UCSB keeps up dominance over Bakersfield with 16th straight win over Roadrunners

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - UC Santa Barbara Baseball's Friday night starter, Ryan Gallagher gave the Gauchos eight scoreless innings of work, striking out a career-high 13 batters, and Santa Barbara's offense poured runs on late with a six-run ninth inning to roll past Cal State Bakersfield, 8-3, in the first game of their three-game set. Gallagher carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning and Jonathan Mendez recorded three RBI on the night.

The Gauchos have never lost to the Roadrunners since Bakersfield joined the Big West back in 2020.

UCSB has beaten Bakersfield 16 straight times overall.

HOW IT HAPPENED
With Gallagher and his Roadrunner counterpart, Ryan Verdugo, coming into the game ranked 23rd and 28th in the nation in ERA respectively, Friday night's matchup was billed as a pitchers' duel and it lived up to that billing for eight of nine innings. Both offenses were held to just a walk in the first and were retired in order in the second.

The two pitchers' evenings began to diverge in the third, with Jonah Sebring drawing a walk against Verdugo and stealing second to become the first player in scoring position on the evening. He was left stranded there, but the Gauchos got their first hit via an Aaron Parker infield single in the fourth and finally got on the scoreboard in the fifth. Justin Trimble launched his ninth home run of the season to deep center field to break the deadlock, and a Jonathan Mendez RBI single in the sixth made it 2-0 Gauchos.

Meanwhile, Gallagher was mowing down Roadrunners, retiring 14 Bakersfield hitters in a row from the first inning to the sixth. A one-out error broke that streak, but Gallagher needed just three more pitches to leave that 'Runner stranded at first.

The home team looked to swing the momentum in their direction in the seventh, as Nick Oakley was robbed of an RBI single by a diving Superman catch by Bakersfield's shortstop. In the bottom half of the inning, they finally broke up Gallagher's no-hitter with a single into right, then a double to left, putting two runners in scoring position with just one out. But Gallagher battled back, striking out Bakersfield's pinch-hitter after a 10-pitch at-bat then inducing a grounder to third to get out of the jam. He returned for the eighth and mowed through the Roadrunners again, retiring them in order, including his career-high 13th strikeout.

Bakersfield's Verdugo had left the game after the seventh inning, and while it took until the ninth for the Gauchos' offense to get to his replacement, they really got to him. Santa Barbara sent 10 men to the plate in the inning, scoring six runs on just three hits: a LeTrey McCollum single to start the rally, a Zander Darby infield hit to score two in the middle and a Mendez two-run knock to push across the final runs. The other two runs scored on bases-loaded hit-by-pitches to Jessada Brown and Parker, the final two hit batters in a stretch of four consecutive plunkings.

Frank Camarillo worked the bottom of the ninth on the mound for the Gauchos and while it was not his prettiest outing, allowing three runs on a walk, a triple, and two singles, the righty got the three outs needed to secure the victory.

BY THE NUMBERS
Friday night was Ryan Gallagher's third scoreless outing and third double-digit strikeout game of the season, his second of both such outings in conference play. His ERA is now down to 2.34 on the season, with opponents hitting just .165 against him. With 82 strikeouts, he now has over twice as many K's as he does hits allowed (40).
Thanks to Nick Oakley's first-inning walk and Ivan Brethowr's ninth-inning hit-by-pitch, all nine of Santa Barbara's hitters reached base safely Friday night; the bottom seven players in the order all recorded at least one hit.
Jonathan Mendez (2-for-5) and Zander Darby (2-for-4) both had multi-hit games on Friday night.
With his fifth-inning home run, Justin Trimble himself tied the season home run output of the entire Bakersfield offense (9).

UP NEXT
The Gauchos will look to secure their fifth straight conference series win on Saturday, May 11 in game two of this three game series. First pitch from Hardt Field in Bakersfield is set for 5 p.m., with Mike Gutierrez scheduled to take the mound for Santa Barbara. The game will be live on ESPN+ with live stats and an audio broadcast available through ucsbgauchos.com.