LA JOLLA -- Cal State San Bernardino withstood a final-inning rally by UC San Diego Friday night to defeat the Tritons, 7-6, in the second game of their twilight-night CCAA softball doubleheader at the Tritons field.
   UCSD won the first game by the same score, 7-6.
    Neither team gained any ground in the race for four spots in the CCAA conference championship tournament. The Tritons remained in third place with a 13-8 record, a half-game ahead of fourth-place Cal State Monterey Bay, which split a twinbill with Chico State. UCSD is 23-15 overall and ranked No. 5 in the West Region.
    The Coyotes are now 10-12 in the CCAA, a half-game back of sixth-place Sonoma State which won a non-conference game Friday. CSUSB is 19-27 overall. The Coyotes trail Monterey Bay by three games in the standings with 10 games remaining in the regular season.
    The Tritons and Coyotes will face off in a second doubleheader at 1 p.m. Saturday to conclude the four-game series.
    Junior first-baseman Ashley Collinwood had three hits including a double and drove in three runs as CSUSB won the nightcap and gave senior right-hander Debbie Shisler her 11th win of the season in the circle. Shisler went 4-for-4 in the game, drove in a run to help her cause and scored twice. Senior left fielder Tori Beaudette was 2-for-3 with a double, two runs scored and an RBI.
    CSUSB got what proved to be the winning runs in the sixth on a two-run double by Collinwood.
    However, the Tritons scored three times in the bottom of the seventh to turn a 7-3 game into a 7-6 game.  But Shisler got Jennifer DeFazio to fly out with a runner on first and two out to end the comeback and preserve the win.
     In the first game, the Tritons got to CSUSB starter Courtney Wilhelms (2-6) for six runs in the first four innings on six hits. UCSD scored what proved to be the winning run in the bottom of the fifth on a solo home run by Jenni Habib off Coyotes reliever Brianne Godfredson.
     Traililng 6-3, the Coyotes made it 6-5 in the top of the fifth as Shisler scored on an error and Collinwood delivered an RBI single. However, a potential tying run was cut down at the plate as Erin Fernandez tried to score on a double by Felicia Cervantes.
     CSUSB made it 7-6 in the top of the sixth as Felicia Shepler reached base on a one-out single, advanced to second on a single by Beaudette and scored on a UCSD error.  Tess Granath relieved starter Camille  Gaito (6-0) and got the final two outs of the inning to earn her second save of the season.
     Beaudette, Shepler and Cervantes each had two hits in the game for CSUSB. The Coyotes banged out 24 hits in the two games.