UC Santa Barbara scored twice in the top of the eighth late Saturday night to defeat San Diego State 7-5, eliminating the Aztecs from the NCAA softball regionals at UCLA.
The Aztecs finished the season with a 38-19 record.
After defeating Arizona State 3-2 in Friday night’s opener of the regionals on back-to-back seventh-inning home runs by Grace Uribe and Gabriella Terrones, the Aztecs lost to top-seeded UCLA 10-0 earlier Saturday before losing to the fourth-seeded Gauchos (36-25).
UCSB took a 2-0 lead against the Aztecs in the first inning. But SDSU took the lead on catcher Cali Decker’s three-run home run in the third. Decker upped Aztecs’ lead to 4-2 with a ground-out RBI in the fourth.
UCSB regained the lead by scoring three runs in the fifth.
San Diego State sent the game into extra innings on Shannon Cunningham’s two-out RBI single in the bottom of the seventh.
But Elicia Acosta opened the eighth with a home run just inside the right-field foul pole off Aztecs ace Cece Cellura. The Gauchos scored a second run on a two-out single by Jazzy Santos. The Aztecs brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the eighth.
Sunday was as tough for Palomar College as Saturday was for the Aztecs. Both Comets’ softball and baseball teams lost in state playoffs.
College of San Mateo (43-3) defeated the Comets softball team (44-5) 7-4 to win the California Community College Athletic Association championship. Palomar had won four straight games in the losers’ bracket of the eight-team, double-elimination state championships after losing to San Mateo 4-2 in Thursday’s opening round.
And Cypress College (38-10) had a game-tying homer in the bottom of the ninth and a walk-off homer in the 10th to defeat Palomar (36-13) 6-5 in the rubber match of their best-of-three Southern California regionals baseball series.
In softball, right-hander Nevaeh Haywood (Ramona High School) picked up all four wins during the Comets’ comeback — allowing three runs on 14 hits and six walks with 12 strikeouts over 23 innings. But Haywood (24-4) gave up five runs on six hits and a walk in 3 1/3 innings Sunday while making her sixth start in four days. Alexis Huey (Poway High) had a two-run single for Palomar in the sixth.
In baseball, Drake Cobb was 2-for-4 with a RBI and a run for Palomar and Jordan Treadwell had a two-run single as the Comets built a 5-2 lead through 4 ½ innings. But the Comets were out-hit 16-6.
