Power and pitching leads UCSB past Fullerton

UC SANA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - Nate Vargas slugged two of the Gauchos season-high 4 home runs and ace Jackson Flora stayed undefeated on the mound in an 8-3 UCSB win over Cal State Fullerton.

Vargas launched a solo home run in the third inning and a two-run blast in the eighth inning for his first multi-homer game of his career. Vargas, who knocked in four runs, leads UCSB with six home runs this year.

Xavier Esquer smacked a 2-run shot in the third inning while William Vasseur ripped a solo home run in the fifth.

Flora is now 8-0 on the season after allowing just one run in six inning as he lowered his ERA to 0.78 which leads the nation. He scattered 7 hits and struck out 8.

"(Flora's sweeper) has always been good," began UCSB head coach Andrew Checketts. "They were heavy right-handed today, they had one left-hander in there; he didn't look like he had as good of a feel for the changeup today, so we were pretty heavy with that sweeper to get ahead. He did a good job of landing it, finishing guys off with it. He throws a little bit of a harder slider/cutter, which was good."

"I've always been pretty good at supinating and spinning the ball, so it's pretty easy for me to manipulate the ball going to my glove side," Flora said. "With some work last year, it's gotten better this year, just being able to separate it into two different pitches and work it. When hitters see spin, if they see the big breaker first and they see spin again they might think it's the big breaker again and then all of the sudden it's the short one, or they have to be geared up for a hard fastball and a hard slider, that doesn't allow them to be comfortable guessing pitches or guessing speeds. So, somewhere between the heater and the sweeper, that's been pretty effective and it's probably my favorite pitch — the hard slider — to throw, so I like it."

UCSB improves to 27-12 on the year and 13-6 in the Big West. The Gauchos are in a 3-way tie for first place with Cal Poly and UC San Diego.

(UCSB Athletics supplied the quotes).