UCSB and Cal Poly enter final week of regular baseball season tied for Big West lead
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - With three games left in the Big West regular season rivals UCSB and Cal Poly are tied for first place at 19-8.
The Gauchos swept the Mustangs in a 3-game series at Cal Poly in early April so they hold the tiebreaker.
Both teams have already clinched spots in next week's Big West Championships in Irvine.
UCSB hosts UC Riverside in a 3-game series starting Thursday while Cal Poly is home to Long Beach State.
Both teams play a nonleague game this week with UCSB hosting Cal Baptist today at 4:35 p.m. while the Mustangs are at Fresno State on Tuesday at 5:05 p.m.
Both UCSB and Cal Poly won key road games on Sunday.
UCSB 4, Cal State Northridge 2: The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (34-15, 19-8 Big West) jumped out to a big first-inning lead and made it stick on Sunday afternoon, completing a three-game sweep of CSUN (24-26, 11-16 Big West) with a 4-2 win. With the victory, the Gauchos punched their ticket to The Big West Championship in Irvine, where they are guaranteed one of the top two seeds. That front-row positioning means that Santa Barbara will skip over the single-elimination play-in game that begins the weekend, which is where their season ended in 2025.
HOW IT HAPPENED
After playing from behind in each of this weekend's first two games, the Gauchos got off to one of their fastest starts of the season on Sunday, hanging four runs on the board and going through three different Matador pitchers in the top of the first inning. Liam Barrett and Corey Nunez each worked full-count walks, then a fielding error allowed Nate Vargas to reach safely and load the bases. Rowan Kelly's chip-shot single into shallow center moved everybody up 90 feet and put the first run on the board. After a pitching change, William Vasseur punched a two-run single back up the middle, and Nick Husovsky continued his hot weekend at the plate with another RBI base hit into center field.
After the offense's big inning, Kellan Montgomery went about defending his team's four-run lead. He retired the first seven batters he faced before a one-out double in the third, but a strikeout and a groundout ended that threat. The veteran righty worked around a one-out single with two more groundouts in the fourth, then stranded a pair of Matadors on the bases in the bottom of the fifth.
The home team finally got to Montgomery in the sixth, a leadoff triple ending his afternoon. Cole Tryba entered in relief and got off to a rocky start, allowing that run and one more to score and cut the Gauchos' lead to just 4-2, but the electric lefty settled in and went on to finish the game. He struck out a pair of Matadors to strand a one-out single in the seventh, then picked up two more strikeouts in the eighth, with only a hit batter against him. The tying run did come to the plate for CSUN in the ninth, but Tryba's sixth strikeout of the day, then a groundout to third base put the game to rest.
UP NEXT
The Gauchos return to Caesar Uyesaka Stadium for their final regular-season non-conference action of the year on Monday, May 11, when they host California Baptist at 4:35 p.m. for Faculty and Staff Appreciation Night.
Santa Barbara concludes the regular season with a three-game series against UC Riverside, May 14-16, then heads to Irvine for The Big West Championship the following week. Guaranteed to be one of the top two seeds, the Gauchos will open their conference tournament run on Thursday, May 21.
Santa Barbara enters the final week of the regular season tied with Cal Poly atop The Big West standings, with the Gauchos holding the tiebreaker. They therefore need to just match Cal Poly's results this weekend to claim the conference regular season championship and no. 1 seed.
(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)
Cal Poly 6, Cal State Fullerton 2: Cal State Fullerton honored 11 seniors in a festive pregame ceremony. The Titans also recognized all the mothers of Titan players on Mother's Day. And it was Cal State Fullerton's final home game of the 2026 baseball season.
Cal Poly spoiled it all with a 6-2 victory Sunday afternoon at Goodwin Field as Chris Downs did not allow a run over six innings in relief and Ryan Tayman smashed a game-breaking two-run home run, his 15th of the year, in the seventh.
The win clinched the three-game Big West baseball series for the Mustangs, two games to one, and improved Cal Poly's overall mark to 29-21 and conference record to 19-8, tied for first place with UC Santa Barbara with one weekend to go in the regular season.
