SAN DIEGO – McKenna Bull’s second no-hitter of the season led BYU softball to an 8-0 win over UC Santa Barbara in five innings in its final game of the San Diego Classic II on Saturday afternoon.
"We put together a nice day with great pitching, excellent defense and timely hitting," BYU head coach Gordon Eakin said. "It is going to be good to finally be home to play in front of our home crowd and get some quality practice time in."
This was the eighth shutout this season for BYU (18-12) and the fifth game won with the mercy rule. Bull threw her second-career solo no-hitter against UC Santa Barbara (13-13), earning seven strikeouts and just one walk in the win. Her last no-hitter came against San Jose State in the first game of the season.
At the plate, the Cougars got two home runs in the win with eight runs on eight hits. Madison Merrell led the team with a career-high four RBI, two coming off of a homer in the third inning.
Caitlyn Larsen’s second home run of the season put the Cougars on the board in the top of the second. Her solo homer over left field gave BYU the early 1-0 lead over UC Santa Barbara.
In the third inning, Merrell hit the Cougars’ second home run of the game. Her two-run bomb extended BYU’s lead to 3-0 over the Gauchos. This was Merrell’s fourth home run on the year.
After a scoreless fourth inning, an error from UCSB allowed Lauren Bell to reach home plate while BYU still had no outs. Despite a pitching change, the Cougars scored five runs in the fifth. Merrell doubled to right field, bringing in two runs for the Cougars. A sacrifice fly from Coco Tauali’i Bond brought in Lexi Tarrow, who was pinch running for Merrell. The last run of the inning was scored on Gordy Bravo’s single up the middle. After the inning, BYU led 8-0 over UCSB.
Bull struck out three in a row in the bottom of the fifth to seal the 8-0 win after five innings due to the mercy rule.
Next week, BYU will play its first home game of the season on Tuesday against Utah Valley at 5 p.m. MDT. The game will be televised live on BYUtv with live stats available on the schedule page.