBIs (60) and home runs (17) graduated away from the program.
The Aggs’ best remaining hitter is now-senior Kya Pratt, who hit .362 with nine home runs and an OPS of 1.067, ranking third on the team behind Fifita and Gonzalez. She is joined by fellow strong-hitting senior Grace Matej, who hit just .327, but ranked just behind Pratt with an OPS of 1.026, mostly due to her 10 home runs. Alex Bunton and Kaylee Erickson round out the four returning starters for 2026, Erickson being notable due to her boom-or-bust hitting tendencies, recording a batting average of a team-worst .271 while smashing nine homers and recording a team second-best 41 RBIs.
The Aggies got two players from this year’s transfer portal. First, Boise State’s Keely Goushá was only a spot starter in her two seasons with the Broncos, but recorded 21 hits and 11 RBIs, mainly serving as a pinch runner due to her great speed. She should fit in well with an Aggies squad that certainly needs some speed on the base path, having stolen the third-fewest bases in the conference last year.
In addition, the Aggies acquired Kate Vance, the No. 6 recruit in the nation and the No. 3 infielder in the 2024 class. Vance redshirted in her first season with her home-state Arizona Wildcats before entering the transfer portal in the offseason, winding up in Logan with the Aggies, likely in some part due to her old high school teammate, Jazmin Ramirez, committing to play for the Aggies in the offseason. Regardless of why she came here, though, Vance could be a huge add for Utah State.
This leaves us with the Aggies’ freshman class, which includes some very good prospects. Most notable, in my opinion, are the additions of Jakobi Nebeker and Hailey Holliday. Nebeker is coming off of a career high school batting average of .548, to go along with 72 RBIs and 18 home runs. Holliday, meanwhile, is yet another prospect out of Arizona, and is coming off of a fantastic senior season where she posted an average of .594, smashing seven homers and recording 46 RBIs.
Overall, despite the significant losses to Utah State’s hitting core, I think they have done a good job of assembling a solid group that can compete at a similar level to what they did last year. However, it was not the hitting core that caused the Aggies to fall short of their goals in 2025.
Pitching Core
While Utah State had one of the best hitting cores in the conference, they consistently had to be as great as they were to simply outdo the damage being done by their consistently struggling rotation. The pitching staff pumped out a final ERA of 6.48, only ranking out ahead of last-place team Colorado State, and recording the fewest total strikeouts in the conference with a pitiful tally of 139. Every single one of the Aggies’ four starting pitchers ranked in the bottom six in the conference in ERA among qualified pitchers (40-plus innings recorded).
With a pitching staff struggling this badly, it’s no surprise that three of their four starting pitchers are returning for 2026. SIUE transfer Rylie Pindel was the Aggies’ best pitcher in 2025, recording an ERA of just 5.02. She was followed by Emmalyn Brinka (5.52 ERA, 58 Ks), Texas A&M-CC transfer Denay Smith (6.79 ERA), and the reigning worst pitcher in the conference, Carly Limosnero (8.62 ERA). As if those numbers weren’t bad enough, the Aggies’ other two pitchers to get playing time combined for 6.2 innings and an ERA of an absurd 22.04.
Despite these numbers, the Aggies acquired zero transfers in the portal this offseason, which I can somewhat understand, considering how their two transfers performed in 2025. Thus, I think building through the freshman class, where they added three prospects, was the right move for the Aggies.
The first recruit was the aforementioned Jazmin Ramirez, whose primary reason for recruitment was likely to get her old teammate Vance to transfer to Utah State, but Ramirez’ two-way potential is still intriguing nonetheless, recording an ERA of 2.72 and a batting average of .333 throughout high school. The second recruit is Jordyn Lish, who recorded a career ERA of 2.09 with 285 strikeouts in 211.1 innings of service in high school. Neither of these players have eye-popping stats that are indicative of being good college players, but you never know who will and won’t develop on a given team.
The main recruit that gives me hope for fixing the Aggies’ pitching staff woes is Kendall Cochran, the #2 pitching recruit in the 2025 Southwest Region recruiting class. Cochran was a four-year starter in high school, recording a career ERA of 1.70 in 423.2 innings, along with 633 total strikeouts. Her junior season was particularly spectacular, recording an ERA of 0.80 with 183 strikeouts. She regressed in her senior season, recording an inferior ERA of 2.18, but also became a strikeout machine, recording 247 Ks.
Cochran should, barring a massive performance shift from any of her predecessors in the circle this offseason, be the day-one starter for Utah State in 2026. If she can get her ERA back under control, her strikeout-heavy tendencies will lead her to great success in this conference, especially on a team that struggles to strike out batters. If she performs like I expect her to, she will likely not be in Logan for long, but even one season of having a single decent pitcher is all this Aggies team needs to succeed.
Prediction
2025 Result: 26-26 (11-11 MWC), Regular Season: 5th, Tournament: 5th, Missed NCAA Tournament
2026 Prediction: 28-26 (10-15 MWC), Make Conference Tournament, Miss NCAA Tournament
I think this is finally the year Utah State makes it back above the ever-elusive .500 mark. Their pitching staffmay still be slightly concerning, but I think the addition of Kendall Cochran alone will be able to improve the rotation. Meanwhile, the hitting core has lost a lot of its previous talent, but there are enough returning contributers to maintain similar performance to last year, in my opinion.
I think it will look pretty bad in that regard for a while, considering how brutal their start to conference play is, playing my picks for the top four teams in the conference in their first four conference series. However, after that point, only their home game against the title-contending Red Raiders looks like an obvious loss, meaning I think USU will end up getting above the .500 mark in one of their final conference series (either CSU or UNM).
The Aggies also have a doubleheader series at home against Boise State, who is my prediction to be the first team out of the conference tournament. I think Utah State sweeps Boise State in that series, which winds up being the tiebreaker between the two 10-15 teams for the conference’s 6-seed. I don’t believe the Aggies will be able to do anything of note in the tournament, especially since I believe they will end up facing the lesser of the Big 3 in the conference, but getting back to the Tournament and to the .500 mark would make this season a grand success for Utah State.
Closing
With that, we have reached the end of this journey to preview every team in the final season of Mountain West softball as it has largely been since 2013. Next up will be my official preseason power rankings, which will drop on Wednesday, February 4, at 8:00 a.m. PST. After that, expect weekly recaps and power rankings for all teams until conference play begins, at which time I plan to add series recaps to the lineup.
Writer’s note: If you’ve been following along, you may notice that I gave a few previous teams too many conference wins, so I went back and edited some of my previous record predictions. Otherwise, Utah State would have had to go 1-24 in conference play to make the records work out. Only the worst teams in softball history have a conference record that bad, and I don’t think the Aggies will be close to that this year, so I went back and changed some things.
