SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (Feb. 16, 2023) – The UC Santa Barbara Softball team (2-2) will be back in action as they play their first series at Campus Diamond for the 2023 season under Coach Jo Evans. The Gauchos welcome the Southern Utah Thunderbirds.

The last time the Gauchos were on the field was in San Luis Obispo when the Gauchos competed in the Central Coast Classic hosted by Cal Poly. Over the course of the weekend, UC Santa Barbara played Nevada and North Dakota twice, going 2-2 on the weekend. In that time, the Gauchos won both games against North Dakota in five innings while losing by one run in each game to the Wolf Pack.

Through that time, the Gauchos had many members step up over the weekend. Freshman Bella Fuentes had the best weekend as she started her career with a .727 batting average across three games. Over that time, she registered four runs and eight hits while tallying three RBI's. Along with that, Madelyn McNally, who was chosen as a Big West Preseason All-Conference selection, is batting at .455 across four games.

When looking at the opponent, the Thunderbirds opened their season at the UNLV Classic. Over the course of three days, Southern Utah went 1-4, securing a 6-4 win over UNLV while dropping games to Arkansas, Baylor and another game to UNLV. Freshman Emily Gonzalez led the Thunderbirds on offense as she maintained a .538 batting average across those five games. Jayne Sepulveda also had a good weekend, helping the team with a .500 batting average as the sophomore registered five runs with eight hits.

The first day will be a double header between the Gauchos and Thunderbirds tomorrow, Feb. 17, at 12 p.m. with the second game to follow shortly after the first game ends. They will then play the third and final game at noon on Saturday, Feb. 18. All games will be streamed through ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.