Gauchos drop series opener at UCSD
Mike Klan
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (27-13, 12-10 Big West) opened their four-game swing through San Diego with two big swings as both LeTrey McCollum and Nate Vargas left the yard against UC San Diego (21-19, 10-9 Big West) on Friday night. However, the two home runs were not enough to put away the Tritons as the Gauchos dropped the series opener, 6-4.
HOW IT HAPPENEDIt was a shaky start for Santa Barbara, as the Gauchos surrendered runs in both the first and second innings. The tally in the first was unearned, as an errant throw went from nearly cutting down a runner trying to grab an extra 90 feet to granting that runner 90 more feet, and with them a run. After Santa Barbara left the bases loaded in the top of the second, a two-out double gave the Tritons another run in the bottom half of the frame.
Another two-out double in the bottom of the fourth gave the hosts a 4-0 lead, but the Gaucho offense clicked into gear in the top of the fifth to provide a response. After Rowan Kelly’s lead-off walk, Corey Nunez drove in Santa Barbara’s first run of the night with a double into the right field corner. Then, McCollum cracked a two-out home run to cut the deficit to one, a frozen rope that bounced off the top of the right center field fence on its way out.
But the Tritons got two runs back in the bottom of the sixth with more two-out hitting, this time a ground ball hit so hard through the right side of the Gaucho infield that it ended up being un-fieldable. Santa Barbara was able to loosen UC San Diego’s grip on the game in the top of the ninth, which Vargas led off by hitting the first pitch he saw out to right field, his team-leading seventh home run of the year. Kelly legged out an infield single to keep the rally alive, bringing the tying run to the plate. However, the Gauchos were unable to put any more runs on the board.
BY THE NUMBERSFor McCollum, his fifth-inning home run was his fifth of the season and his second in as many games. McCollum joins Jonathan Mendez, Jack Holman and Isaac Kim as Gauchos to homer in consecutive games this season. Holman has done it a team-high three times, while Mendez was the most recent to do it, leaving the yard on March 23 and March 25Despite working only four innings on the mound Friday night, Tyler Bremner continued to rack up the strikeouts, tallying eight K’s. He is now 12 away from matching Dan Yokubaitis’ UC Santa Barbara record for career strikeouts. With a repeat of his career-best 13 in a game, Bremner could take the record outright next weekend.Bremner is not the only one hunting a record, as McCollum’s home run extended his on-base streak to 36 games, nine away from matching (and 10 from breaking) the longest on-base streak in program history of 45 games, set by Christian Kirtley in 2022.
UP NEXTThe Gauchos will be back at Triton Ballpark on Saturday, April 26 at 2 p.m. for the second game of this three-game series. The game will be live on ESPN+ with live stats and an audio broadcast available through ucsbgauchos.com.
(Article courtesy UCSB Athletics).