Bengals fry Bacon, Sacramento State to claim first-ever conference tournament title

POCATELLO — The Sacramento State offense was locked in for Thursday’s Big Sky Conference softball tournament championship game.

The Hornets tagged Idaho State’s one-two pitching punch of 2025 Big Sky Pitcher of the Year Kasey Aguinaga and 2026 Big Sky Pitcher of the Year Marley Goluskin for 10 hits, including four home runs, and eight runs. They scored in every inning.

But the Bengal offensive machine was firing on all cylinders and still produced enough offense for a five-inning run-rule victory. Led by senior Ava Brown and junior Pocatello native Jenna Kearns, ISU slugged its way to a 16-8 win, and the first conference tournament championship in program history.

Head coach Andrew Rich, who earlier this season became the winningest coach in ISU softball history, has had his team in position to challenge for the tournament championship every year since he took over in 2022. But until this year, the Bengals fell just short of claiming the title and its guarantee bid into the NCAA Tournament.

“The weight of the world is off my shoulders, I don’t know how to explain it,” Rich said after the game. “It felt unreal in the moment, but it’s extremely real and I’m extremely happy. To finally have this monkey off our back … it’s an unreal feeling.”

Playing in extremely high-wind conditions, it was clear before first pitch that offense would come early and often. And it came about as early as can be imagined, when Hornet center fielder Saskia Raab lined the first pitch of the game from Aguinaga down the third base line for a double, setting up a two-run top of the first.

But Sac State starter Kennedie Bacon couldn’t keep that lead, surrendering RBI hits to Jenna Kearns, Jaden Moore and Kennedy Dudley.

ISU took a 5-2 lead into the second, but Raab got one of those runs right back with a homer off Aguinaga in the top of the second.

Home runs were the theme of the second inning, with Ava Brown sending a two-run shot to center and Kearns hitting her own long ball to left as the Bengals scored four more, pushing their lead to six, 9-3.

The game continued to unfold the same way all day — with the Hornets scrapping for two runs apiece in the third, fourth and fifth, only to seemingly lose ground each time.

ISU followed a five-run first and four-run second with a five-run third, which included a two-run Brown single and a Kearns sacrifice fly. The Bengals added two more in the fourth, for a little insurance, on another two-run hit from Brown.

She finished the game with three hits, two runs and six RBIs. Kearns added two hits, two runs and three RBIs.

Kearns and Brown led the Bengals all week, earning All-Tournament Team selections.

The Bengals went 3-0 in the tournament, winning all three games by run-rule. They beat Montana 10-1 on Monday and Sacramento State 15-7 on Tuesday.

“We overwhelmed people all week,” Rich said of his offense’s performance. “It felt possible always.”

Kearns said that the key to her team’s success was “realistic expectations.”

The team, she continued, was aware that the hitters at the tournament would have a wealth of firsthand knowledge about the pitchers they would be facing, having seen them all during the conference season, and would score. The ISU offense knew it had to produce, but knew the key to that was patience.

Understanding that, and simplifying to a “see ball, hit ball” approach, Brown added, made everything just a bit easier.

“We felt no pressure,” the tournament MVP said. “We stuck together, that was the biggest thing. We were one whole unit all of the games this week.”

With the offense rolling, the rest of the job was left up to Aguinaga, who battled through 4 innings, scattering eight hits and a walk while striking out seven and surrendering seven runs.

She was “dialed in,” according to her catcher Kearns, “She worked very hard.”

Goluskin, who hit her first speed bump of the season Tuesday before being lifted in favor of Aguinaga, spoke about what it was like watching Aguinaga pitch her way around uncomfortable conditions and a very potent lineup.

“I’m so proud of her,” Goluskin said. “She’s been an amazing mentor for me … so I love watching her, I’m always cheering her on. I’m so proud of her, she did so good.”

Goluskin recorded the final three outs of the game, though she was tagged with a run on a solo homer. She got a nice boost from Brown, who retreated from her center field position to retrieve a ball off the wall and throw out Sac State’s Erin Garcia at second, attempting to stretch a single into a double, for the second out of the inning.

The final out, Goluskin said, was much less stressful than the first two. She struck out Hornet catcher Hailee Bustos to end the game and trigger a home team dogpile near home plate.

“I’m so stoked. I’m so happy, so excited for our team, because we deserved this so much,” Goluskin said.

Asked how he plans to tamp down his team’s excitement as they prepare for the NCAA Tournament, Rich said he will do no such thing.

“You don’t (tamp the excitement and emotion)”, he said, “you celebrate the hell out of it.

“We don’t play until next Friday, so we’re going to enjoy the heck out of it for today, tomorrow, Saturday. We’re going to find out where we go on Sunday, and then we grind, we get to work.”

“This team’s got more in the tank, for sure. Now, the weight is off. Now, it’s, ‘Let’s go play and have some fun with it, and see what we can do.'”