Author: KEYT

Caleb Nguyen

CAMARILLO, Calif. – Ventura County Fire Department crews put out a fire at a business on Acasio Street in Camarillo, just before 5:00 a.m. Sunday.

Smoke came out of the single-story business before firefighters broke into the building and confirmed the incident, detailed the VCFD.

According to the VCFD, nobody was inside the building when the fire started, and nobody was injured.

Firefighters contained the fire to a single building and knocked it down with a sprinkler system, detailed the VCFD.

Crews aired the building out and were on scene for another two hours. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Mike Klan

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Two opponents at the top of the Big West and receiving votes in multiple national polls, the Mustangs and Rainbow Warriors went the distance in a 10-inning nailbiter that saw Cal Poly’s win streak end with the 4-2 loss.

In front of 2,818 fans at Baggett Stadium, the venue’s second-largest crowd of the season, Cal Poly (23-9, 12-1 BWC) and Hawai’i (24-8, 10-6 BWC) battled to the bitter end in game one of D1Baseball.com’s mid-major weekly spotlight series.

Tanner Sagouspe (3-2) was shackled with the loss after allowing Shunsuke Sakaino’s go-ahead home run in the top of ten.

Ryan Fenn went 3-for-5 in his second straight three-hit effort and seventh of the season, while Alejandro Garza extended his hitting streak to 15 after notching his first collegiate home run.

On the defensive end, Griffin Naess enjoyed one of his best starts on the mound, providing eight complete innings for the Mustangs while allowing just four hits and one run. Naess, the reigning Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year, tallied seven strikeouts for the second time this season to tie his single-game career high.

All was quiet on both fronts through the first three innings. Naess was dealing and the Mustangs were having trouble finding consistency at the plate, but all that changed with Cam Hoiland’s second home run in as many games.

The solo homer went 353 feet and stayed just inside the right-field foul pole to put Cal Poly up by one in the third.

Naess did not allow a Hawai’i baserunner until a lead-off walk in the fourth inning, but the Rainbow Warriors built on the breakthrough to pull back a run on a fielder’s choice and close play at home plate.

For the most part, both side’s bats went relatively silent through the next two innings until the bottom of six when Garza clobbered his first career collegiate home run over left field. The pair of solo shots from Hoiland and Garza were the only runs Cal Poly would gather in the end.

With Tanner Sagouspe relieving Naess to start the ninth, Hawai’i later found itself working with a pair of one-out baserunners in scoring position.

A fly ball to shallow left field allowed Vachini to earn the second out, which sent the Rainbow Warrior home on a tag-up. Vachini slightly overthrew Castellon’s cut-off and Downing gathered the rolling ball to gun down a runner heading to third. Despite the final out via Downing, the Hawai’i baserunner from third made it home in time, tying the game at two.

Jack Collins was intentionally walked in the ninth with two outs and a chance to walk off the game with the go-ahead run at third, sealing extra innings after Casey Murray Jr. was struck out.

Shunsuke Sakaino hit a no-doubter for the go-ahead two-out, two-run homer at the top of ten, and Cal Poly never really found enough offense in the tenth for a comeback. Hawai’i took game one 4-2 with the win going to Isaiah Magdaleno.

The Mustangs and Rainbow Warriors play game two on Saturday with the first pitch set for 3:05 pm at Baggett Stadium.

(Article Courtesy of Cal Poly Athletics).

Mike Klan

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (22-10, 8-8) kept their bats hot on Friday night, scoring runs in each of the first five innings en route to a 13-4 win over UC Riverside (12-20, 3-13 Big West). Tyler Bremner struck out 10 Highlanders and earned the win on the mound, climbing to second on Santa Barbara’s career strikeouts list in the process. At the plate, all nine Gauchos in the lineup got a hit, with three of them tallying three, while LeTrey McCollum led the team with three RBIs.

HOW IT HAPPENEDSanta Barbara took the lead early, putting up a crooked number in the top of the first. Xavier Esquer led off with a single on the first pitch of the game, then Cole Kosciusko’s double put Gauchos on second and third with just one out. The doubles continued, with Jonathan Mendez plating two runs on one to the gap in left center, then Ian Fernandez driving one over the center fielder’s head to plate Mendez and make it 3-0.

Bremner struck out two Highlanders in the bottom of the first, allowing just a two-out single, and the Gaucho offense tacked on another run in the top of the second. Reiss Calvin led off the frame with another double and moved to third on Nolan Farley’s sacrifice bunt. Calvin then scored on Kosciusko’s infield single, a towering pop-up that dropped between the third baseman and shortstop.

Bremner got into trouble for the one and only time in the bottom of the fourth. The Highlanders scored four runs on six hits in the inning, though the Santa Barbara ace did get all three of his outs by way of the K in the frame. Even better for Bremner, the offense picked him up and re-took the lead in the top of the third. Kelly’s two-out double put a Gaucho in scoring position, and Fernandez’s two-out, two-strike single brought him home to put Santa Barbara back in front, 5-4. Bremner came back and retired the Highlanders in order in the bottom half of the inning.

In the fourth and fifth innings, the Gauchos broke the game wide open. In the top of the fourth, McCollum’s two-run home run to left center made it 7-4. In the fifth, Fernandez continued his great night with another RBI, singling to left center to plate Nate Vargas, who had led off the inning with a bunt single. Nolan Farley made it 9-4 with a sacrifice fly, then Esquer plated two more runs with a single into the right center field gap, putting Santa Barbara up, 11-4. Bremner stayed in firm command on the mound in the bottom of the fifth, striking out the side on just 11 pitches.

