FULLERTON, Calif. - The third-seeded UC Santa Barbara Softball team (28-23, 17-10 Big West) is prepping for the inaugural Big West Championship later this week at Cal State Fullerton's Anderson Family Field. A four-day double-elimination tournament, the winner will claim an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. The Gauchos first play six-seed UC San Diego (15-30, 13-14) on Wednesday afternoon.

LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos ended the regular season with a three-game series at CSUN last weekend, going 1-2. After the Matadors won the first two, Malaya Johnson twirled a gem in the finale—a two-hit shutout—on the way to a 4-0 win. Homers from Elicia Acosta and Jazzy Santos plus an Erin Mendoza RBI single provided the scoring.
 
Partially due to those results, CSUN, UC Santa Barbara, Long Beach State, and Hawai'i all finished tied for second with a 17-10 conference record. For Championship seeding purposes, the Matadors earned a first-round bye as the two-seed because they went 2-1—and thus, won the series—against each of the other three teams. Santa Barbara, Long Beach, and Hawai'i all went 3-3 against each other, with the Gauchos earning the more desirable position of the three-seed via tiebreaker.

LOOKING AT THE GAUCHOS
The Gauchos' run prevention has been excellent towards the end of the year. They have allowed five runs or less in each of their last nine games and 16 of their last 18, dating back to the late-March sweep of Cal Poly. They are 11-7 in that span, with seven of those wins coming in one-run or two-run games.
 
Junior pitcher Malaya Johnson deserves a lot of credit for those stats. She has pitched in 13 of the last 18 games—with 10 complete games—earning a 7-4 record plus a save to the tune of a 2.00 ERA. No doubt, the Gauchos will rely heavily on her during the four-day tournament.
 
Offensively, anyone in the Gauchos lineup could be the difference in any given game. Shortstop Tehya Banks has moved into the top-half of the order, hitting .313 on the year. Leadoff hitter Jazzy Santos has the most at-bats of anyone in the conference, accounting for a team-leading 30 runs. Bella Fuentes has driven her in more than a few times, as her 56 RBIs are a single-season program record. Freshman Giselle Mejia leads the conference in doubles (14) and leads the team in both average (.357) and OPS (.959).

SCOUTING THE TRITONS
UC San Diego snuck into the tournament as the six-seed with a 13-14 record, one game better than UC Riverside. In early April, the Gauchos traveled to La Jolla and swept a Friday doubleheader thanks in part to a Johnson four-hit shutout. In the final game of the weekend, San Diego scored three runs in the sixth inning and another in the seventh for a walk-off win to salvage the series.
 
Senior India Caldwell has pitched over half of the Tritons' innings overall, allowing four earned runs in 12 innings pitched in the series against the Gauchos. She had a 10-strikeout performance—a season-high—while unfairly earning a loss in the opening 1-0 Gauchos win. For the season, Caldwell has a 2.88 ERA and is second in the conference with 106 strikeouts.
 
Shortstop Jaden Hill is the team's only qualified hitter above .300, hitting .320 with a .815 OPS. She had five hits in the three-game series hosting Santa Barbara. Zara Wasserman leads the team with 24 RBIs and 10 doubles, while Alexa DeMarse has team-leading five homers.
 
POTENTIAL SCENARIOS
If the Gauchos beat UC San Diego, they will face two-seed CSUN on Thursday at 4 p.m., which would be their fourth meeting in less than a week. An opening win also confirms that the Gauchos will play on Friday, with just one game on Wednesday and one on Thursday, regardless of the result on Thursday's game.
 
With a loss to UC San Diego, the Gauchos will have to play immediately following the conclusion of that game, facing the loser of the Long Beach State-Hawai'i game earlier in the day. Naturally, in a double-elimination format, the Gauchos would then have to run the table to win the Big West Championship.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Wednesday's game against the Tritons is scheduled for 4 p.m. Fans not making the trip south to Fullerton can watch all Championship games on ESPN+ and follow along with live stats at ucsbgauchos.com/SoftballLiveStats. Fans can also listen to UC Santa Barbara games via a radio stream.