CHICO, Calif. - Taylor Sepulveda laid down a suicide squeeze bunt to score Katrin Gabriel in the bottom of the seventh inning as the top-seeded UC San Diego softball team defeated No. 4 Chico State in walk-off fashion, 2-1, on Monday afternoon to capture the West Region 1 title and punch its ticket to next weekend's West Super Regional against Cal State San Bernardino at Triton Softball Field in La Jolla.

UCSD (39-13) advances to face CSUSB in Friday and Saturday's Super Regional to determine the champion of the West Region. Friday's game one will start at 4:00 p.m. while Saturday's first game is set for noon. If necessary, a third game will be played a half-hour after the conclusion of Saturday's game one. The winner of the best-of-three series qualifies for May 26-30's National Championships in Salem, Va. The Tritons have never advanced as far as the NCAA Super Regional at either the NCAA Division II or III level.

After CSUC (31-19) rallied in the top of the seventh to tie the score at 1-1 on an RBI single by Diana Payan, UCSD head coach Patti Gerckens called on Gabriel to pinch-hit for Esther Strom to lead off the bottom half of the inning. Gabriel fouled six consecutive pitches with a full-count off Sam Baker (22-11) before looping a single to the opposite field over the shortstop's outstretched glove.

"I was really excited that [Coach Gerckens] called me in to come hit, I was ready for it," said Gabriel. "I took extra cuts even before I knew I was going to get in."

Gabriel was granted second base on an illegal pitch by Baker and eventually moved to third after a pair of walks to Mya Romero and Kris Lesovsky.

Sepulveda stepped up to the dish with the bases loaded and one-down, having already provided four sacrifice bunts in the tournament. She attempted to bunt on Baker's first delivery, but the ball trickled just foul, wide of the third base line. With the Wildcats calling for the squeeze on the next pitch, Sepulveda took the offering high for a ball, using her normal slapping motion to make it appear as if she would swing away.

The decoy worked, as Sepulveda dropped a textbook bunt to the pitcher's shoelaces on the next delivery. Gabriel, a senior speedster who sits in fifth place on UCSD's all-time steals list, broke hard from third, pressuring Baker to hurry her throw wide of the catcher. The ball careened off the backstop and Gabriel slid-in for the game-winner.

"Taylor's one of our best bunters. Katrin's our fastest runner," said Gerckens. "So it's a perfect situation. The only thing is, it is bases loaded so it has got to be perfect. I was willing to take that risk. That's what you have to do and it paid off this time."

Said Gabriel, "I knew this was the fastest I was ever going to run to home plate. Taylor was going to get it down because she is one of the best bunters on the team and it was going to be successful."

To see a video of the game-winning run, click here.

Camille Gaito (29-4) earned her third consecutive complete game victory, going a perfect 3-0 at the West Region 1 tournament while giving up just two earned runs, striking out 23 and logging a miniscule 0.56 earned run average. Gaito fanned eight Wildcat batters in the championship game, sitting down her counterpart, Baker, three times in the contest. UCSD outscored its opponents 7-3 at the Subregional, relying heavily on small-ball and the right arm of Gaito.

"She's just incredible on the mound," said Gerckens. "She's steady, she's consistent, she's smart and she hits her spots. You can't ask anything more than that."

The Tritons opened the scoring in the first inning, loading the bases with no out for the second time in three games. Jennifer De Fazio hit a ball about four-feet, but forced a throw from the catcher to first base for the second out while giving Lesovsky enough time to scurry home from third. De Fazio led all Triton batters with four RBI in three games, including a two-run single on Saturday against CSUC that sent the Tritons to the championship game.

Lesovsky hit .500 (4-for-8) in Chico, scoring three times while posting a .667 on-base percentage and registering a pair of doubles to become UCSD's all-time leader for two-baggers (50). Sepulveda hit .429 (3-for-7) with five sacrifice bunts and Sarah Woofter scored twice over the three contests.

In Friday's NCAA First Round, Rhiannon Ousley bunted-home Kirsten Willmon in the sixth inning for the game-winning run in a 2-1 game against No. 8 Central Washington. De Fazio followed suit the next day against Chico State in the Second Round, delivering a two-out, two-RBI single in the top of the 11th to make the difference in a 3-1 ballgame. After Sepulveda and Gabriel's heroics on Monday, UCSD remains one of the final 16 teams in the nation, and must win two more games to earn the school's first appearance at the National Championships.

"I just have so much pride right now in my team," said Gabriel. "This is the furthest we've ever been in UCSD history and we're excited to take it to San [Bernardino] next week."

Standing in the Tritons' way are the Coyotes, who earned a bid to the Super Regional by winning West Region 2 in Kaneohe, Hawaii. CSUSB, seeded No. 7 in the West, outlasted defending national champion No. 2 Hawaii Pacific and CCAA Tournament champion No. 3 Sonoma State. The Coyotes finished fifth in the CCAA regular season standings and did not appear at May 1-3's CCAA Tournament. UCSD swept CSUSB in the four games between the teams in 2011 and holds a 43-40 all-time advantage over the Coyotes.

"It's going to be exciting next week and we've got some work to do for sure," said Gerckens. "We need to put up more runs, but we're excited that we're going home."