SBCC was seeded 16th for the Southern Cal Softball Regional and will travel to top-seeded College of the Canyons next weekend.
The Vaqueros, 23-15 and runners-up in the WSC Gold Division, made the Regional for the second straight year. They’ll play a best-of-3 series with Game 1 set for Saturday in Santa Clarita at 2 p.m. The second game and a third, if necessary, would be played Sunday at noon.
Santa Barbara won its last five games and 11 of its last 13. Canyons (37-2-1) captured the WSC Blue title with a 16-2 record and ended the regular season on a 14-game win streak.
The Cougars blanked SBCC 8-0 in a five-inning game on Feb. 11 at the Cypress Tournament.
“We have our work cut out for us but we’ve improved a lot since we played them two months ago,” said Vaquero coach Paula Congleton. “We’re going down there to win two games and beat the No. 1 seed. We’ve never told the kids they can’t do something.”
SBCC pitcher Alyse Harris and outfielder Samantha Cabada were named to the first-team All-WSC Gold squad. Harris, a sophomore from Denver, Colo., is 12-10 with 128 strikeouts in 157 innings. Cabada, a freshman from Patterson, Calif., hit .358 and drilled a pair of homers in last Tuesday’s sweep at L.A. Pierce.
Second-team choices were catcher Lauren Larabell (the leading hitter at .427), third baseman Bryn Thompson, first baseman Natalie Orosco and outfielder Brianna Portese (5 HRs, 28 RBIs).
Pitcher Celeste Acosta (11-5, 2.98 ERA) and shortstop Mariah Coyazo were honorable mention.
