UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (36-16, 16-13 Big West) punched their ticket to The Big West Championship on Friday, defeating Cal State Bakersfield (17-38, 8-21 Big West), 10-1, in the second game of their three-game series on Friday. Tyler Bremner was dominant on the mound, matching his career high with 13 strikeouts in seven shutout innings of work. At the plate, home runs from Jonathan Mendez and Xavier Esquer headlined the scoring.
HOW IT HAPPENEDBremner set the tone on the mound early, striking out the side in the top of the first, and his offense matched his intent with a run in the bottom half. LeTrey McCollum reached on a fielding error, and the Gauchos capitalized on it. Isaac Kim's single moved McCollum into scoring position, and Mendez drove him home with a two-out single into center field to put the home side on top, 1-0.
It was more of the same in the second as Bremner again faced the minimum, striking out the first two batters and then picking the runner off of first base after allowing an infield single. It was déjà vu in the bottom of the second too, as the Santa Barbara offense brought home another run. Esquer hit an opposite-field double, beating the shift, then came home when McCollum hit a 109-mph triple into the left center field gap.
Bremner struck out the side again in the top of the third but ran into trouble in the fourth when a walk, single and sacrifice bunt put two 'Runners in scoring position with just one out. Bremner came back and struck out the next two hitters to get out of the jam, then had to repeat the trick in the fifth. Facing the same situation, Bremner again dealt back-to-back strikeouts to escape the jam and keep Bakersfield off the board.
After Bremner worked a perfect top of the sixth, the Gauchos got back on the board in the bottom half. Mendez led off the home half of the sixth with a no-doubt home run to left on the first pitch, then Rowan Kelly smacked a single up the middle on the following pitch. He took second on a wild pitch, then Esquer beat the shift a second time with a queue shot off the end of his bat for an RBI single, plating Kelly to make it 4-0.
Bremner was perfect again in the top of the seventh, and Santa Barbara broke the game open after the stretch. Jack Holman got the bottom of the seventh started with a double to left center; he would come around to score on Nate Vargas' single up the middle. Kelly's two-out double into center allowed Vargas to score, and Cole Kosciukso's double brought home Kelly. Esquer went to the opposite field for a third time on the night, but his swing went a little further than the previous ones, seeing his teammates' doubles and raising them an opposite field, two-run home run to make it 9-0.
Raymond Olivas relieved Bremner for the top of the eighth and worked a perfect frame with a strikeout. In the bottom of the inning, the Gauchos kept on scoring, picking up their 10th run of the game. Holman reached on an error to start the inning, and again Santa Barbara capitalized. Vargas laid down a perfect bunt for a single, with Mendez's fielder's choice grounder putting Gauchos on the corners. Kelly brought the run home with a single, his third hit in as many innings.
Despite allowing a run on a single, stolen base and two productive fly balls in the ninth, Olivas finished the game on the mound, wrapping up Santa Barbara's playoff-clinching win.
BY THE NUMBERSFriday night's win was the Gauchos' 20th in a row against Cal State Bakersfield, an unbeaten run that stretches back to 2017, before the Roadrunners were in The Big West. Since Bakersfield joined the conference, in 2021, they are yet to defeat the Gauchos.With three hits on Friday night, Kelly improved his batting average to .363 on the season and .418 in conference play. The freshman is now a qualified hitter, and his name now appears in sixth place on The Big West batting average leaderboard. When the scope is narrowed to just conference games, only one man has a better average than the Gaucho rookie.No man in the conference has more strikeouts than Bremner, who matched his career high with 13 on Friday night, his sixth double-digit strikeout night in his last seven outings. The haul brings his season total up to 111, the most he has had in one season of college ball and the most in The Big West by 27 and eighth among all Division I pitchers. Bremner's career total now sits at 295, a handful away from becoming the first Gaucho to collect 300 in his career.
UP NEXTSanta Barbara will wrap up the 2025 regular season with Senior Day on Saturday, May 17. First pitch is set for 1:05 p.m., with the Senior Day celebrations of Reiss Calvin, Jack Holman, Elliot Gallegos, LeTrey McCollum, Isaac Kim and Hayden Hattenbach set to begin at 12:40 p.m. Hudson Barrett is set to get the ball first for the Gauchos on the mound in the game, which will be live on ESPN+ with an audio broadcast and live stats available at ucsbgauchos.com.
(Article courtesy UCSB Athletics).
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