Bengals bash way into championship game, record books

POCATELLO — For the first time in more than a month, Big Sky Conference Pitcher of the Year Marley Goluskin was hit around a bit by the Sacramento State Hornets on Tuesday.

Goluskin allowed four hits, including three homers, and three earned runs while recording just three outs before departing the conference semifinal game. But a record-setting offensive performance and some stellar relief work from 2025 Big Sky Pitcher of the Year Kasey Aguinaga resulted in a 15-7 Bengals victory.

With the win, ISU locked up a spot in Thursday’s Big Sky Softball Championship game.

The No. 3-seeded Hornets clubbed back-to-back one-out solo homers in the first inning, jumping out to an early advantage over the conference’s regular-season champion and top-seeded Bengals. Goluskin escaped the first inning without any further harm.

Idaho State answered right back on a two-home bomb from the conference’s leader in home runs, Sydney Groves.

Following another Sac State dinger to start the second, Goluskin was lifted after 1-plus inning, her shortest outing of the season.

Aguinaga came on and kept the Hornets in the park the rest of the game, though the hot Sac State offense did put together a four-run rally against the senior southpaw in the third.

A quartet of Hornet hurlers, on the other hand, was unable to keep the Bengals from flying out of the yard.

ISU hammered a Big Sky Conference single-game record seven home runs, including two each from junior shortstop Camryn McDonald and redshirt freshman Kira Day.

The Hornets led 7-3 heading into the bottom of the third, and 7-5 heading into the bottom of the fourth, when the homer-happy home team turned the volume to 11.

McDonald gave the Bengals their first lead of the game, 9-7, with a first-pitch grand slam following three consecutive walks to start the fourth. Four batters laters, Day sent her first long ball of the day, a two-run shot, sailing onto the berm beyond the fence in right-center.

ISU added one more run in the fourth, pulling ahead 12-7. They kicked the power back into high gear in the fifth, with back-to-back one-out solo homers from Alyssa Yee and McDonald.

After another zero thrown up by Aguinaga in the top of the sixth, her third in a row, the Bengals triggered the mercy rule in the bottom half.

Day’s second long ball of the game, on the first pitch of the inning, shoved her and the Bengals into the tournament’s championship game.

No. 4 Montana will face No. 2 Northern Colorado in Wednesday’s noon game, with the loser eliminated from the tournament. The winner will face Sacramento State at 2:30 p.m., with the loser of that game eliminated. The winner will face Idaho State Thursday at noon for the Big Sky Tournament title.

Because they are undefeated in the tournament, whichever team faces the Bengals would have to beat them twice for the upset championship. An if-necessary game is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Thursday.