With two weeks left in the season, all of the Mountain West had some sort of playoff implications play out. UNLV and GCU made it interesting with San Jose State, as all three programs are within a game of each other after their series against Fresno State, New Mexico and San Diego State and are fighting for the final Mountain West Conference tournament seed. Meanwhile, Washington State took its series against Air Force, forcing a two way tie for the second and final first round bye seed. And, with their rubber
match win against San Jose State, the SDSU Aztecs have clinched the regular season title and will be the first seed in the tournament.
Even though five teams have booked their ticket for Arizona, there are still many question marks with where we will see each program after this upcoming weekend. Here are our week 13 power rankings.
1.San Diego State (prev. 1)
- Lost at UC San Diego 8-4
- Won series vs San Jose State 2-1
It was a clinch-filled weekend for the Aztecs, who after a 2-1 series win over San Jose State, clinched a share of the Mountain West regular season title.
While the week didn’t start victorious with a 8-4 loss over UC San Diego, San Diego State welcomed San Jose State and took care of things in the first and third games. The Aztecs hit the series hard with an 11-1 win in seven innings in game one, but a 9-4 loss the next day evened the series out. On the final game and senior night, SDSU held SJSU to just one run in a 4-1 victory, clinching the Aztecs’ first MW title share since 2023. San Diego State has a chance to win the regular season title outright with just one win during its finally series of the season this week, which will be on the road over UNLV.
2.Washington State (prev. 2)
- Lost at Gonzaga 10-5
- Won series at Air Force 2-1
While the odds of Washington State taking a share of the MW title are extremely slim, the Cougars took an important stride to stay among the top of the conference last week. While the 10-5 loss to Gonzaga certainly didn’t help that, a 2-1 series win over a hot Air Force team did.
Wazzu scored 25 runs through the first two games (winning 11-2 in the first game and 14-4 in the second), which helped clinch their sixth straight series win.
Going into game three with eyes on a sweep and MW title hopes, Washington State took a 9-5 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.
It all just fell apart for Wasington State at the end. Air Force played the small ball game to rally in five runs and walk-off to avoid the sweep and enter a tie with Washington State in the conference standings. Wazzu now sits at 15-9 in conference play with only one game left on the season, which is a on-conference matchup over Seattle U. Unless San Diego State is swept this weekend, Washington State will finish tied for second place in the conference.
3.Air Force (prev. 3)
- Lost series vs Washington State 1-2
It was a similar story to Washington State. Both teams desperately needed to beat up the other to keep its conference title hopes alive. Things looked extremely bleak for the Falcons after the first two games, only being able to score six runs through that span. The final game was of course senior day, in which Air Force sent them off in style with the five-run comeback in the bottom of the ninth to walk-off and win 10-9, avoiding the sweep from Washington State and also keeping its title hopes alive by an extremely small margin. As I mentioned above, Air force and Wazzu are tied for second with a 15-9 conference record. And just like Washington State, Air Force only plays one game this week, which is a non-conference matchup over Oregon State. The Falcons’ fate will also rely on San Diego State, but the most likely scenario is Air Force will go into the MW Tournament as a top three seed.
4.Nevada (prev. 4)
- Got swept in series at No. 18 USC 3-0
The silver lining for Nevada last week was despite being swept, it didn’t hurt its conference record. While you can’t blame the schedule makers, facing a ranked opponent in USC in the midst of a skid is far from ideal, and it clearly showed in a three-game sweep. Nevada was shutout in game one 8-0, then proceeded to lose 11-3 and 12-4. The Wolf Pack are now riding a seven-game losing streak and have dropped below .500 with a 23-24 overall record.
Things simply aren’t going well for Nevada programs that play on a diamond (anyone watch the MW softball championship)? Despite the hardships, there is a chance that Nevada can make some late noise. The Pack sit at 12-9 in conference play. The two teams above them are 15-9, with San Diego State on top at 15-6. It would be a miracle, but because Washington State and Air Force don’t have conference games left while Nevada and SDSU do, a Nevada sweep this weekend over GCU paired with a UNLV sweep over SDSU, and all of a sudden Nevada will own a share of the regular season title in a four-way tie. Never say never, but Wolf Pack fans may just have to hope their in-state rivals can take care of business while Nevada hopefully does the same over GCU (GCU hasn’t been kind to Nevada programs this spring, refer back to the MW softball championship.) But, there is always hope.
