UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The No. 21 UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (3-1) saw their long regular season home unbeaten run come to an end on Tuesday night, as the Gauchos fell to Saint Mary's (4-1) by a 5-1 scoreline. Jack Holman did continue his strong start to life in Santa Barbara with his third home run of the season, and Nathan Aceves showed some good stuff in his late-inning collegiate debut.
HOW IT HAPPENEDReed Moring's first inning was something of an indicator of things to come, as the righty struck out four Gaels in the frame but also allowed a run without the benefit of a hit. Saint Mary's' leadoff man swung and missed at a 1-2 pitch but reached first base safely as strike three bounced away to the backstop. When the next Gael up dropped down a bunt, the runner took second base and then some as a throwing error allowed the batter to get all the way around to third and the runner to score. Moring responded by striking out the next three hitters he faced to end the inning.
In the second, a leadoff walk and an errant pickoff attempt turned into a runner on second with no outs, but then Moring fired his fifth strikeout of the evening. However, the next Gael up singled through the left side and his teammate recorded a bunt single immediately afterwards to score Saint Mary's' second run of the game. After a wild pitch, a walk and a passed ball, it was 3-0 Gaels. But to end the inning, Moring made another good play, snagging a soft pop-up that came right back to him and firing to third to double up the runner there.
Moring worked a one-two-three third, punctuated by his sixth strikeout of the night, and K'ed the first two hitters of the fourth but back-to-back two-out doubles plated the visitors' fourth run of the night and ended Moring's outing. Van Froling relieved him for his Gaucho debut and got out of the inning without allowing any further damage, despite a walk and an error loading the bases. Froling registerd his first collegiate strikeout in the top of the fifth, but a hit batter, stolen base and a one-out double made it 5-0 Saint Mary's.
Nic Peterson took the mound for the sixth and worked a perfect inning, then Jack Holman got a run back for the Gauchos with a no-doubt home run to right in the bottom of the sixth.
Peterson was back at it in the seventh but allowed a double and a sacrifice bunt to put a runner on third with one out. Cole Tryba was summoned from the Gaucho bullpen to play fireman, and he did just that. A backward K on a full count followed by a three-pitch strikeout ended the inning and the threat, and Tryba added two more strikeouts around a one-out walk in the top of the eighth. Nathan Aceves relieved Tryba to start the ninth and struck out the first two batters of his collegiate career, then got out number three on a first-pitch flyout to left.
On the other side of the ball, the Gauchos were putting bat to ball but, with the exception of Holman's mammoth homer, seemed to put all of their hardest hits right at Gael fielders. With a man on second in the bottom of the fourth, Nate Vargas ripped a screamer down the third base line, right into the third baseman's glove. In the bottom of the sixth on either side of Holman's homer, Jonathan Mendez and Isaac Kim cracked long fly balls into center fielder, though neither were out of reach of the Saint Mary's defense. In the bottom of the ninth, Holman led off with a frozen rope that was destined for the center field grass, only for a shifted Gael shortstop to reach up and snag it.
BY THE NUMBERSSanta Barbara's five pitchers — Moring, Froling, Peterson, Tryba and Aceves — combined to strike out 16 hitters on Tuesday night, tied for the third-most K's by Gaucho pitching in a single game.Freshmen Froling and Aceves both made their collegiate pitching debuts on Tuesday night; Froling allowed one earned run on a single hit in 1 1/3 innings of work, recording his first career strikeout. Aceves pitched a perfect inning, with two strikeouts.With his home run on Tuesday night, Holman has already matched his home run total from all of last season, when he was at UCLA. It was the 21st of his NCAA career.Tuesday night was the first time the Gauchos lost a regular season home game, or any game in which they batted second, since May 21, 2023, 639 days ago.
UP NEXTThe Gauchos will embark on their first road trip of the season next weekend, traveling to San Diego for the Tony Gwynn Legacy event. Santa Barbara will play Seattle U at 1 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21 from Triton Ballpark in La Jolla, then face San Diego State at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22 at the Aztecs' Tony Gwynn Stadium. They will be there again at 12 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 23 to face California Baptist in the final game of the weekend. Live stats for all three games will be available at ucsbgauchos.com/BSBLiveStats. Saturday night's contest against the Aztecs will be streamed live.
(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)
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