Week 1 of the MWC softball season is in the books, and there is certainly a lot to talk about. There were big wins, huge upsets, and general chaos across the now-10 team league. With that being said, it’s time to review how the teams in the Mountain West did in their respective MTEs, and to see who had the most positives and negatives this week.
Instead of doing a normal recap, I thought it would be fun to go over the teams in a classic “good, bad, and ugly” format. That way, I can more accurately
praise the teams that did better than I expected, as well as accurately criticize the teams that disappointed. With all that being said, let’s dive in.
The Good
Grand Canyon Lopes (5-0)
Game Results: (5-0, 5-0 home)
Southern Utah 2, GCU 17 (5 innings)
Weber State 0, GCU 3
Southern Utah 3, GCU 4
Santa Clara 4, GCU 5
Santa Clara 0, GCU 1
Going 5-0 in your first week in a new conference is good. Doing so when you are missing the projected conference player of the year is even better.
Grand Canyon, despite missing star hitter Savannah Kirk due to injury, managed to go 5-0 in their home MTE, the GCU Kickoff Classic, this past week. These games were not exactly comfortable for the most part, but they still managed to come out victorious in each of them.
The one comfortable game was in the Lopes’ season opener against Southern Utah, where the Lopes exploded for 14 hits and four home runs in a 17-2 5-inning romp. Junior right fielder Alina Satcher, making her first-ever collegiate start, absolutely exploded onto the scene, going 3-for-3 with a double, two home runs, and 7 RBIs with an obscene OPS of 4.333. Six other Lopes managed to record RBIs in this one, led by Haley Wilkinson and Mackenzie Nolan, who went a combined 5-for-7 with two homers and 5 RBIs.
In the Lopes’ rematch against SUU, the Thunderbirds did not go down without a fight this time, taking the lead in the top of the 7th inning before an Emily Gonzalez double and a wild pitch drove in the winning runs to keep the undefeated season alive with a 4-3 win. Pitcher Maggie Place was fantastic in her 2026 debut, going 6.1 innings while allowing three runs (one earned), striking out seven before handing it off to New Mexico transfer Natalie Fritz, who kept the T-Birds off the scoreboard, allowing for the winning run and recording her second win of the season.
The Lopes won again in similar fashion in their first game against 2025 NCAA Tournament foe Santa Clara. GCU got out to an early 4-1 lead before allowing the Broncos to slowly claw their way back and tie the game in the top of the 6th. But after a single by the on-fire Satcher and another double by Gonzalez, yet another wild pitch drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 7th, leaving the final score at 5-4. Despite giving up two runs down the stretch, pitcher Oakley Vickers deserves a great deal of credit for going 6.1 innings with only two earned runs, and recovering to keep the Broncos off the scoreboard in the 7th, opening the door for her teammates to force the winning run.
The other two Lopes victories came via the arm of preseason All-Mountain West team member Taryn Batterton, who recorded two complete-game shutouts against Weber State (score 3-0) and in the rematch against Santa Clara (score 1-0), recording an absurd 18 strikeouts across the two games. Batterton made a loud, emphatic case to be an early conference Pitcher of the Year contender, and if she keeps up the pace she was on in this invitational, she may very well make Lopes fans forget about Meghan Golden altogether.
Overall, it was an emphatic week at the office for GCU, and a perfect encapsulation of why their success in the WAC was not just a by-product of a bad conference. It doesn’t matter whether they lose their star pitcher to graduation and their star hitter to injury, they will still step up to the plate find a way to win. And this was all without Savannah Kirk. What happens when she comes back? All I can say is: look out, Mountain West.
Boise State Broncos (4-2)
Game Results: (4-2, 1-2 away, 3-0 neutral)
Boise State 0, LMU 3
#14/22 Ole Miss 2, Boise State 3
Boise State 5, CSU Fullerton 6
Boise State 24, CSU Northridge 6
Portland State 2, Boise State 10 (5 innings)
Boise State 4, CSU Fullerton 1
Boise State’s week was complete and utter chaos, but there is too much good in their overall week that I cannot justify keeping them out of the “Good” category.
Boise State went 4-2 on the week, ranking third in the MWC behind Grand Canyon and Utah State. However, unlike the Aggies, whose four wins all came against bad teams, the Broncos proved that they belong in any game they play.
