Pitchers Kendra Wood and Ashley Jackson did their best Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum impersonations this weekend as the young, dynamic duo combined to hold the nation's 22nd-ranked Cal State Stanislaus to only six runs in the four game series.

Despite the duo’s dominance, the Warriors (25-19, 18-10 California Collegiate Athletic Association) scored in the bottom of the seventh in two of the four games to split the series with the Gators (26-18, 12-12 CCAA).

Coach Cristina Byrne, though, was happy with her team’s performance and the experience gained from all four games being decided by one run.

“They will have the experience in one-run ball games for the playoffs,” Byrne said. “They’re learning how to finish and how to be tougher with a one-run lead or in a tie. You can’t ask more than that.”

The Gators are 8-6 on the season in games decided by one run.

Kendra Wood and Jackson had some of their best stuff as they each pitched a shutout in the series, both 1-0 Gator victories, and combined to walk only five batters in all four games.

“It was definitely a team effort," Kendra Wood said. "The defense was solid behind me and that’s all I could ask for."

The first-year coach agreed.

“They stayed poised and in the end they each lost a game in the bottom of the seventh,” Byrne said. “I tell them we keep coming up on the short end of those games, but it’ll change for us. It will start going our way.”

The Gator defense was superb, with only one error and no unearned runs allowed in the four-game set. In the first game the Warriors took an early lead, 1-0, on an RBI single in the third by Sarah Shamblin.

The Gators rallied back in the fifth inning with three runs capped by back-to-back home runs by Kelsey Wood and Lea Cardenas.

Monica Amburgey added an RBI single later in the inning to give the Gators a 3-1 lead. Stanislaus came back to tie the game, 3-3, in the sixth, led by an RBI single by Alicia Reid. The Warriors won the game with a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

Jackson pitched six and two-thirds innings, giving up four runs and eleven hits in the loss. In the second game of the doubleheader, Kendra Wood blanked the Warriors with a four-hit complete game shutout.

An RBI double by Amburgey scoring Karolyn Gubbine proved to be all the support Wood needed in the 1-0 victory.

The next day, Jackson (13-7) followed in Kendra Wood’s footsteps and tossed a shutout of her own, a two-hit complete game while striking out seven and walking one.

Cardenas provided all the offense with a solo home run in the second inning for the 1-0 Gator win. It was her seventh home run of the season.

In the nightcap, the Warriors took the lead in the fourth on an RBI single by Jennifer Arnold.

The purple and gold came back to tie it 1-1 on a two-out RBI single by Danielle Chapman in the seventh, but the Warriors retaliated in the bottom of the inning with a two-out RBI single of their own to steal the victory, 2-1.

Kendra Wood (10-4) took the loss despite pitching a solid six and one-third innings giving up only two runs and six hits.

With the split the Gators took a bite out of the Warriors' lead in the conference, dropping them to second behind Humboldt State.

Currently SF State is in a three-way tie for fourth place with their next two opponents, Cal State Monterey Bay and UC San Diego.

“We want to keep our destiny in our own hands, and to do that we just need to win ball games," Byrne said.

The Gators open this weekend on the road against Cal State Monterey Bay starting Friday at 1 p.m.