Freshman pitcher Dakota Casper tossed a complete game in the Cal Poly softball team’s final game of the season to lift the Mustangs over UC Santa Barbara and avoid the sweep.
With the win, the Mustangs finished the 2018 season with a 25-25 record.
Game 1:
UC Santa Barbara scored seven unanswered runs in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings before Gauchos infielder Melanie Menor’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth clinched the game for the Gauchos by the score of 10 to 9.
Cal Poly senior right-hander Lindsey Chalmers pitched 5 ⅔ innings and allowed seven runs on 11 hits. Freshman right-hander pick Dakota Casper was handed the loss by allowing the last three Gaucho runs. Right-hander Veronika Gulvin earned the win for UC Santa Barbara.
Before UC Santa Barbara made their comeback, Cal Poly had a 9-2 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, highlighted by junior right-fielder Crimson Kaiser’s two-RBI triple scoring senior third baseman Stephanie Heyward and junior catcher Makenna Young.
Game 2:
In the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, Cal Poly took a 3-0 lead in the first inning when sophomore first baseman Hailey Martin stepped to the box with the bases loaded and promptly unloaded them.
In the bottom half of the inning, UC Santa Barbara knotted things up with a three-run home run by junior infielder Sierra Altmeyer. In the 3rd inning, UC Santa Barbara hit another homer off of senior pitcher Lindsey Chalmers to give them a 4-3 lead.
Cal Poly evened the score in the fifth inning — when junior infielder Megan Nordin hit a pinch-hit RBI single.
The game would remain deadlocked until the seventh inning when Altmeyer struck again, blasting her second home run, propelling UC Santa Barbara to a 5-4 walk-off victory.
Game 3:
In the final game of the regular season, Cal Poly scored five unanswered runs in the top of the fourth and held on to win 5-1 and avoid the sweep.
In the fourth, senior second baseman’s Alejandra Garcia’s bunt scored freshman pinch runner Sarah Wulff to tie the game. Senior shortstop Chelsea Convissar’s RBI single gave the Mustangs a 2-1 lead. Senior center fielder Amanda Sandoval’s sac fly and senior third baseman Stephanie Heyward’s two-run single completed the five-run inning.
Casper shut the Gauchos down for the rest of the game. Casper escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth, but other than that she did not face much resistance from the Gauchos hitters.
The win was Casper’s first since Feb.9.