5.New Mexico (prev. 5)
- Lost series at GCU 1-2
It wasn’t the weekend the Lobos were hoping for, but they’ll still be in Mesa for the conference tournament and are sitting in a comfortable spot in the standings. The first two games of this three-game series over GCU were heartbreakers for New Mexico, as both ended in walk-off wins for the Lopes. Looking to avoid a series sweep, New Mexico scored three runs in the fourth and eight in the fifth to propel the Lobos over the Lopes 11-9. New Mexico is the fourth best offense in the conference and has a team batting average over .300, all while keeping a conference and overall record above .500. New Mexico will end its season with one more game over in-state rival New Mexico State, meaning the Lobos end with a 12-11-1 conference record.
6.GCU (prev. 8)
- Won series vs New Mexico 2-1
The upset occurred, and now GCU is now putting a lot of pressure on that final tournament seed. Things started out great for the Lopes, as they won the first game in a close 6-5 effort. GCU used that momentum from the first game in the second, once again winning by one run, this time by a score of 4-3. On their senior night on Sunday, the Lopes were in the driver’s seat with a 5-0 lead by the end of the second. However, the Lobos woke up from there, putting up an eight spot in the fifth inning and never looked back, leaving the Lopes with a 11-9 loss.
GCU is currently tied for the sixth seed with UNLV, and can take full control of it depending on their performance and a mix of other factors. Those are if UNLV loses more games than the Lopes, and San Jose State does not sweep Fresno State. If that happens, then we will see GCU in the conference tournament in their first season in the Mountain West. That, however, might be a tall task, as the Lopes are playing Nevada in their season finale, who are poised to either climb up the rankings or maintain their fourth seed.
7.UNLV (prev. 7)
- Lost vs BYU 5-2
- Won series at Fresno State 2-1
After taking the lost at home to BYU, UNLV needed to get back on track in conference play with GCU and San Jose State barring down on the final spot, and they did just that…kind of. The Runnin’ Rebels did win the series, taking the first two games 11-6 and 17-1 (in seven innings) in convincing fashion. However, the Rebels were shocked mid-run, losing the Sunday matchup 14-13. UNLV did almost complete the five run comeback in the final two innings, but were just two bases away from evening things out.
UNLV is currently the final school in the conference tournament at the time of writing, as they are tied with GCU at 9-12 and hold the tiebreaker against them. However, GCU and San Jose State, who is only one game back, are still within arm’s reach from the Rebels, and are dead set on closing the gap. UNLV does have an opportunity to clinch that playoff spot, but will need to win more games against top-seeded San Diego State than GCU wins against Nevada while upkeeping their lead against San Jose State. If SDSU competes, that will be rough. But if they decide to sit their starters since they are already in the one seed, then UNLV might be able to clinch everything with 2-3 wins.
8.SJSU (prev. 6)
- Lost series at San Diego State 2-1
San Jose State had a tall task ahead of it, and for what its worth, the Spartans did not do bad. After taking a loss in the first game 1-11 in seven, San Jose State took game two in convincing manner with a 9-4 final. With the rubber match basically dictating what path they would need to make the conference tournament, the Spartans lost the third game 1-4. Outside of the first game, this was a good back-and-forth series that would’ve been nice for them to have more of in the middle of the season.
Thanks to those two losses, San Jose State now sits in eighth, one game behind UNLV and GCU for the sixth spot in the conference tournament. The program now needs to win its final three games of the year while hoping both the Rebels and Lopes lose two of their final three games. For the Spartans, their wins could be easy if they play right against Fresno State. GCU is going to Reno to take on Nevada, the UNLV is hosting San Diego State. SDSU might sit players since they already clinched the no. 1 seed, but Nevada is fighting to stay in the top four of the conference, so until it’s decided, San Jose State’s playoff hopes are up in the air.
9.Fresno State (prev. 9)
- Lost series vs UNLV 1-2
There isn’t much here to discuss that hasn’t been already said about Fresno State, so I will keep this brief. After gaining their first win in conference play since the beginning of April last week, the Bulldogs lost their series to UNLV. They lost the first two games 6-11 and 1-17 (the second game only lasted seven innings), but were able to grab their third Mountain West win in the Sunday matchup, winning 14-13 while nearly choking a late five run lead. It is still very much over for the Bulldogs, but they are slowly but surely beating teams near them in the standings, which does help their reputation a little bit. Fresno State will close their season with a home game against Cal Poly on Tuesday and a three-game set against San Jose State, which could be the nail in the coffin for the Spartans if the Diamond Dogs can take at least one game.
