ARCATA, Calif. ? The UC San Diego softball team dropped its opening game of the inaugural CCAA Championship Tournament by a 6-2 score to the 7th-ranked Warriors of Cal State Stanislaus on Thursday afternoon at the HSU Softball Field in Arcata, Calif. The Tritons fall to 34-24 with the loss while the Warriors improve to 43-16 in 2007.

CSUS score one run in each of the first two innings before adding two more runs in each of the next two frames to hold a 6-0 lead after the first three and a half innings. The Warriors got home runs from Meghan Franksen, Jessica Scholl and Alyssa Guzman during that stretch while liming the Tritons to only one hit during that time. Jessia Gaumnitz would go on to pick up the complete game victory to improve to 21-4 on the season for the Warriors.

The Tritons finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth as senior Dallas Hernandez connected on a home run to center field, her first of the season. Freshman Amanda Eliades would blast her second home run of the season for UCSD in the bottom of the next frame to cut the CSUS lead down to 6-2.

Head coach Patti Gerckens' squad could get no closer as starter Melissa Ward took the loss and fell to 26-11 on the season. She allowed the six runs, only two of which were earned, on eight hits while walking three and striking out six. Freshman and first team All-CCAA catcher, Nicole Saari, accounted for the other two UCSD hits on the day, both of which were singles.

Seven different Warrior players collected hits in the contest. Guzman was the lone CSUS player to notch multiple hits in the game, stroking a single in addition to her third homer of the season.

The loss forces the Tritons into the loser bracket of the tournament where they will face the loser of the second game on Thursday between Humboldt State and San Francisco State. HSU, in addition to being the host, is ranked No. 4 in the country and is the No. 1 seed in the CCAA tournament. First pitch for UCSD on Friday is slated for 10:30 a.m.