ARCATA, Calif. ? The UC San Diego softball team suffered a hard-fought 5-3 loss to San Francisco State on Friday afternoon at the HSU Softball Field in Arcata, Calif. With the loss UCSD is eliminated from the CCAA Championship Tournament and falls to 34-25 on the season. SFSU improves to 31-32 on the season and remains alive in the inaugural league championship tourney.

The Tritons jumped out to an early 3-0 lead behind a two-run homer from senior Nikki Palmer in the second inning and a RBI double off the bat of freshman Amanda Eliades in the third.

UCSD starting pitcher Melissa Ward allowed only one hit in each of the first three innings before giving up a leadoff homerun to Kristin Bartholomay in the bottom half of the fourth inning that started the SFSU scoring.

The Gators added another run in the fifth as Jordanna Freemer had an RBI single to reduce UCSD's lead down to 3-2.

SFSU took the lead for the first time in the contest in the sixth inning, scoring three runs on five hits, highlighted by another Freemer RBI single and a two-run double from Bartholomay.

UCSD could not push any runs across in the top half of the seventh and became the first casualty of the tournament. Ward allowed the five earned runs on 14 hits and fell to 26-12 on the season with the loss.

Kristine Beristianos started the game for the Gators and allowed all three UCSD runs on four hits in her 2 1/3 innings of work. Vanessa Truan came on in relief for SFSU and allowed only two hits while striking out four in her 4 1/3 innings in the circle. She improved to 18-11 on the year with the win.

The Tritons, who were ranked No. 3 in the latest NCAA D-II West Regional Poll, will now await word on its postseason fate. The selections for the West Region Tournament, which will be hosted by Cal State Stanislaus on May 10-14, will be announced on Monday, May 7.

If UCSD is one of the eight teams selected for the West Regional, it will be the program's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2002.