The Long Beach State softball team finished its 2007 season on a high note this past weekend, winning its series against UC Santa Barbara.
In the doubleheader on Friday at the Softball Complex, Long Beach State made it out with a 3-0 win in the first game, but could not pull it off in the second matchup, losing 2-1.
In the season finale Saturday, Bridgette Pagano picked up her 20th win of the season, as the 49ers beat UCSB 1-0.
The season officially ended for the softball team on Sunday, when the NCAA announced the pairings for the NCAA Tournament, and although the Big West Conference got five teams into the tournament, LBSU (28-25, 11-7) was not selected to play in the tournament.
In the first game of the series, the 49ers broke open a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring three unearned runs.
LBSU starting pitcher Pagano earned the win while UCSB pitcher Jennifer Davis took the loss.
In the second game Saturday, it was UCSB that took control of the game in the fifth inning, with Brittany Putich getting the Gauchos on the scoreboard.
“They scored their first run and we had an opportunity to make a play and we didn’t. That is how they got their first run,” LBSU coach Kim Sowder said.
In the top of the seventh, the Gauchos sealed the game with another run on the board. The bases were loaded and Trisha Duran was walked. Walters was advanced to home and scored an unearned run to make the score 2-0.
In the 49ers’ first at-bat in the seventh, Jessica Beaver hit her 10th homerun of the season to put LBSU on the board, but the team was unable to score the tying run.
The homerun by Beaver was the only hit that UCSB’s Davis, who also pitched the first game, gave up in the Gaucho win.
“Seeing a pitcher for the second time in a day, we hit her good in the first game and we needed to come out and do the same thing,” Sowder said. “We just didn’t have good at-bats.”
On Sunday, Pagano, who started all three games of the series, finished her impressive freshman season, throwing a two-hit shutout.
LBSU’s Brianna Goad scored the only run of the game in the second inning.
