BOISE, Idaho — The Boise State softball team on Tuesday clinched a spot in the Mountain West Championship, sitting atop the standings with a 14-4 record in conference play.
The Broncos also have an opportunity to bring home some hardware this weekend. By winning two of three of their final games, they can clinch the Mountain West regular-season title, their first since 2018. Boise State travels to Fresno State for a three-game series starting on Thursday at 7 p.m. MT.
The Broncos (29-14, 14-4 MW) have some connections with the Bulldogs, as head coach Justin Shults was an assistant at Fresno State back in 2018, and home-run leader Kelsey Hall started her college career with the Bulldogs (22-28, 9-10).
After a dominant run through conference play, the Broncos ran into a big-time test as they hosted second place San Diego State last weekend. Boise State dropped two of three contests at home, including a 10-1 loss in six innings.
However, Boise State bounced back and closed the series out with a 9-6 win on senior day to remain in control of their own destiny.
Shults was impressed with the team's response, and said it was key as the Broncos get back to playing their brand of softball ahead of the Mountain West postseason tournament.
"We talked about it briefly before senior day, we need to get back to playing good softball," Shults said. "I thought this weekend was a roller coaster. It was good to feel the emotions 'cause that's what the tournament will feel like, but we gotta go in to Fresno – beautiful place, a lot of fans – it's gonna be us playing good softball again."
Not only did Boise State feel the emotions of championship play, but its talk after back-to-back losses also made the team feel a sense of urgency, according to junior pitcher Taylor Caudill.
"We know who we are and we have a very mature team this year," Caudill said. "We've got a lot of upperclassman, a lot of returners and we have newcomers that help as well, but there's a level of maturity that came from yesterday's talk that we realized we need to do our own work. It doesn't matter who's pitching, who's in the box, we do what we do."
Watch more Sports:
See KTVB sports coverage in our YouTube playlist: