EL PASO, Texas — The Idaho State softball team knew it had a challenging slate at the Dr. Diana Natalicio Memorial Tournament this past weekend.

But Bengal head coach Andrew Rich felt his team still could have had a more positive experience with just a little more offense.

“We had a tough weekend overall,” said Rich, after his Bengals finished 2-3 in the tournament. “I thought we could have done some more damage offensively and that would have helped turn the weekend around and put it more in our favor.”

Probably the biggest opportunity to turn the tide occurred in ISU’s last game of the weekend, a 5-4 loss to host UTEP. ISU had beaten the Miners, 5-3, on Friday, and was looking to end the weekend on a positive note with another win against the hosts.

UTEP struck for four runs in the first two innings to jump out to an early lead. The Bengals fought back to tie the score on the strength of home runs from Sydney Groves and Jenna Kearns, but the Miners scored the game-winner in the bottom of the seventh.

Earlier in the tournament, ISU got two home runs from Groves and one from Kira Day, along with a seven-inning exhibition of pitching stamina from Kasey Aguinaga to edge the Miners. Aguinaga allowed 10 hits, two walks and hit two batters, but managed to hold UTEP to just three runs despite those 14 baserunners.

“Kasey was great in the circle all weekend long,” said Rich. “She threw awesome on Friday night, then made long relief appearances on Saturday and (Sunday) that were fantastic. She’s off to a great start.”

Aguinaga took the loss on Sunday, despite giving up only one unearned run in 5.1 innings. The left-handed senior finished the weekend with a 2-1 record, giving up five earned runs in 16.1 innings.

In other action over the weekend, the Bengals lost to the Big 10’s Minnesota 6-1 on Friday and to No. 4 Oklahoma, 10-1, on Saturday, then outlasted New Mexico State, 11-7, in a slugfest later that night.

Groves, the transfer first baseman from Boise State, finished the weekend 6-for-14 with six runs batted in, three home runs and two doubles. Ava Brown, ISU’s returning Big Sky Player of the Year, was held to just three hits in 16 at-bats, with a home run and four runs batted in. She homered against the Sooners to supply ISU with its only run in the five-inning contest.

Highland High School’s Jenna Kearns, who was named the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week after hitting .625 in last week’s season opener, started off the tournament 0-for-9, before emerging in the last two games. She homered and drove in three runs in the win over New Mexico State, then homered again and drove in another two runs in the loss to UTEP.

Kearns, who played catcher and the outfield in the tournament, leads the team in hitting with a .387 average and in on-base percentage at .424. Groves and Brown share the lead in homers with four apiece. Brown has 12 runs batted in, Groves nine and Kearns eight.

On the mound, Aguinaga is 4-1 with a 1.62 earned run average in five appearances. The rest of the Bengal pitching staff has struggled to open the season, all with earned run averages of 5.00 or higher.

The Bengals emerged from the weekend with a 5-5 record. They will return to action on Friday in the UNLV 2026 Softball Tournament in Las Vegas. Idaho State opens play Friday at 10:30 a.m. against Utah Valley, then plays Valparaiso at 7 p.m. On Saturday, ISU faces UNLV at 4 p.m. The Bengals finish the tournament with games against Valparaiso at 10:30 a.m. and Merrimack at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

“We will get back to work this week and have a couple of hard days of practice working on some things offensively before we head to Las Vegas next week,” said Rich.