April 19, 2003
San Luis Obispo, Calif. -
The UC Santa Barbara softball team rallied for three runs in the sixth inning to bring home a win, 4-3, in game three of a Big West Conference series at Cal Poly. Down 3-1 after five innings of play, a key Mustang error and a pair of UCSB hits allowed the Gauchos to salvage a win after dropping both games of yesterday's doubleheader.
With the win Santa Barbara is now 30-16 on the season and 5-6 in Big West. The loss drops Cal Poly to 19-30 overall and 5-7 in conference play.
Freshman hurler Carly Harmon picked up the win for UCSB in 4.2 innings of relief work to improve to 15-6 on her rookie season. Eva Nelson, who threw a shutout in game two on Friday, suffered the loss and falls to 5-10.
With one out and the bases clear in sixth, junior outfielder/infielder E.J. Lauchland sparked the Santa Barbara rally. Lauchland nabbed an infield single to third base and was moved across the plate after a Jami Trinidad walk and a Cal Poly throwing error on Kim Iverson's sacrifice bunt to bring UCSB within one. Senior firstbaseman Sarah Brown then drew a walk to once again load the bases. Now facing Nelson after a pitching change by the home team, freshman secondbaseman Karyna Wilkerson singled to left-center, plating pinch runner Diane Gerry for the game-tying run. With the bases still juiced, senior outfielder Natalie Adame sent a deep shot to center that allowed Iverson to score, and giving the Gauchos the go-ahead run.
In addition to igniting Santa Barbara's come from behind victory, Lauchland went also 3-for-4 with one run scored to pace UCSB at the plate.
|
|
 |
The Gauchos will once again take a break from conference play for a doubleheader at Utah on Friday, April 25th before returning the Big West play at Utah State on Saturday and Sunday, April 26th and 27th.
