Behind Shelby Wisdom’s two-hit shutout, UC Santa Barbara (2-2) concluded the Gaucho Classic I with a dominant 6-0 victory over Cal State Bakersfield (2-4) at Campus Diamond.
The junior earned her first win of the season after dealing three strikeouts, while limiting the Roadrunners to a pair of singles and a walk.
With the Roadrunners down to their final three outs, Wisdom faced the heart of the Bakersfield lineup in closing out the game.
After a quick lineout to the shortstop, Amy Ricciardi reached base after hitting a single through the right side. The Gauchos were able to pick up the second out of the inning after a fielder’s choice, but a walk led to the Bakersfield having runners on first and second.
Now one out away from finishing CSUB, Wisdom ended the game on her own effort with her third punch out of the day.
With support from her defense, Wisdom only needed to toss 100 pitches to down Bakersfield and only faced 25 batters.
UCSB’s infield was kept busy and ended up accounting for 16 of the team’s 21 outs. In fact, the first seven Bakersfield outs were groundouts to the left side.
Overall, the Gaucho defense limited the Roadrunners to no more than four at-bats per inning until the top of the seventh when they had five.
A pass ball gave UCSB its first run in the first, but the team built an overwhelming lead over CSUB in the bottom of the third when the offense exploded with five runs.
After MeShalon Moore and Wisdom got on base with their at-bats, Lauren Boser laid down a sacrifice bunt to move them both into scoring position.
Pilpil made sure the runners wouldn’t wait on the bases long as she delivered a single up the middle, which brought Moore home. On the same play, Wisdom scored after CSUB unsuccessfully tried to throw out Pilpil at second.
Now down 3-0, the Roadrunners opted for a pitching change, as Sydney Raeber came in for Kelsie Monroe.
Jenessa Jeppesen was unfazed by the switch in the circle and connected on an infield single to the shortstop for UCSB’s third hit of the inning.
Now with two outs, freshman Stacy Cavazos ran in three runs with her first collegiate home run that she blasted well over the center field wall.
Cavazos finished 2-2 on the day and led the team with three RBI.
The Gauchos will meet Bakersfield again next weekend when they will both compete in the Fresno State Kick-Off where they will also face Sacramento State and Southern Utah along with the host Bulldogs.
