UC Davis-Washington Box Score  |  UC Davis-Minnesota Box Score

LAS VEGAS - A brutally tough tournament schedule continued on Saturday when UC Davis faced No. 13/11 Washington and No. 15/15 Minnesota in the second day of action from Las Vegas at the Sportco Kick-Off Classic. Competing in the first two games of the day, UC Davis fell 8-0 in six innings against the Huskies before battling Minnesota in the wildest game of the weekend so far. Against the Gophers, nine combined runs were scored in the first two innings, and another 11 combined runs were recorded in the final two innings in a game that ended in Minnesota’s favor, 15-6, in six innings.

UC Davis, having already faced three teams that are either ranked, or receiving votes in both the USA Today/NFCA and ESPN.com/USA Softball national polls in the last 30 hours, will enter Sunday’s tournament finale, against Bakersfield (formerly known as Cal State Bakersfield and CSU Bakersfield before changing its moniker one again at the start of the academic year) with a 0-4 record.

After dropping its first game of the day to Washington, 8-0, in a game that saw Christa Castello record two of the Aggies’ three hits - Lauryn Saunders earned the other - UC Davis wasted no time in lighting up the scoreboard at Eller Media Stadium when action commenced in the second of back-to-back tournament games for UC Davis.

The Gophers struck first by plating a run in their half of the first, then saw the Aggies respond by scoring four runs in the bottom of the frame to take a three-run lead.

Back-to-back Gopher errors allowed Krista Bava and Castello to begin the bottom of the first by reaching base, and were soon joined by Christina Guidry who loaded the bases after drawing a five-pitch walk.

Amy Nunez drove in Bava and Castello when she ripped a single down the left field line to give UC Davis a 2-1 lead with zero outs recorded by UM.

Kelly Zboralske loaded the bases once again when she reached first on a bunt single, pushing Guidry to third and Nunez to second on the play.

Alexis Carney doubled her team’s lead when she singled to center, allowing Guidry to trot home for the Aggies’ third run of the inning. Their scoring rally was completed when Ashley Lotoszynski drove in Nunez on her groundout to second.

Armed with a 4-1 lead heading into the second inning, Minnesota rallied to score four runs of its own in the top of the third to take a 5-4 lead heading into the bottom-half of the frame.

Of the eight batters that took their swings in the second inning, four Gophers scored on four hits.

The score remained at 5-4, in Minnesota’s favor, until last year’s super regional participant tacked on another run in the fourth, and an additional seven runs in the fifth to place the Aggies in a precarious position heading into the bottom of the inning.

If the Aggies were unable to trim its nine-run deficit to less than eight, the game would end via run rule. Instead of succumbing to its potential fate, UC Davis fought back and scored another two runs to extend the game.

What started with a single from Guidry, turned into the Aggies’ fifth run after she advanced to second on a single to right from Nunez, reached third on a groundout by Zboralske, and score on a wild pitch that reduced the Gophers’ lead to eight.

Carney earned her second hit, and second RBI of the game, by doubling to right field which allowed Nunez to easily score from third.

Nunez advanced to second on Zboralske’s grounder, and then took third on that same wild pitch that allowed Guidry to score.

Both Guidry and Nunez scored twice against the Golden Gophers. The fifth inning’s events capped an afternoon that saw Nunez reach base safely in all three at-bats, and drive in a team-high two runs.

Carney also recorded a team-high two RBI and hit 2-for-3 in Saturday’s second game.

As was the case earlier in the day, Minnesota responded to UC Davis’ two-run rally opportunity by creating one of its own when the Gophers returned to the plate, By doing so, Minnesota ended the Aggies day in six innings after UC Davis was unable to drop its deficit under the eight-run threshold.

First pitch for Sunday’s matchup against the Roadrunners is slated for 1:30 p.m. A live stats link for this game is available at ucdavisaggies.com.

No. 13/11 Washington 8, UC Davis 0 

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UC Davis............... 000 000  -  0  3  2      (0-3)
Washington.......... 003 311  -  8 12  0      (2-1)

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Pitchers: UC Davis - Cruse, Dana; Munden, Leah (3); Vela, Justine (4); Reynolds, Andrea (6) and

Robertson, Katie; Saunders, Lauryn. Washington - Stanchek; Bator (5) and Souza.

Win-Stanchek (1-1)  Loss-Cruse, Dana (0-1)  T-2:00  

No. 15/15 Minnesota 15, UC Davis 6 

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Minnesota........... 140 172  - 15 14  2      (3-0)
UC Davis............. 400 020  -  6   7   0      (0-4)

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Pitchers: Minnesota - Stober; Anderson(1) and LeMay; Rozell. UC Davis - Reynolds, Andrea;

Munden, Leah (4); Chapa, Marissa (5); Cruse, Dana (5) and Carney, Alexis.

Win-Anderson (1-0)  Loss-Reynolds, Andrea (0-1)  T-2:22  

HR MINN - Walker; Dwyer.

Stober faced 5 batters in the 1st.

Munden, L. faced 3 batters in the 5th.