DAVIS, Calif. -- Riding a streak of seven straight wins, UC Davis softball returns to La Rue Field to host a three-game series with an old rival from its Division II era: new Big West Conference member UC San Diego. The Aggies and Tritons square off for a single game on Friday at 3 p.m., then meet up for a noon doubleheader on Saturday.
UC Davis will allow limited spectators for its home events for the remainder of the spring. However, due to limited capacity at the venue, only designated guests of Aggie student-athletes will be granted admission to these contests. Such admission will be arranged by the players prior to the weekend.
UC Davis and UCSD have not met since 2004, when the Aggies were in their first year of the Division I reclassification. Furthermore, this will be the first time head coach Erin Thorpe has coached against her alma mater and by extension, against Triton head coach Patti Gerckens. The former Erin Bridges earned four All-West Region awards plus a third-team All-America nod for Gerckens from 1997 to 2000, and still ranks among school career leaders in batting (.362), RBIs (97) and triples (12). Thorpe never faced her mentor during stints at Whittier and Boise State.
AT A GLANCE
Who: UC San Diego
When: Friday, Apr. 23 (3 p.m.) & Saturday, Apr. 24 (Noon doubleheader)
Where: La Rue Field (Davis, Calif.)
Live Video - Big West TV
Live Stats: StatBroadcast (Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3)
• Gerckens, Thorpe's coach in her collegiate days, will not be the only familiar face on the UCSD staff... Associate head coach and recruiting coordinator Cristina Byrne served as an Aggie assistant in the 2016 season... Furthermore, Triton assistant coach Christina Washington was a teammate of Aggie volunteer assistant Morgan Lamb at Boise State for the 2017 season.
• UC Davis swept CSUN in its most recent action, marking the second consecutive Big West Conference series sweep of fifth, sixth and seventh straight wins... Junior 2B Sommer Kisling hit 7-for-11 (.636) during the weekend, while SS Isabella Leon slugged 1.000 thanks to two doubles and a homer.
• 1B Sarah Starks launched two homers out of Matador Diamond, bringing her season totals to seven home runs and 21 RBI... Only six Aggies have reached that many dingers in a season during the program's Div. I era, although three – Leon, Alyse Rojas and Riley Siegel – did so in last year's COVID-shortened season... Meghan Bradbury holds the season highs for homers (9) and RBI (41) for the D-I era, which began in 2008.
• RHP Kenedi Brown earned the save in Sarah Reineman's gem of a start (5-2-0-0-1-3) in Saturday's series finale... Brown now leads the conference with three saves... She was also the first player in the Big West to reach the 100-strikeout plateau this year, now holding a league-high 113... The UC Davis record book does not have an all-time record for saves, since it was such a rare stat into the early 2000s, but the top season in the D-I era belongs to Andrea Reynolds (4, 2014).
ABOUT UC DAVIS:
Centrally located between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, over 700 student-athletes across 25 teams enjoy an unrivaled undergraduate experience at the fifth-ranked public school in the country.
Ranked annually in the nation's top 10 in diversity and students' social mobility, UC Davis and its innovative Aggie EVO system helps student-athletes develop passions, connect with a comprehensive network of alums and industry leaders, gain real-world experience and thrive as a young professional following a successful launch to full-time employment or graduate school.
