SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The UC Santa Barbara softball team dropped its final game of its series against San Diego State in a 5-4 loss in nine innings on Sunday at Campus Diamond.

San Diego State scored the opening run of the game in the top of the first with two outs, when Alexa Schultz doubled in Shelby Thompson.

The Aztecs doubled their advantage in the top of the third inning when an error allowed Sara Lillie to reach first and Danielle Romanello to score.

Junior left fielder Sammy Fabian got the Gauchos on the board in the bottom of the fifth with a single to shortstop, scoring freshman DP Sam Denehy in the process.

In the following inning, a Denehy single with the bases loaded got freshman Chloe Stewart across the plate to tie the game up at 2-2.

SDSU pulled ahead once again in the top of the seventh, but the Gauchos were able to send the game into extra innings on the back of an RBI groundout by junior first baseman Rayna Cohen, with which she sent Fabian home for the tying run.

It took until the top of the ninth for the tie to be broken, with two Aztec singles scoring a pair of runs to put the visitors ahead 5-3.

In the bottom half of the frame, UCSB junior second baseman Maci Fines hit a sac fly to left to score sophomore centerfielder Tyler Goldstein but the Gaucho offense fizzled out after that, as the hosts dropped to 8-21 on the season.

The Gauchos take on Long Beach State at 1 p.m. on Friday, April 16 as they resume Big West conference play. The entire four-game series will be streamed on BigWest.TV and live stats will be available on UCSBGauchos.com.