SAN DIEGO — San Diego State’s softball team watched a 4‑0 lead evaporate in the seventh inning and fell 5‑4 to Wisconsin at SDSU Softball Stadium yesterday, a night that felt firmly in the Aztecs’ control until it suddenly wasn’t. For six innings, SDSU played the kind of balanced, confident softball that has defined its best stretches this season.
Key‑annah Pu’a set the tone in the circle, working 6.1 scoreless frames with her usual poise: five hits allowed, one strikeout, and a rhythm that kept Wisconsin off balance. Her outing gave SDSU the space it needed to build momentum, and the offense answered with two sharp, timely scoring bursts.
In the fifth, Jazmin Williams continued her hot streak by ripping a two‑RBI triple into the gap, a swing that electrified the home crowd and extended her hitting streak while giving the Aztecs their first runs of the night. An inning later, Olivia Gigante added flames to the fire, turning on a pitch with two outs and sending her fifth home run of the season over the wall for a 4‑0 advantage that looked, for a moment, like the Aztecs were ready to send Wisconsin home.
Jazmin Williams hit a two-RBI double against Wisconsin. Credit: San Diego State
But softball has a way of flipping the script in an instant, and the seventh inning unraveled with stunning speed. After Pu’a exited with one out, Wisconsin seized its opening. A hit‑by‑pitch, a string of well‑placed contact, and a momentum‑shifting triple cracked the door open, and the Badgers stormed through it. Faith Jordan, who had been steady all season, was charged with all five runs in the frame as Wisconsin pieced together the kind of relentless rally that leaves no room to breathe. What had been a comfortable lead dissolved into a 5‑4 deficit before SDSU could record the final out, turning a near‑perfect evening into a gut‑punch finish.
The loss overshadowed several strong individual performances, including Pu’a’s composed start, Williams’ two‑hit, two‑RBI night, and Gigante’s late‑inning power, but it also highlighted the thin margins that define tight, tournament‑style games. SDSU left runners in scoring position in key moments and couldn’t quite land the knockout blow when the momentum was theirs. Wisconsin, meanwhile, capitalized on every opening in the final frame. The final line read Wisconsin 5, SDSU 4, a reminder of how quickly momentum can swing and how unforgiving the final outs can be.
As the Aztecs move deeper into the San Diego Classic, the focus will shift to closing out games with the same intensity they bring to building early leads, a lesson learned the hard way on a night that slipped away in the span of a single inning.
Their next game is Saturday at 4:30 p.m. against Notre Dame at the SDSU Softball Stadium. See the tournament schedule here.
Top Photo: San Diego State Athletics
