SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The UC Santa Barbara Softball team begins Big West play on Friday as they will welcome Hawai'i to town for a three-game series this weekend. The Gauchos will look to earn a series win over the Rainbow Wahine for the first time since 2018.

LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos come into this weekend after posting a 2-2 record in their home tournament a weekend ago. They picked up two wins over Utah Tech but fell to Lehigh twice by a combined three runs. Alexa Sams continued her hot hitting and has not hit .478 over the Gauchos last 10 games. Camryn Snyder twirled a gem against Utah Tech, holding the Trailblazers to just one hit over seven innings and striking out four en route to her complete-game shutout.

SERIES HISTORY
The Gauchos and Rainbow Wahine will meet for the 88th, 89th and 90th time this weekend with Hawai'i leading the all-time series 29-58. Over the last 10 meetings the Gauchos have posted a 3-7 record against the Rainbow Wahine with their last series win coming in 2018 when they took two of three from Hawai'i. Over the last three series the Gauchos have hosted Hawai'i at Campus Diamond UC Santa Barbara has narrowly edged the Rainbow Wahine posting a 5-4 record.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE GAUCHOS
Despite a sub .500 record the Gauchos have played and competed against some of the top teams not just on the west coast, but in the nation. The Gauchos opened the season with five straight games against teams that made the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Although all five games resulted in losses UC Santa Barbara hung around and had a chance to win nearly all five games. 

UC Santa Barbara currently has three players hitting over .300 on the season. Madelyn McNally paces the team with a .417 average and has hit safely in all but two games this season. Jazzy Santos is coming off a weekend that saw her hit .400 and raise her average to .328. Freshman Ainsley Waddell is hitting .324 and leads the team in RBI (19), total bases (36) and is tied for the team lead in home runs with three. Rounding out the .300 hitters is Alexa Sams who is hitting .302 through 17 games played.

In the circle all three Gauchos starting pitchers post a sub 4.00 earned run average. Malaya Johnson leads all pitchers with a 3.54 ERA in seven appearances and four starts. The sophomore has struck out 27 batters over 31.2 inning pitched. She has already surpassed her strikeout total from last year in just over a third of her innings pitched. 

SCOUTING THE RAINBOW WAHINE
This will be just the second time this season that Hawai'i will leave the island for games. The other trip was to the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic from Feb. 22 - Feb. 25. During that trip Hawai'i went 0-5, thus all seven of their wins have come at home. Last weekend the Rainbow Wahine hosted Cleveland State, UCONN and New Mexico and Hawai'i came away with a 3-3 record.

Offensively the Wahine are led by Dallas Millwood who is hitting .340 over Hawai'i's 21 games. She has recorded 17 hits with four of them going for extra bases. Narrowly behind her in batting average is Haley Johnson who is hitting .339. Johnson and Millwood are the only two players for Hawai'i to be hitting over .300. 

In the circle all Rainbow Wahine starters post an above 4.00 ERA and allowing teams to hit .295 against them. Over their 136.2 inning pitched the pitching staff has struck out just 47 batters. Addison Kostrencich despite posting a 5.33 ERA has thrown five complete games including two shutouts. 

FOLLOW ALONG
The Gauchos and Rainbow Wahine will start their series tomorrow, Friday, March 15 with first pitch at noon. Saturday UC Santa Barbara and Hawai'i will conclude their series with a doubleheader with the first game starting at noon. All games can be streamed through ESPN+ with live stats also available.