The Broncos’ two losses came via a two-hit, 3-0 shutout courtesy of LMU pitcher Lindsay O’dell, and in a close 6-5 game at CSU Fullerton in the Easton Classic. In both losses, Boise State’s pitching staff was surprisingly effective. Sophomores Julianne Rose and Olivia Bauer, along with freshmen Charley Duran and Loula-Rae McNamara, allowed just five combined earned runs, as three of CSUF’s six runs came on Bronco errors.
Meanwhile, Boise State’s four wins were each impressive in their own right. The real reason the Broncos are here is because of their stunning 3-2 victory over #14/22 Ole Miss. The Rebels were held to just three hits and one earned run by a suddenly-lethal trio of freshmen McNamara, Duran, and Kodi Crabtree. Bronco hitters were held to just four hits by the Rebs’ staff, but one of those hits was a three-run homer by Penberthy in the 5th that wound up being the upset-clinching shot. This was the highest-ranked team Boise State softball has ever defeated, a groundbreaking victory for Justin Shults’ squad.
Later, after trailing CSUN 5-1 entering the top of the 5th inning, the Broncos’ hitting core exploded, scoring an astonishing 23 runs across the final three innings, including a school-record 16 in the 7th inning alone, leading to a whopper of a final score at 24-6. Not much needs to be said about a softball game that ends with an everyday football score, and I would get lost in the number of contributers Boise State had in this game. Out of the Broncos’ school record-tying 22 hits, no player had more than two hits, and only Skylar Stroh and Mya Flindt surpassed 2 RBIs with four apiece.
It’s funny, then, that the Broncos’ 10-2 run-rule win over Portland State in their following game was likely a bit of a disappointment. Unlike the CSUN game, Boise State was never challenged here. BSU outhit the Vikings 11-4, and the smallest deficit PRST had at the end of an inning was two runs. Crabtree and McNamara combined for five strikeouts, while the Broncos again had no hitter with more than two RBIs or hits.
In the final game of the event, a rematch with CSUF, the Broncos escaped with a 4-1 win in 8 innings. Prior to extras, the only Bronco scoring came off the bat of Southerland, who drove in a run with a first-inning double. Aside from one run allowed in the fifth, the trio of Duran, McNamara and Bauer were lethal yet again, Duran recording 6 full innings with just the one run allowed for her second win of the season. Southerland, Marissa Gonzalez and Hollie Farmer drove in runs in the final period, after which Duran came back into the game to clean up the rest, resulting in Boise State’s fourth win of the week.
Despite not ending with the best record in the conference, Boise State showed a scary lack of care for losing seven of their eight best hitters in the offseason. The Broncos were an unstoppable train outside of the LMU game, and the most horrifying part of this team is that their success has not come from just one pitcher or hitter; it’s every hand on deck in the Emerald Valley. I was initially confident in my bold prediction that Boise State would have a bad year in 2026, and it seems that I could not have been more wrong in making that statement. Boise State is a wrecking ball to this point in the season, and boy, are they ever fun to watch.
The Bad
San Jose State (1-4)
Game Results: (1-4, 0-2 road, 1-2 neutral)
San Jose State 0, #24/20 Oklahoma State 9 (5 innings)
San Jose State 3, #18/17 Stanford 7
California 2, San Jose State 10 (5 innings)
San Jose State 4, #18/17 Stanford 16 (5 innings)
San Jose State 0, California 1
In my season preview, I projected that the Spartans would finish this tournament 0-5 due to their comically brutal slate. While it didn’t end up being that bad in the end, the Spartans still need to answer a lot of questions before I declare them to be a good team.
Three of the Spartans’ five games ended via run-rule. As expected, the Spartans got blasted by ranked Oklahoma State and Stanford teams by a combined score of 25-4 in two uncompetitive five-inning losses. However, SJSU also recorded a completely unexpected result: a run-rule victory against Bay Area rival Cal, 10-2, in five innings, their second consecutive victory over the Golden Bears.
Sophia Burdick, Ahmiya Noriega, Reina Zermeno, and Sarah Deplitch each recorded two hits, the latter three each having two RBIs, while Shay McDowell’s lone hit was a bases-clearing double that put her in the team lead with three RBIs. Pitcher Norah Coulsell recorded a complete-game win, allowing six hits and just two runs.
The other two games were ones where the Spartans showed a surprising amount of fight. In the first game against the Cardinal, actually taking a 3-2 lead up until the bottom of the 5th inning, after which Stanford woke up and pulled away for a 7-3 win. McDowell and Deplitch did all the scoring for the Spartans, the former tied with Zermeno atop the leaderboard with two hits. Coulsell recorded a complete game, allowing just four hits prior to a collapse down the stretch that prevented the Spartans from recording a massive upset.
