SAN DIEGO – No. 24 San Diego State swept a pair of games on Saturday night at SDSU Softball Stadium, including a 2-1 victory over previously unbeaten and 25th-ranked Kentucky. The Aztecs (2-2) opened with a 2-1 win over the Wildcats (3-1) before beating UC Santa Barbara, 6-1, in the nightcap.
In the opener, Mac Barbara hit a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the third inning to put SDSU in the lead and Allie Light pitched four scoreless innings of relief to pick up her first win of the season.
UK, which has picked up two wins over No. 3/3 Stanford this weekend and another victory over Minnesota, took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Eric Coffel doubled in Jenna Blanton. With no outs and two runners in scoring position. San Diego State freshman starting pitcher Cece Cellura got Peyton Plotts to line out to second base, where Micaela Macario almost tagged the runner on second for the double play. On the very next pitch, Rylea Smith flew out to shallow center field, where Macey Keester rifled a throw to catcher Cali Decker, who tagged Vanessa Nesby at the plate for the inning-ending double play.
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The Aztecs responded in the bottom of the third as Katie Goldberg led off with a single to right field. It appeared Goldberg was going to be stranded at first base after Keester fouled out and Bella Espinoza lined out, both to Grace Lorsung at third base. Micaela Macario struck out swinging, but advanced to first on a passed ball. Goldberg and Macario each moved up a base on a wild pitch before Barbara ripped a 1-2 pitch to center field to give SDSU a lead it would not relinquish.
Light (1-0) entered in the fourth and worked around four hits and a walk over four innings, striking out three while stranding seven Kentucky runners. Cellura, pitching in her first career game and earning her first start, gave up one run on four hits and no walks over three innings, striking out one.
Light and Cellura stranded nine Wildcats in the game, and held Kentucky to just a 3-for-15 outing with runners on base and 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
Barbara, Goldberg and Macario had San Diego State’s hits in the game, while Alyssa Garcia reached via walk.
In the nightcap, the Aztecs surpassed their run and hit total from the first three games of the season with six runs and 12 hits in a 6-1 win over the Gauchos (0-4).
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Barbara homered, singled, had two RBIs, a run and a walk to pace the SDSU offense, while four others – Goldberg (2 RBI, SF), Keester (RBI, R), Macario (RBI, R, 3B) and AJ Murphy – added two hits apiece.
UCSB tied San Diego State with an infield single by Elicia Acosta in the bottom of the first but the Aztecs scored the final five runs of the game.
Garcia (1B, BB) and Angie Yellen (2-for-3, 2 R, BB) also reached twice for SDSU, which went 4-for-8 with runners in scoring position and 7-for-19 with runners on base.
Cellura gave up one run on two hits and no walks over two innings as the starter, striking out two. Dee Dee Hernandez pitched a scoreless four innings of relief, striking out four with three hits and no walks allowed. Hernandez got the win and is now 1-1 on the year. Cassidy West hit the first batter she faced in the seventh but retired the next three in order with two strikeouts.
THE NOTE RHP Allie Light has pitched 12 1/3 scoreless innings this season with just nine hits allowed (.191 average).
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THE NOTE II In the nightcap, San Diego State outhit UC Santa Barbara, 12-5, making it 13 consecutive victories when outhitting its opponent.
STAT OF THE DAY Despite playing games in the opening weekend against Stanford (No. 3 in last year’s final RPI), Minnesota (No. 28), Kentucky (No. 29) and UC Santa Barbara, the Aztec pitching staff went 2-2 with a 1.75 ERA in 28 innings, striking out 25 against three walks and limiting the opposition to a .263 average.
UP NEXT SDSU plays at San Diego at 5 p.m. PT Wednesday.