The Gauchos completed their series sweep at CSUN with a 4-2 triumph. Next weekend, Cal Poly hosts Long Beach State while UC Santa Barbara entertains UC Riverside for three-game series.
UC San Diego is third at 16-11 following its 15-2 victory at Cal State Bakersfield.
Cal State Fullerton dropped to 22-28 for the season and remains tied for fourth place in the Big West with Hawai'i, both 14-13. The Rainbow Warriors fell 3-1 at UC Davis. Everybody else in the conference is at least three games out of the tie for fourth and fifth place with three games remaining.
Southpaw Josh Volmerding, making his first start since March 15 due to injury, faced the minimum six batters over the first two innings before giving up two singles and a walk in the third. One of the baserunners was caught trying to steal second base.
Downs relieved Volmerding with one out and escaped the frame cheaply enough with a grounder to shortstop which allowed one run to score and picking off another Titan runner at first base to end the inning.
From there, Downs pitched into the ninth inning, giving up just one unearned run in the fifth. He threw 103 pitches and struck out seven, scattering six hits for his third victory in four decisions this season. He finished one out shy of his longest career outing on the mound.
Twice last season, Downs tossed 6 1/3 innings in relief, throwing 117 pitches against UC Irvine in the Big West Tournament, also at Goodwin Field, and 93 pitches versus Utah Valley in the NCAA Eugene Regional, both victories.
Freshman southpaw Brady Estes was summoned from the bullpen for the final two outs after two Titan batters reached base with one out in the ninth. Estes struck out both batters he faced to end the game and earn his second save.
Cal Poly was ahead 3-2 in the seventh inning when left fielder Dante Vachini led off with a single to right and, two outs later, right fielder Dylan Kordic singled up the middle to drive home Vachini.
Tayman worked the count to 3-2 before hammering his 15th home run of the year over the wall in left field and extending Cal Poly's lead to 6-2. The blast moved the catcher into a tie for fifth place with Brooks Lee (2022), Luke Yoder (2010) and Grant Desme (2007) in the Cal Poly record book for home runs in a single season. The record is 18 by Monty Waltz in 1985.
Kordic, Tayman, Vachini, Cam Hoiland and Jake Downing all produced a pair of hits -- Downing with two doubles -- as Cal Poly outhit Cal State Fullerton 13-9. Gavin Spiridonoff added a double of his own, his fourth of the series.
Nick Miller, Paul Contreras and Bren Wilkinson all had a pair of hits for the Titans. The loss was charged to starter Dylan Smith (3-6), who allowed three runs and nine hits over six innings.
Cal Poly overcame an early 1-0 deficit with three runs in the fourth inning. Hoiland singled to tie the game, a Titan fielding error produced the tiebreaking run to come home and Vachini singled through the left side of the Cal State Fullerton infield for a 3-1 Mustang advantage.
Defensively, Tayman recorded his 15th and 16th caught steals of the season, throwing out Esteban Olazaba for the last out of the second inning and Wilkinson for the first out of the third frame.
In addition, Kordic recorded his 13th career outfield assist ending the fourth inning. Wilkinson singled to right with two outs and Kordic fired a strike to Tayman to get Olazaba, trying to score from second base, by 20 feet.
For the second straight weekend, both on the road, Cal Poly lost the opener of its conference series at UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton before battling back to clinch both series, two games to one.
The Mustangs have won 11 of their last 16 games, including six victories on the road. Cal Poly has played 14 of its last 19 contests on the road and has won eight of its nine Big West series with one more to be played at home next weekend.
For the series, Downing was 6-for-11 with two doubles, a home run and five RBIs. Spiridonoff went 6-for-12 with four doubles and Hoiland and Kordic both had four hits -- Hoiland driving in three runs.
Cal Poly hit .302 in the series, held the Titans to a .227 mark at the plate and has beaten Cal State Fullerton 15 times in the last 19 meetings between the two clubs. The Titans finished 11-13 at home this season.
The Mustangs will play their final midweek game Tuesday at Fresno State and Cal Poly and Long Beach State will play at Baggett Stadium on Thursday and Friday nights at 6:05 p.m. and Saturday at 1:05 p.m.
(Article courtesy Cal Poly Athletics)