In the Spartans’ second game against Cal, the Golden Bears somewhat got their revenge with a 1-0 victory. San Jose State outhit the Bears again, but went just 1-3 with runners in scoring position, that one hit by Zermeno resulting in a play being made at home to stop the Spartans scoring what would have been their only run of the game in the 5th. Golden Bear pitcher Mya McGowan never let SJSU get that close afterwards, recording six straight outs to end the game, with a 6th-inning Kyndal Todd sac fly driving in what ended up being the game’s lone run.
Overall, despite sitting at the bottom of the current conference standings, San Jose State showed a lot of fight in this invitational that I wasn’t sure they were capable of. They are still more than deserving of being in the “Bad” category, but SJSU really did surprise me with how well they performed, despite losing four of five. Perhaps the consensus worst team in the conference isn’t nearly as bad as was originally thought. At least, if nothing else, the Spartans are tough enough to keep their social media comments turned on, much unlike…
UNLV Rebels (1-4)
Game Results: (1-4, 1-4 home)
Cal Baptist 8, UNLV 0 (5 innings)
UIC 3, UNLV 14 (5 innings)
Cal Baptist 4, UNLV 1
UIC 6, UNLV 2
Purdue 15, UNLV 1 (5 innings)
UNLV, picked 8th in the conference by both myself and the conference’s coaches poll, was inarguably the worst team of the week in the Mountain West, going 1-4 at home in five games against three teams that were terrible in 2025. They also showed how unable they are to handle this fact by turning off comments on all of their softball team’s social media posts, ostensibly to avoid criticism.
The Rebels’ only win of the week came against UIC, a team that went a putrid 9-46 in 2025. In that 14-3, five-inning romp over the Flames, the Rebs went down 2-0 early before going on a 12-1 run across the second, third, and fourth innings. Four Lady Rebs recorded multiple hits, led by Keyannah Chavez’ 3-for-3, 3 RBI masterpiece. Bri Williams also recorded 3 RBIs on a home run that scored the game’s final runs. This, as it turned out, was as good as it would get this weekend for UNLV.
Let’s start with the fact that the Rebs got swept by Cal Baptist, who went just 26-32 in a very weak WAC in 2025. The Lancers won the first game, 8-0 in 5 innings, then won the second game by a score of 4-1. Across both games, CBU pitchers Miranda De Nava and Emily Darwin combined to allow just five hits and recorded a whopping 17 strikeouts, 14 of those coming from De Nava alone.
In the first game, projected star pitcher Yanina Sherwood had a putrid start to her sophomore season, allowing six runs in just 1.1 innings before being pulled for reliever Raegan Everett, who allowed the game’s final two runs. In the second game, Lamar transfer Emma Wardlaw tried her hardest against CBU’s hitters, giving up just one earned run in her 4.2 innings of work, but two errors from the Rebels gave up an additional two runs, meaning Wardlaw had both no run support and no competence from her defense.
As if the CBU sweep wasn’t bad enough, UNLV also managed to lose to UIC in their rematch, 6-2. Charelle Aki and Diamond Sefe each had two hits and an RBI, but three combined hits from the rest of the lineup, as well as a total team tally of 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position, are not often indicators of success.
Yanina Sherwood was better in the circle this time, only giving up two in her four innings. Freshman Sophie Stockam then took over and struggled in her first collegiate inning, giving up three hits and four runs (two earned). As you could guess from the unearned runs Stockam had, the Rebels continued to struggle defensively as well, tallying an abysmal four errors. Losing to a formerly 9-46 team at home is humiliating, but at the very least, one could argue that maybe the Flames are just a better team this year, especially since they went on to beat Purdue in their next game.
That fact leads us nicely into UNLV’s game against Purdue, a usually good to mediocre Big Ten team who were coming off of a loss to UIC. Naturally, the Rebels got completely steamrolled into nothingness by the Boilermakers, losing 15-1 in 5 innings. Seven Purdue hitters combined for 11 hits against the quickly deteriorating UNLV pitching staff, where the Rebels used five pitchers, all of whom performed terribly outside of Amelia Weber, who only pitched for one out. Sophie Stockam gave up six runs, only two of which were earned, but still remains with a rough stat line due to only pitching 0.2 innings.
