May 20, 2004

Box Score

Tucson, Ariz. - It was not the debut it wanted to make as the No. 6 Seed UC Santa Barbara softball team lost 8-1 to No. 3 Seed Northwestern in the opening game of the NCAA Division I Softball Championships No. 1 Regional in Tucson. The loss drops the Gauchos to 32-30 overall this year and into the loser's bracket of the double-elimination regional. UCSB will now play game No. 5 tonight against the loser of game No. 2 between No. 2 seed Oklahoma and No. 7 seed Temple at 7:00 p.m.

The Gauchos threatened early when senior all-region honoree Leslie Simien opened the game with a leadoff single down the leftfield line and promptly stole second on the ensuing pitch to freshman Shelby Hensler. Hensler then reached base on the very next pitch when she was hit in the thigh by Wildcat starting pitcher Courtnay Foster. But threaten is all UCSB would do in the first as Foster retired the next three batters in order.

Freshman All-Big West honoree Jennifer Davis took the circle for the Gauchos, making the first postseason start in school history and quickly retired the first two NU batters. But the Wildcats rallied with two outs to score the first run of the game when Kristen Amegin laced a hard double to the gap in left center that scored Garland Cooper from first. Cooper reached base in the prior at-bat with a bloop single down the right field line. Northwestern put one more runner on board in the bottom of the first but Davis got NU's Jamie Dotson to ground out the first to end the inning.

After a scoreless second inning the Gauchos loaded the bases with a two-out rally of their own. Starting with a bloop infield single by freshman All-Big West honoree that landed just short of the second base bag, senior Heather Nobbe and junior Lindsey Herrin, both all-conference award recipients, battled to a pair of walks, loading the bases for freshman Brittany Putich. Putich, one of three All-Big West Second Teamers on the squad, hit a hard ground ball down the third baseline that the Wildcats' Amegin bobbled just enough for Putich to beat out the throw to first and score Singley to tie it up at 1-1.

The score did not remain tied for long as NU led off its half of the third with pair of walks to Cooper and Amegin and it looked like the Wildcats were going to break the game open. Davis however got the next two outs and appeared to regain the inning for the Gauchos, then in keeping with the two-out scoring theme, NU catcher J.C. Kira hit a towering shot that landed at the base of the fence in left field, scoring two and putting the 'Cats up 4-1.

Santa Barbara was blanked again in the fourth with the exception of Simien's second hit of the game, this time Simien legged out a ground ball hit up the middle that NU shortstop Eryn Manahan was unable to make a play on.

Just as the Wildcats threatened to break the game open with no outs in third they did so again the fourth. Davis led off the innning by giving up three straight base hits before giving way to Herrin in relief with no outs and the bases loaded. Davis' day ended with three-plus innings of work, six runs scored, eight hits allowed, and two strikeouts.

Herrin walked the first batter she faced for the first of three Northwestern runs in the inning. The Wildcats were limited to just three runs thanks to a stellar defensive play in leftfield by freshman Jessica Hejna on a Manahan sacrifice fly that plated the their final run of the inning. With the bases loaded Hejna tracked down a tailing line drive down the leftfield line and fired a shot to third baseman Karyna Wilkerson to nail the runner trying advance from second for the doubleplay. After another walk by Herrin, she got Kira to ground out to Singley to end the inning.

Neither team did anything in the fifth as Foster and Herrin retired their respective opposition in order, which continued into the Gauchos' half of the sixth.

The Wildcats continued to add to their lead in the sixth with a pair of homeruns to leadoff the inning by Erin Mobley and Cooper, ending the day for Herrin in the circle for UCSB and giving way to freshman Lindsey Sommer. Herrin finished with just over two innings of work, two runs scored, and three hits allowed. Sommer came in and retired three of the next four batters to end the inning with no harm done. She closed out the game and threw just under one complete inning, striking out one and walking one.

The Gauchos did not go done quietly, with two outs in the bottom of the seventh Singley laced a triple to the gap in right-center to put her scoring position. Singley was followed by Nobbe who reached base via her school record-tying seventh hit-by-pitch of the season, putting runners on the corners for Herrin. But Foster forced Herrin into a game ending pop-up to shortstop, advancing the Wildcats in the winner's bracket to face the winner of the Oklahoma/Temple match-up.

Davis suffered the loss for UCSB at is now an even 16-16 on the season. Foster earned the complete game win to improve to 15-14 in 2004.

Simien and Singley accounted for all four Gaucho hits on the game, with each going 2-for-4, and Simien added her 120th career stolen base.