Gauchos bounce back against Sacramento State

SACRAMEMENTO, Calif. - The No. 22 UC Santa Barbara Baseball team could hardly have dreamed up a better bounce-back performance than the one they put up on Saturday at Sacramento State. The Gauchos got a quality start from Mike Gutierrez on the mound, three near-perfect innings of relief from Jackson Flora, and an offense that poured on the runs late to win, 9-1. Brendan Durfee, Justin Trimble and Reiss Calvin all drove in multiple runs for Santa Barbara, with Jessada Brown tacking on an RBI as well.

FROM HEAD COACH ANDREW CHECKETTS
"This was a nice bounce-back effort," Head Coach Andrew Checketts said. "(Mike) Gutierrez set the tone for us with a quality start, that's the first quality start we've had all year. Their guy did a good job and was tough, we were able to punch one across and then when he got out of there, we were able to put some more pressure on the bullpen. I thought both starters today did a good job, Mike was good, then Flora came in and did his thing, it was excellent."

"We had some better at-bats late. You know, early on, their guy was good, like I said, sneaky and tough. He was hard to see, and we weren't getting very good swings; we were able to get some good swings and have better at-bats late in the game."

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Gauchos did indeed "punch" their first run across, making the most of every play to open the scoring. LeTrey McCollum led off the game with a four-pitch walk, then Zander Darby executed a hit-and-run play to move McCollum over to third. Durfee grounded into a double play, but with no outs in the inning, McCollum was able to scamper the 90 feet to the plate for the first run.

After that though, both starters settled in for a good old-fashioned pitchers' duel, trading scoreless innings, though not without some hard work. Gutierrez had to work around lead-off hits in each of his first two innings, stranding a Hornet at third in the second. He left a runner there in the third too, but just by the thinnest of margins. After an error and a single put runners on the corners with two outs, Darby fielded a grounder at third and made seemingly a last-minute decision to throw to second instead of first, and it would have sailed into right field if not for Nick Oakley making the stretch to keep a toe on the bag and snag the ball.

Sacramento State finally got to Gutierrez in the fourth, leading off the inning with a home run to tie the game, but it was smooth sailing for Santa Barbara's crafty lefty from there. He only allowed two more baserunners, both on walks, while striking out four over his last three innings of work.

The only issue for the Gauchos was that Gutierrez's opposite number, Hornets starter Evan Gibbons, was having just as good of a night. He did not allow a run after the first inning, and left Gauchos stranded in scoring position in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth frames. But as soon as he came out of the game, Santa Barbara was able to find those final, run-scoring hits.

Nick Oakley tattooed a one-out double into the right field corner, then Jessada Brown drove him home with a scorching single back up the middle to restore Santa Barbara's lead. Flora relieved Gutierrez in the bottom of the seventh and kept the Gauchos in front, getting some help from his defense. The first batter the freshman faced launched a deep fly ball to the right-center field gap, but Calvin ran it down and made the catch at the wall, taking away extra bases. Flora did hit one batter but was flawless otherwise, and his offense started to blow the game open.

Darby led off the top of the eighth with a double to left, then took third on a wild pitch. Ivan Brethowr joined him on the basepaths with a one-out walk, then stole second. With two runners in scoring position, Trimble continued his excellent weekend by dropping a single into left to drive them both home and make it 4-1.

With Flora dealing on the mound, the Santa Barbara offense blew the game wide open in the ninth. It started small, with Oakley drawing a walk and Brown hustling for an infield single. Darby dropped a bloop single into right field to load the bases, then Durfee dropped a blooper in nearly the same spot, watching it sneak under the right fielder's glove for a double. That scored Oakley and Brown, then Brethowr's third walk of the night re-loaded the bases for Calvin. He drilled a line drive over the center fielder's head and all the way to the wall, clearing the bases with his first hit as a Gaucho.

The Hornets sent three pinch hitters to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, and Flora sent them all back to the bench with strikeouts.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Mike Gutierrez recorded the first quality start of the season on the mound for Santa Barbara on Saturday, working six innings and allowing just one run on four hits and two walks while striking out four.
• Switch-hitting Reiss Calvin took his first at-bat from the right side of the plate in the ninth inning on Saturday and with it recorded his first hit as a Gaucho. He has reached base eight times from the left side, with five walks and three hit-by-pitches.
• Jackson Flora earned his first collegiate save by working the final three innings on Saturday. He allowed no runs on no hits and no walks, but did hit a batter. Flora's seven strikeouts came consecutively to sit down the final seven Hornet batters on the night.
• Zander Darby and Brendan Durfee both extended their on-base and hitting streaks on Saturday, with Darby posting a game-high three hits on the night. He has now reached base safely in 14 consecutive games dating back to the 2023 season, while Durfee is now up to 13 straight games with a hit, also dating back to last season.

UP NEXT
The Gauchos and Hornets will play the rubber match of this three-game series on Sunday, Feb. 25 at 1 p.m. from Sacramento State's John Smith Field. The game will be live on ESPN+ with an audio broadcast and live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.

(Article Courtesy of UCSB Athletics)