Offensively, the Rebels were fully stymied by Purdue pitcher Brianna Fontenot, who gave up just one run in her four innings. Presley Barnes scored the only run for the Rebels with a single in the 4th, and the only other hit recorded was by Chavez. UNLV was horrific defensively once again, recording multiple errors for the fourth game out of five, which allowed a ridiculous six unearned runs to score.
This was, overall, a complete embarrassment for the Rebels. Losing four of five at home to an assortment of teams with records ranging from 30-23 to 9-46 a year ago is horrible, there is no way around that. This was supposed to be a cakewalk MTE for UNLV to start a hopeful bounceback season. Instead, they look like they will be sinking straight into the depths of the conference.
The Ugly
Nevada Wolf Pack (3-2)
Game Results:
Illinois 0, Nevada 9 (5 innings)
Nevada 2, #16/13 LSU 6
NC State 0, Nevada 1
Nevada 0, #16/13 LSU 8 (6 innings)
Nevada 8, Lamar 0 (5 innings)
If I was giving out awards for this week, the Wolf Pack would immediately be the recipients of the award for “biggest letdown.” Nevada wouldn’t beat out UNLV for the worst team in the conference, and their 3-2 record looks good initially, but to describe their performance at the Tiger Classic as a disappointment would be an understatement.
Let’s go over the good games first. In the first game against Illinois, the Wolf Pack dominated on their way to a 9-0 run-rule shutout. Projected MWC Pitcher of the Year Hailey McLean pitched a complete game shutout, recording 6 strikeouts and allowing just 3 hits. Offensively, breakout freshman Katie Wetteland went 3-for-3 in her first college game with two home runs and 5 RBIs, while Reno native Karolyn Glover made a strong impact in her first start with the Pack, hitting two homers in her two at-bats with 3 RBIs of her own, including the clincher in the 5th.
In the Pack’s final game of the event against Lamar, Nevada dominated the Cardinals to the tune of another run-rule shutout, this time winning 8-0. Tess Bumiller mowed down the Cards’ lineup in her first start of the year, striking out two while allowing just one hit. Madison Clark hit 3-for-4 on the day, with Nevada’s top four hitters combining for seven of Nevada’s nine hits with four RBIs. Meanwhile, Lexi O’Gorman only got one at-bat, but made that at-bat count by hitting a bases-clearing double in the fourth that drove in the winning runs.
A less-elite game was in the first-ever Battle of the Wolf Pack/Wolfpack against NC State, where a Hannah Di Genova double drove in the lone run of the game in a 1-0 Wolf Pack win. Ainsley Berlingeri and star two-way transfer Talia Tretton combined to allow four hits and three strikeouts in an all-around pitching masterclass. Despite the win, the Wolf Pack showed some concerning traits in the hitting department, leaving 8 runners on base while going a disturbing 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. This stat leads nicely into the reason why the Wolf Pack are in the “Ugly” category: their two games against #16/13 LSU.
The first game on Friday can have some fault given all around the diamond. Tretton got her first start in the circle for the Pack, and had a disastrous first inning, giving up two walks and a wild pitch to load the bases before said bases were cleared by the Tigers’ Ally Hutchins, giving LSU a 3-0 lead. Tretton proceeded to lock in, both in the circle, allowing no runs after the first, and at the plate, hitting a 6th-inning home run to cut the deficit to 3-2.
But after Tretton gave up a double, just her third hit of the game, to lead off the bottom of the inning, she was pulled for Berlingeri, who instantly gave up a 2-run home run, leaving the inning with the Wolf Pack in the 6-2 hole that would end up being the final score. The Wolf Pack left seven runners on base, going 0-7 with runners in scoring position (the Pack’s only other run was scored on a wild pitch). However, credit must be given to Nevada for a tough battle against a great SEC team on said team’s home turf.
The same cannot be said for this final game.
I do not exaggerate when I say that the Wolf Pack’s 8-0, six-inning run-rule loss to the Tigers on Saturday was the single most infuriating softball game I have ever seen. This may be the most deceiving run-rule score in the history of the game, very rarely can you look at a game that ended early and truthfully say that it was actually close. On paper, this was a simple case of a pitchers’ duel gone wrong, where one team, that being the Wolf Pack, folded in the circle late. However, this still does not tell the whole story.
Going into the bottom of the 5th inning of a game on the road against a ranked SEC team, Hailey McLean had produced a no-hitter. This should be an incredible achievement, one that should result in being mobbed by her teammates after a hard-fought win. Instead, McLean should only earn the right to transfer to another team midseason if she so wishes, as her excellence was completely and utterly wasted, with the score still sitting at 0-0 going into that 5th inning.
