San Diego State junior Mac Barbara will share the Mountain West Player of the Year award in softball, the league has announced.
Barbara joins Nevada’s Gabby Herrera as recipients of the conference honor. She is one of four Aztecs named to the all-conference team while head coach Stacey Nuveman Deniz earned MW Coach of the Year honors.
The awards were handed out as the league’s softball teams readied for the MW Tournament. Top-seeded SDSU (30-18, 15-7 MW ) on Friday set aside Nevada 4-1 to make the finals of the tourney with Allie Light getting the win and Dee Dee Hernandez the save.
San Diego State plays at 11 a.m. Saturday, its second meeting of the tournament against Boise State. In their first tournament game on Thursday, the Aztecs cruised to a 9-1 win over the Broncos.
Barbara is joined on the All-MW First Team by pitchers Hernandez and Light. Catcher Cali Decker made the Second Team. The postseason awards are voted on by the league’s nine head coaches solely based on performance in MW games.
The slugger is the first Aztec to win Player of the Year a second time; Barbara also earned the honor in 2022.
Starting in all 22 conference games for the regular-season conference champs, she hit .418 during Mountain West play; 13 of her 28 hits were for extra bases, including five home runs. The first baseman scored 18 times while driving in 17 runs for the Aztecs.
Nuveman Deniz brings home Coach of the Year for the second time in three years; she last won in 2022. She is following in the footsteps of her predecessor, Kathy Van Wyk, who won Coach of the Year accolades five times from 2002-14.
Hernandez makes her debut on the conference’s First Team after being part of the All-MW Second Team in 2022. She had a 2.44 ERA with a 7-2 record in 13 appearances during conference play with a save and 19 strikeouts in 37 1/3 innings.
Last season’s MW Pitcher of the Year, Light lands on the all-conference First Team for the second consecutive season.
She finished just behind her teammate with a 2.45 ERA while starting eight of her 16 conference appearances with a 4-1 record in MW games.
Earning All-MW Second Team for the second time in two seasons as an Aztec, Decker also started in each of the Aztecs’ 22 conference games. The transfer from Florida hit .348 against conference opposition with one home run, 14 RBIs and eight runs.