ARCATA — Katie Garcia's diving catch in right field cut short a UC San Diego rally, preserving a 6-4 win for Cal State Dominguez Hills in the third game of the NCAA Division II West Region Softball Championships on Wednesday.

The Toros (29-23) advanced to Thursday's 4:30 p.m. game, where they'll face the winner of Wednesday's Humboldt State vs. Cal State San Bernardino matchup. UC San DIego (32-23) will try to remain alive when it takes on the loser of that same game at 2 p.m.

After the Tritons had scratched across a run to pull within two, Garcia raced in to grab the low liner off the bat of Danielle Lukk, stranding runners at first and second. Kristin Tanaka picked up the save with three innings of work, making a winner out of Regina Farfan (16-9), who pitched four innings, giving up four hits and one earned run while striking out two.

Lauren Chastain suffered the loss, dropping to 11-5 after lasting only 2.2 innings. Melissa Ward relieved her, allowing three runs - one of them earned - on seven hits in 4.1 innings, string out three and waking one.

UC San Diego claimed the early lead, slipping ahead in the bottom of the first when Jenni Habib reached on an error, moved to second on a groundout, and scored on Jenni Maze's two-out single.

A leadoff walk to Katie Jordan started Cal State Dominguez Hills' third-inning rally, continuing one out later when Liz Vazquez singled before both moved up on a wild pitch. Garcia's two-out single sent both runners home, and Regina Farfan's double scored Garcia to give CSUDH a 3-1 lead.

Maze scored on Amanda Eliades' single in the bottom of the fourth, cutting the deficit to one. But a single and error preceded Garcia's RBI single, and Farfan's sacrifice fly provided a 5-2 Toros' lead after five innings.

Danielle Lukk went deep over the left field fence for UCSD in the sixth, but it wasn't enough to overcome the Toros' lead.

CSU Dominguez Hills 6, UC San Diego 4 (May 07, 2008 at Arcata, Calif.)
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CSU Dominguez Hills. 003 020 1 -  6  9  1      (29-23)
UC San Diego........ 100 101 1 -  4 10  1      (32-23)
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Pitchers: CSU Dominguez Hills - FARFAN, Regina; TANAKA, Kristin(5). UC San Diego -
CHASTAIN,Lauren; WARD,Melissa(3).
Win-FARFAN, Regina(16-9)  Loss-CHASTAIN,Lauren(11-5)  T-1:39  A-67
HR CSUDH - GARCIA, Katie.
HR UCSD - LUKK,Danielle.