Box Score ST. GEORGE, Utah – A furious Humboldt State seventh-inning comeback was enough to send the NCAA Division II West 2 Regional contest to extra innings, but UC San Diego had the four-run answer in the eighth inning for a 10-6 victory.
 
With the defeat, HSU will move into the Loser's Bracket of the double elimination Regional tournament. The Jacks will play the Wildcats of Central Washington in a 12:30 p.m. Saturday start. A HSU victory would mean facing the winner of Saturday's first game between UC San Diego and Dixie State winner at approximately 3 p.m.
 
After winning the last 11 meetings and five in a row this season, HSU (46-15) battled hard but fell one short of the dozen victory mark against UC San Diego (34-16). The Jacks claimed four wins in the regular season and a California Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament opener, 2-1, a week ago.
 
"We knew it wasn't going to be easy. We see each other 12 times in two years," said HSU Head Coach Shelli Sarchett. "We like to have played like we did against them earlier in the season where we won five games, but it is not how it worked out today."
 
After early fielding miscues made the deficit four runs, 6-2, HSU battled back in its last trip to the plate. Tiffany Hollingsworth belted a leadoff solo home run to start a run of five-straight Jacks to reach base. Julie Pena drew a four-pitch walk, before Dani Randall, Sarah Fox and Hannah Williams lined back-to-back singles to cut the margin to a single run, 6-5. UC San Diego retired the next two HSU hitters, but Tonya Walker lofted a single over a draw in infield to plate pinch-runner Carly Perkins to tie the game, 6-6, to force extra innings.
 
"It is a testament to these young ladies and how they never give up," said the HSU coach. "We were just a little too late. We would have liked to put the pressure on them by scoring earlier in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings."
 
"We know at any deficit we have a chance to come back with our lineup as we proved we can come back in the seventh today," said Jacks' designated player Hannah Williams.
 
UC San Diego handled the extra-inning pressure. The Tritons put four of their first five hitters on base to take the lead 7-6. Two batters later with two outs, Alissa Gutierrez drove a bases-clearing double to the center field fence to extend the margin back to four runs, 10-6.  In the bottom of the eighth, Alexis Edwards allowed only a one-out walk to Pena to complete the UC San Diego win and earn her first win in five decisions against HSU.
 
"We've been here before and came back before," said Sarchett of HSU's situation in the loser's bracket. "In 2008 when we won the national championship, we had to come back from this same situation. We are more than capable of winning two games both on Saturday and Sunday."
 
At the plate, HSU received at least two hits from six of its top seven hitters with Randall and Pena leading the way with three apiece. Randall homered and singled two times with two runs and an RBI, while Pena doubled and singled twice with one RBI.
 
Hannah Williams doubled, singled and drove in one runner, while Walker and Fox contributed a pair of singles and one RBI each. Darian Harris had two hits and Hollingsworth extended her current hitting streak to 19 games with her solo home run.
 
HSU enjoyed its only lead of the game in the opening frame. Pena singled off the Edwards glove and up through the middle to plate Walker, who singled, for a 1-0 advantage.
 
UC San Diego jumped on top with three runs in the second and added a singled tally in the third to make it 4-1. Randall clubbed a line drive round-tripper in the home third, before UC San Diego pushed home two unearned runs off three HSU errors in the fourth for its 6-2 lead.
 
Madison Williams (9-2) posted 3.1 innings of solid pitching relief until the Tritons put together three singles and a walk in the first five hitters of the top of the eighth inning.