May 15, 2004
Santa Barbara, Calif. -
It went down to the final at-bat, but the UC Santa Barbara softball team took the afternoon's second game 6-5 to close out the season with a 14-7 record in the Big West and earn a second place finish in the conference. The Gauchos rallied from a 7-0 deficit in the day's first game but fell short 9-8 for their lone loss on the weekend. Santa Barbara ends the 2004 regular season with a 32-29 overall record and the hopes of an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.
Cal State Fullerton opened the day with a seven-run first inning in game one to take what looked to be an insurmountable, but UCSB responded with two runs of its own in the bottom half of the first to take some of the momentum away. The Titans tacked on one more run in the second to put the score at 8-2 Cal State Fullerton after two. In what seemed like an entire game itself, the first two innings of game one lasted one hour and thirty minutes and saw a combined ten runs scored off of 14 hits.
Following a scoreless third inning, the Gauchos opened up for five runs in the bottom of the fourth, capped by Karyna Wilkerson's two-RBI double that scored Brittany Putich and Jessica Hejna to come within one of the Titans at 8-7. Santa Barbara began its scoring in the fourth when freshman Kendra Singley, with her UCSB record-tying 14th double of the season, brought around Leslie Simien who opened the inning with an infield single.
The score remain 8-7 until Cal State Fullerton junior Jody Campbell hit her first career homerun in the top of the seventh of Gaucho reliever Lindsey Herrin for what proved to be the game-winning run.
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With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Simien drew a walk to reach base for the fourth time in the game and promptly brought around by freshman Shelby Hensler to once again bring UCSB within one, but Titan reliever Brooke Weekley retired the next to batters for the win in relief.
Simien finished the game going 3-for-4 with three runs scored and two stolen bases, bumping her season mark to 60 hits, setting a new Gaucho single season record. And her two stolen bases ran her career total to 119, placing her in a tie for 23rd all-time in NCAA Division I history.
Freshman Jennifer Davis was credited with the loss for the Gauchos, despite throwing just the first two-thirds of the first inning in the start.
Game two started much like game one with Cal State Fullerton opening up for two runs in the first inning off of Herrin who remained in the circle for UCSB after closing out game one. But Herrin responded in the latter half of the first by putting her own stamp on the game and in the Gaucho record books. Sitting on nine homeruns for the last nine games of the season, Herrin stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and a chance to help her own cause. And that she did, sending a towering shot to the scoreboard in left field for her tenth homerun of the season, setting a new UCSB single-season homerun record.
Weekley, who also remained in the circle after closing out game one, finished out the first inning for the Titans by retiring the next two batters but was replaced in the second by Candice Baker.
Cal State Fullerton threatened again in the third by loading the bases with one out before Herrin was replaced in the circle by Davis. After throwing a wild pitch to score Monica Tantlinger from third base, Davis struck out the next five batters she faced to preserve the Gaucho lead.
Davis finished game two with seven strikeouts, three hits allowed and was credited with the win after throwing the final 4 2/3 innings.
Up 4-3 in the fourth, UCSB capitalized on a Titan fielding error by third baseman Carolyn Bullard to score two more runs, both unearned, giving the Gauchos what proved to be a necessary 6-3 advantage. Singley drove in Davis Beck with a sacrifice fly to deep center with one out for what ended up being the game-winning run. Beck finished game two going 3-for-3 with one run scored and two stolen bases to pace UCSB.
Cal State Fullerton did not go down without a fight, plating a pair of runs in the top of the seventh with one out to come within one run of the Gauchos. After retiring the Titans' first batter of the inning Davis walked Tantlinger and then gave up a two-run homerun to Lindsey Bashor, cutting the UCSB lead to 6-5. But Davis regrouped and retired to the next two batters for her second win on the weekend to end the regular season at 16-15.
Weekley suffered the loss in game two after giving up the four runs in the first and ending her freshman season with a 14-17 overall record.
The Gauchos now hope that the NCAA Selection Committee takes notice to the success that they had in the latter half of the season in addition to earning the second place finish in one of the top conferences in the nation. UCSB closed out the season with a 14-5 record, including five wins against ranked opponents. The Gauchos took two out of three from then 19th ranked Pacific, swept a doubleheader from WAC Champion and then No. 11 Fresno State, and downed Big West Champion and 18th ranked Long Beach State 4-1 in its own park. Playing one of the most difficult schedules in the country with 23 of its games coming against teams that were ranked in the Top 25 at some point in the season, UCSB turned its season around at the start of the Big West Conference season by taking two out of three from Cal State Northridge, en route to the Gauchos' second place finish and 16-7 record in April and May.
The NCAA Selection Show can be seen on ESPNews at approximately 5:30 p.m. PST.
