SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The 2019 UC Davis softball season will go down as the winningest in the program's Division I history after the Aggies mustered a split of their Big West Conference doubleheader with UC Santa Barbara on Saturday afternoon, winning the opener by the score of 3-0 before falling in the nightcap, 3-1, at Campus Diamond.

The split moves UC Davis to 28-7 overall on the year and 3-2 in league play, breaking the mark for wins in a season at the Division I level established just last year when it finished 27-24 overall and posting the most victories since the 2007 team ended with 31 for the season. The shutout in the opener was also the 13th of the year for the Aggies, breaking a tie with the 2009 squad for another Division I single-season record.

The Gauchos moved to 7-29 overall and 1-4 in league play with the split.

Meanwhile, individual honors went to senior infielder Meghan Bradbury, whose eighth home run of the year in the sixth inning of game two broke a tie with Lauryn Sanders and Kelly Zboralske for the most in a single season at the Division I level and the most since Deanna Menapace finished with 10 in 2007.

Bradbury's 13 career home runs are just one shy of Amy Nunez's Division I record of 14 from 2011-15 — a total that also ranks 10th on the all-time list.

The two teams meet to decide the series in the rubber game on Sunday (April 7) at Noon.

GAME 1: UC DAVIS 3, UC SANTA BARBARA 0
Junior outfielder Marisa Given finished 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles and an RBI, while Brooke Yanez finished with 12 strikeouts en route to her 18th win of the season, shutting out UC Santa Barbara by a 3-0 score in the series opener.

Now just two victories shy of Justine Vela's Division I single-season record for wins, Yanez (18-2) tossed a four-hitter while posting her sixth shutout of the season, stranding seven baserunners on the day — four of those in scoring position, including the bases loaded in the fourth. It was her seventh double-digit strikeout performance of the season — and her third in her last five outings — moving her into fifth on the school's Division I single-season list with 176, passing both Jessica Hancock (172 in 2009) and Justine Vela (175 in 2013) along the way.

She now needs only 14 more strikeouts to match her total from all of 2018, while 24 more strikeouts would make her only the fourth pitcher in the program's Division I history to reach 200 strikeouts in a single season along with Vela (272 in 2012), Hancock (225 in 2008), and Alex Holmes (209 in 2011).

Three straight singles from Sommer Kisling, Leon, and Alyse Rojas, started the Aggies' winning rally in the third, loading the bases with nobody out. After a fielder's choice erased a runner at the plate, senior Meghan Bradbury reached on an infield single to drive home a run, Yanez scored another on a ground ball, and Given's single to center brought home a third for the only runs UC Davis needed.

Leon and Alyse Rojas finished with two hits and a run scored apiece — the former posting her eighth multi-hit game of the season. Leon's 32 runs scored are tied for third in a single season in the program's Division I history, just three off Julie Stauder's record set in 2008.

GAME 2: UC SANTA BARBARA 3, UC DAVIS 1
Bradbury's solo home run — her eighth of the season — in the sixth inning tied the game, but a pair of errors in the home half proved decisive as the homestanding Gauchos plated a pair of unearned runs en route to a 3-1 victory.

Katie Kibby (8-5) suffered the hard luck loss, allowing just one earned run on six hits, matching zeros with UCSB starter Veronika Gulvin for the first four innings and stranding four baserunners in that span — including the bases loaded in the first inning. Kibby retired seven straight — and 10 of 11 — in that span, allowing only a harmless fourth-inning single.

Gulvin (1-8) earned the win, scattering just four hits and stranding three, retiring 12 of the final 13 hitters she faced around Bradbury's late home run.

Both teams came up empty with runners in scoring position in the first and mustered very little until the Gauchos finally broke the seal in the fifth thanks to a Teah Thies sacrifice fly for the 1-0 lead. Bradbury's two-out bomb in the sixth brought UC Davis level, but not for long as UC Santa Barbara rallied to push across a pair in the bottom half, taking the lead for good.

A pair of throwing errors to lead-off the home half of the sixth set the stage, putting runners in scoring position for Melanie Menor, who skied a ball to centerfield, deep enough to score the go-ahead run and a 2-1 lead. Kayla Krantz then followed by lacing a double to the gap in left centerfield to drive home a third run and chase Kibby from the game.

Senior Sara Cadona entered and got the final two outs via a strikeout and line out, but the Aggies' offense could not answer in the seventh, retired in order to end the game.

Bradbury finished 2-for-3 on the day, adding a single in the third to go with her home run for her eighth multi-hit game of the season. Coupled with her run batted in during the game one victory, Bradbury's home run gives her 31 RBI on the year, passing Ashley Lotoszynski's 2017 total for second on the school's Division I single-season list and putting her just two back of Deanna Menapace's Division I record of 33 set in 2008.

Leon, with a single in the first, and Kisling, with a single in the third, tallied the only other hits for UC Davis.

ABOUT UC DAVIS
Providing a small-town community feel while providing a world-class academic experience, UC Davis is home to more than 37,000 students and centrally located between San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and the Napa Valley. The No. 5-ranked public university in the nation according to the Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education, and among the top 10 public universities nationwide according to U.S. News and World Report, UC Davis offers nearly 100 graduate programs and more than 100 academic majors across four colleges and six professional schools, ranking among the world and nation's best in numerous disciplines, including veterinary science, agriculture, and plant and animal programs.

AGGIE EVO
Launched in 2017-18, the Aggie EVO System is UC Davis Athletics' investment in the primary mission of preparing student-athletes for a successful "launch" after graduation. Thanks to a collaboration of alumni, university resources, corporate partners, coaches and Student-Athlete Outcomes staff, all Aggies are guided over four years to acquire the skills, knowledge, opportunities and tools to better know and navigate the "World of Work" after graduating from UC Davis. Follow the Aggie EVO system on Twitter and Instagram at @AggieEVO.