The righty put up another perfect inning in the bottom of the sixth, and the Gaucho offense put their finishing touches on the game in the top of the seventh. After an error and an infield single, McCollum scored Santa Barbara’s 12th run of the night with a sacrifice bunt, then Kosciusko made it 14 with a single up the middle.

Donovann Jackson took over on the bump in the bottom of the seventh and worked around a lead-off infield single, then worked around a lead-off hit batter in the eighth, with two strikeouts. Stunner Gonzalez took over for the lefty in the ninth and got the first two Highlanders he faced, including his first career strikeout. After his first career hit batter, he bounced back with his second career K to end the game.

BY THE NUMBERSAfter a second consecutive 10-strikeout performance on Friday, Bremner overtook both Shane Bieber and Rodney Boone on UC Santa Barbara’s career strikeouts list, moving into second in program history. With 241 in his career, he is 33 away from matching Dan Yokubaitis’ record.Friday was the first game this season in which the Gauchos have tallied 18 or more hits. The last time Santa Barbara had that many hits was on May 24, 2024, when they faced… UC Riverside.Gonzalez’s ninth-inning cameo was his second appearance in as many games for the Gauchos after he debuted in the ninth of Tuesday night’s win.As one of the three Gauchos with three hits on the night, Kelly set a new career high, his first three-hit outing as a collegiate baseball player. He has hits in each of his last five games now.

UP NEXTSanta Barbara will look to secure the series win on Saturday, April 12 in game two from the Riverside Sports Complex. First pitch is set for 6 p.m., with Calvin Proskey set to take the mound for the Gauchos. The game will be live on ESPN+ with live stats and an audio broadcast available through ucsbgauchos.com.

(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics).

Caleb Nguyen

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – A car crashed into an embankment after hitting a tree off the side of Highway 166 near Santa Maria, injuring three people Friday at 5:41 p.m., according to CAL Fire SLO.

All three patients had minor injuries and were taken to the hospital following the accident, detailed CAL Fire SLO.

Mike Klan

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Alejandro Garza, with five straight two-hit games, has increased his hitting streak to 14 games in helping Cal Poly (23-8, 12-0 BWC) seal a convincing 8-5 midweek victory over San Jose State (18-15, 6-6 MWC) on Tuesday night at Baggett Stadium.

Garza went 2-for-3 with one RBI and a pair of runs scored in tallying his team-leading 17th multi-hit game of the season. Ryan Fenn, also with a multi-hit game in a 3-for-5 effort, notched his sixth three-hit game this year.

Dylan Kordic (2-for-5, 3 RBIs) accounted for nearly half of the team’s runs. Cam Hoiland continues to enjoy his recent starting looks as a designated hitter and cranked a 415-foot solo homer.

Reece Bueno put together 2 1/3 innings of relief work, allowing three runs but striking out three Spartans and earning the win (2-0). Chris Downs, Jake Torres, and Tanner Sagouspe combined for four complete, scoreless innings as Sagouspe notched his fifth save.

Cal Poly’s RPI now sits comfortably at 17 after sweeping the home-and-home series over San Jose State, as the Mustangs have won nine consecutive games to tie LSU for the third-longest active win streak in Division I baseball.

During the win streak, the Mustangs have tallied double-digit hits in every game. They are currently four away from tying the longest win streak in program history. Cal Poly’s 23 overall wins are tied for the most in the conference, and the Mustangs have yet to lose a midweek game this season.

Kordic quickly put up a pair of two-out RBIs in the first inning, and the Mustangs would not trail in the game after spreading their eight runs among five different innings. San Jose State pulled one back in the second with a trio of consecutive singles, but Hoiland, after reaching from a lead-off fielding error in the bottom of two, scored on Dante Vachini’s ground-out RBI to retake a two-run lead.

A two-out solo shot from SJSU’s Osorio-Agard cut the lead in half at the top of three. In response during the fourth, Cam Hoiland touched home base for the second time after sending a ball 415 feet into right-center for a solo home run, once again giving CP a two-run lead.

Kordic picked up his third RBI of the day in the bottom of five, and Castellon followed that with his own RBI single that nearly scored a second run. Castellon attempted to stretch his single into a double but got caught in a pickle. Kordic thought the defense was distracted and was tagged out trying to steal home in the confusion.

The Spartans dug into the Cal Poly lead during the sixth, grounding out to second base twice to score runners from third. San Jose State added another run on a blooping RBI single to shallow right field, cutting the Mustang lead to one run. Chris Downs read an attempted steal from first to second and closed the inning with a 1-3-6 pickoff to limit further damage.

The Mustangs once again responded as Jake Downing cleanly stole second in the bottom of six, but the throw from home plate pinged off his helmet and allowed him to speed all the way home when the Spartan left fielder had trouble gathering the ball. Fenn tripled directly after and Garza brought him home for the second time as that 8-5 lead would stand for the win.

Continuing with the eight-game home stand will be a much-anticipated conference series against Hawai’i. The Rainbow Warriors are tied with Cal State Fullerton for third in the Big West (9-6). The weekend slate will follow the usual 6 pm, 3 pm, and 1 pm schedule for a Friday through Sunday series at Baggett.(Article courtesy of Cal Poly Athletics).