Due to Nevada’s hitters being fully unable to solve the advanced calculus that is scoring a run in a softball game, McLean was forced to stay in the game despite already being close to 100 pitches. The result was completely predictable, as McLean’s arm finally gave out, losing the no-hitter before allowing LSU to score three runs. She was inexplicably kept in the game in the 6th inning at well over 100 pitches, finishing with an absurd tally of 129.
The result was three walks and two hit-by-pitches in the next six at-bats, sending in two more runs before finally being pulled for relief pitcher Tess Bumiller, who also received no help from her defense, with an run-rule saving double play being muffed by catcher Karolyn Glover. Bumiller walked the next two batters to finish the job via run-rule.
As if the first two games where the Wolf Pack struggled when they needed to drive in runs weren’t bad enough, Nevada decided to one-up themselves here, going an atrocious 0-for-11 with at least one runner in scoring position, six of them being with two in scoring position, and four of those being when there was only one out when second and third were first occupied.
Once the Pack got past the top four in the lineup (Madison Clark, Saige Alfaro, Katie Wetteland, and Hannah Di Genova), they were basically out of luck, as the remaining seven players that took at-bats in the game went just 2-for-13 at the plate, responsible for eight runners being left on base. In particular, Utah Tech transfer Rylie Haith made Tiger pitcher Jayden Heavener lick her chops every time she came to the plate, going 0-for-3 with 3 strikeouts, and being responsible for a sickening six runners being left on base. Considering the fact that each of the four hitters below her in the lineup were taken out of the game at some point, even the 1-for-1 Talia Tretton, I have zero explanation for why Haith was allowed to stay in the game for its entirety.
Despite leaving Baton Rouge with a record above .500 and two power-conference wins, there is no team in the conference more deserving of being in the “Ugly” category than Nevada, given the circumstances in which their two losses occurred. This was a massive opportunity for the Wolf Pack to prove the committee wrong for snubbing them last year, or, at the very least, prove that they are an improved team that is deserving of the respect they did not get in 2025. Instead, they blew every opportunity that they had to take down LSU, leaving fans and critics with feelings of this year’s team just being more of the same.
Let me be perfectly clear. Despite multiple collapses at the end of games, the Nevada pitching staff deserves zero blame for these defeats. Being forced to trot back out onto the field time and time again with no room for error against a lethal LSU hitting core is a situation most would fail in, and yet each of Nevada’s four pitchers that saw time in these two games fought with everything they had to give. The blame lies with the hitters here.
I do not know what needs to change for the hitting core to gain some sort of consistency or clutch hitting ability, but one thing is for sure: the bottom of the Pack lineup needs an overhaul, and it needs one fast. A combination of Haith, Glover, Haylee Engelbrecht, Maya Larsen, Bailie Clark, and Anna Braukus went a horrific 8-for-52 (.154 average) in this invitational. When you take out out Glover’s two-homer day against the Illini, this stat line gets even more grim, with a total line of 6-for-50 (.120 average).
In my opinion, Talia Tretton and Lexi O’Gorman should never sit on the bench again, as each of their performances in this series were better than most outside the top four of the lineup, even in limited time. I also believe Karolyn Glover has earned a starting catcher spot despite her error against LSU and her 1-for-8 statline outside of the Illinois game. I would also be fine with Haith remaining as a starter, as she is still a young, developing player, but she needs to move to a spot later in the lineup than the 5 slot, as leaving six runners on base in one game is absurd. Of note, this is a change that was already made by the coaching staff in the Lamar game, sliding Haith down to the 6-hitter spot.
As for Bailie Clark, Engelbrecht, Larsen, and Braukus, you could potentially make the argument for Engelbrecht staying despite her horrid 2-for-13 line, but no such argument exists for the other three, combining for an even worse 1-for-17. I hope they can find their stride as the season goes on, but this performance was a complete disaster for a team craving great things this year.
Given the performances delivered this weekend by Indiana and Arizona State (both 4-1 with losses to teams that will be ranked this week), it is very likely that Nevada will, at worst, have three games next weekend against teams that received votes in both polls, so the chances to bolster an at-large resume will still be there for the taking for Nevada. However, if this weekend is anything to go off of, it’s not a matter of how many chances they will have, it’s simply whether they actually have the ability to capitalize on the many chances they will have.
Updated conference power rankings will be released later this week.