Game 1: No. 24/rv San Diego State 2, No. 25/rv Kentucky 1 Kentucky (3-1) 001 000 0 — 1 8 0 San Diego State 002 000 x — 2 3 2 Langdon and Hamilton; Cellura, Light (4) and Decker W – Light, 1-0; L – Langdon, 0-1
Game 2: No. 24/rv San Diego State 6, UC Santa Barbara 1 San Diego State (2-2) 110 211 0 — 6 12 0 UC Santa Barbara (0-4) 100 000 0 — 1 5 1 Cellura, Hernandez (3), West (7) and Decker, Garcia (4); Snyder, Stoll (4), McCoskey (5) and Donaldson W – Hernandez, 1-1; L – Snyder, 0-2 HR: San Diego State, Barbara (1)
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Other Saturday Scores at the San Diego State Season Kickoff No. 25/rv Kentucky 3, No. 3/3 Stanford 2 (8 inn.) No. 3/3 Stanford 3, Minnesota 0 Minnesota 4, UC Santa Barbara 3
You may recall that Kentucky was one of several SEC schools Netflix chose to feature in its new docuseries about SEC football. Film crews were in town throughout the season to document Mark Stoops’ squad, specifically the weeks of the South Carolina and Louisville games. We now have a few more details about the series, including when it will be released.
This morning, Netflix announced the show, which will provide “unfiltered access to coaches and players in college football’s most dominant conference and give an exclusive look at key matchups throughout the season.” The series is produced by Box To Box Films, the same company behind Sprint, Full Swing, Formula 1: Drive to Survive, and Break Point. There will be eight, 45-minute episodes, which will be released in Summer 2025.
According to the official release, the series will “bring viewers everywhere from the field and the locker rooms to the team buses, barbershops, and more.” It is executive produced by James Gay-Rees, Paul Martin, and Hillary Olsen for Box to Box, with showrunner Collin Orcutt.
“This behind-the-scenes docuseries will bring all the drama and pageantry of Southeastern Conference Football to a worldwide Netflix audience,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey told Netflix.
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A Netflix Sports series following the 2024 SEC college football season is coming Summer 2025.
Providing unfiltered access to coaches and players in college football’s most dominant conference and giving an exclusive look at key matchups throughout the season. pic.twitter.com/H2Cm2nec0T
As mentioned, we know that crews were in town for the South Carolina and Louisville games. Both losses were embarrassing, the latter serving as salt in the wound of a very disappointing season. We don’t know which other SEC schools were featured, but hopefully, one of them is Ole Miss, which could give us at least one happy moment to look back on if crews were in Oxford for Kentucky’s lone SEC win.
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — Don McHenry had 28 points in Western Kentucky’s 86-73 victory over Seattle University on Tuesday night.
McHenry shot 9 of 12 from the field, including 4 for 5 from 3-point range, and went 6 for 6 from the free-throw line for the Hilltoppers (8-3). Julius Thedford added 15 points and seven rebounds. Braxton Bayless finished 5 of 9 from the field and scored 13.
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Maleek Arington and Paris Dawson both scored 17 to lead the Redhawks (4-7). Dawson added six assists. Brayden Maldonado totaled 11 points and six rebounds.
Western Kentucky took the lead with 11:07 left in the first half and did not give it up. Enoch Kalambay led their team in scoring with 10 points in the first half to help put them up 38-32 at the break. McHenry scored 19 in the second half.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
The start of the season for the Kentucky Wildcats has been a great one. With a 10-1 record and wins over Duke, Gonzaga, and Louisville, Mark Pope’s team has one of the best resumes in the sport to this point.
That is starting to show in the early bracketology as the Cats are getting some love.
In his latest update Joe Lunardi of ESPN bumped Kentucky up to the 1-seed line as they are joined by two other SEC teams in Tennessee and Auburn. The Tigers are Lunardi’s No. 1 overall seed. Even more wild, he has 13 teams from the SEC making the big dance.
The path would be a fun one, as the Wildcats’ bracket would feature a potential rematch with Gonzaga (2-seed).
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Don’t like that? How about a date with the 3-seed Kansas?
Maybe the biggest storyline of them all would come from a potential Round-of-32 matchup with 9-seed Arkansas. That would drive up ratings for sure.
With an already impressive resume, the Wildcats have the chance to add some more key wins, while the opportunities for bad losses are few and far between.
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