By winning its last five games over the weekend against UC San Diego and Grand Canyon, the Gators received their first invitation in school history to the NCAA Division II regionals to be played in Arcata, CA starting this Thursday.

Coming into the Saturday’s game against UC San Diego the Gators held the fourth seed for the west regionals, with the top six making the cut. Playing against teams that were also trying to make the regionals the Gators had to play tough.

Saturday was senior day for Rachel Darrow, as the lone senior was honored with flowers and gifts before the game. Darrow gave the fans of SF State a gift in the seventh inning when she came to bat with first base open and the tying run at second. UC San Diego elected to pitch to the Gators best hitter instead of walking her intentionally and Darrow made them pay by crushing the high fastball on the first pitch to deep left field to score Nicole Hartfield to tie the game at two.

“ I wasn’t really surprised with the decision to pitch to Darrow,” SF State head coach Kristi Lansford said. “ There aren’t too many intentional walks given out by a team each year, probably only two or three.”

“ I wasn’t surprised they pitched to me just because I was 0-3 coming into that at bat,” Darrow said. “I knew they were throwing a strike to me on the first pitch to try and get ahead so I just looked to try and hit the first pitch hard somewhere.”

Moments later Vanessa Rodrigue smashed a pitch to deep right field for a double that scored Darrow with the winning run in a game that was like stealing candy from a baby.

“ After Rachel tied the game there wasn’t as much pressure because the game was tied,” Rodrigue said. “ I knew we had a fast runner at two (second base) so I just tried to put the ball in play anywhere.”

Holly Pearce pitched a complete game for the win, her 12th of the year. Pearce gave up one run on eight hits while striking out two.

“Knowing this one of the last times I was going to pitch with Rachel behind the plate was what motivated me even more than usual,” Pearce said. “I threw a lot of screwballs early in the count that they (UC San Diego) fouled off for strikes and then I would go away with a pitch to try and get the last strike.”

In game two Sonja Garnett was the one throwing a lot of screwballs for the Gators as she looked to try and help the Gators sweep the Tritons. When Nicole Ramirez hit a three-run-homer in the bottom half of the fourth, Garnett had all the runs she would need. After giving up a run in the first, Garnett settled down to allow only three more hits in the game (five on the day) while pitching a complete game win. Garnett played an important part on defense as got two batters to ground out right back to her for rally ending double plays.

“The way I figure it, I’m just another person on the field that needs to play good defense,” Garnett said of her good fielding during the game.

After the game players gave Darrow more gifts and hugs.

"I always knew my team had my back and everything, but for them to go out of their way and give me a day like this was really something special and means a lot to me,” Darrow said.

The Gators continued their winning ways on Sunday as they swept Grand Canyon to end the regular season. Garnett was close to flawless in the first game as she only gave up two hits to throw a complete game 1-0 shutout.

The Gators then got the bats out more in the last game of the regular season as they beat Grand Canyon by a score of 5-1. Chrissy Hildebrandt had a great game as she went 4-4 with two doubles. Darrow also got five hits on the day, establishing her as the SF State leader for most hits in a single season with 68 on the year. Darrow finished with a .324 batting average and 26 RBI’s.

“The whole team has been playing well and I know that if we get down in a game, they will just battle back and we’ll win,” Garnett said.

The Gators will start their playoff season on Thursday May 6th against Seattle University at 9am. The winner of the tournament will join seven other regional winners in Orlando, Florida in the Division II Championships.