Box Score
SEASIDE, Calif. -- The third-seeded Dixie State softball team opened the 2012 NCAA West Region with a 3-2 win over the sixth-seed and No. 24 ranked UC San Diego on Friday in Seaside, Calif at the Otter Sports Complex.
Dixie State will now face the winner of the No. 2 seed CSU Monterey Bay and No. 7 seed Montana State Billings tomorrow at 12:00 pm MT.
Trailing 2-1 in the 4th inning, junior Anna Cue (Murrieta Valley, CA/Murrieta Valley High School) deposited a 1-2 pitch into left center for her third home of the season to tie the game at 2-2.
Senior Kelsey Mendenhall (Tooele. UT/Tooele High School) led off the bottom of the 6th by getting hit by a pitch. Freshman Courtney Sherwin (Mesa, AZ/Red Mountain High School) laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Mendenhall into scoring position and Freshman Marla Reiter (Rolinda, CA/Central High School) moved her to pinch runner Jaelle Judkins (Saint George, UT/Dixie High School) to third on a ground out.
With the go ahead run at third in Judkins, Cue again battled deep into the count (3-2) and hit a hard groundball to first that the Triton first baseman couldn't handle. Judkins scored the game winning run on the play.
Red Storm Coach Randy Simkins said, "Cue did a nice job at being patient and hitting the ball the other way."
In UCSD's final at-bat, Kris Lesovsky hit one-out single through the leftside before Kirsten Willmon doubled into the right center field gap. Lesovsky held at third base, forcing Willmon to get caught in between third and second. Willmon slid back to the second-base bag and was called safe after appearing to beat Kylee Higgins (Layton. UT/Layton High School) tag.
However, the Simikins protested the decision, calling into question the second base umpire's angle on the play. After a three-minute discussion between the coaches and the umpires, Willmon was called out of the baseline for the second out of the inning.
Caitlin Brown fouled-out at the left field wall on the next play to end the game, a ball that would have likely scored Lesovsky from third on a sacrifice fly if there was one-down.
Dixie State improves to 37-11 and UC San Diego drops to 35-20.
Dixie State senior Lauren Folta (Erda. UT/Tooele High School) pitched out of a jam in the first and fourth inning and held UCSD to two runs on six hits. She also walked three and struck two Triton batters.
Mattie Snow (Tooele, UT/Tooele High School) relieved Folta in the circle for the final two frames and picked up her 16th win of the season. She allowed two hits while striking out one.
"What a luxury it is to have two great pitchers and be able to use either one in those situations, said Simkins. Folta had walked the leadoff already and pitched out of a couple of jams and I felt like we needed to give them a different look."
The Red Storm scored their first run in the 1st inning when Freshman Courtney Hine (San Dimas, CA/San Dimas High School) was hit by a pitch. Junior Johnna Brown (Las Vegas, NV/Centennial ) followed with a single to left field that the left fielder misplayed that allowed Hine to score from first and Brown to reach third.
DSC was able to capitalize on three UCSD miscues in the game and defeat Triton starter Camille Gaito. Gaito allowed just one earned run and four hits while striking out five.
