The UCSB softball team (23-16 overall, 6-6 in the Big West) took a trip to Stockton, Calif., to play Pacific (24-20, 8-4), but had to wait two hours and 40 minutes for a rain delay before dropping one game on Saturday and splitting the Sunday series.

The teams were originally scheduled to play a doubleheader on Saturday and finish up with one game on Sunday, but ended up playing two on Sunday instead. Santa Barbara lost the first game Saturday 3-9, but then split Sunday with a 1-6 loss and an 8-6 victory before hitting the road.

“Obviously, the rain hurt both of our teams, but the weather isn’t in our control,” UCSB Head Coach Kristy Schroeder said. “Our team let it affect them a little, and it shouldn’t have because it’s out of our control.”

During Saturday’s sole game, the Gauchos jumped on the board early when freshman right fielder Danielle Meyers, who went one-for-two on Saturday, drove in two runs during the first inning. UCSB picked up another run and held on to a 3-0 lead up until the fifth inning, when Pacific picked up five runs beginning with a two-run double. In the sixth inning, Pacific knocked in four more runs that Santa Barbara was unable to answer to. Sophomore pitcher Jennifer Davis threw the entire game and fell to 13-8 on the season.

“I felt ok, although it wasn’t one of my best weekends,” Davis said. “I was throwing hard and they were seeing the ball really well, but it just wasn’t a great weekend for me, personally. I think I’ll have to make small adjustments finding better spots, keeping the ball lower and trying to work with better sequences of pitching. I think that if we work with coaches this weekend on finding the best variations of pitches it’ll be easier for me next week.”

During the final game of the doubleheader on Sunday, the Gauchos saw the return of sophomore pitcher Carly Harmon from the disabled list. Harmon opened the game and sophomore pitcher Lindsey Sommer closed out the game to keep UCSB on top against the Tigers.

“My arm felt a lot better than it has in the past,” Harmon said. “I wasn’t having much pain in my forearm, and so I was more confident that I could throw all my pitches instead of having to rely on only one or two.”

Now that Harmon has thrown some live pitches for the first time, she will be able to go deeper into the game. Next week, UCSB returns to Campus Diamond to face CSU Northridge in a three-game series beginning Saturday.