UCSB makes it 17 straight wins over Bakersfield

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - It was lucky number seven for the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team Saturday night; the Gauchos scored seven runs in the seventh inning to turn a tied game into a 17th consecutive win over Cal State Bakersfield, 15-7. Aaron Parker had a five-hit, five-RBI day at the plate to lead the Santa Barbara offense. Nick Oakley added four ribbies of his own on three hits, including a triple.

HOW IT HAPPENED
After Friday night's duel between two talented starting pitchers and with two more strong arms on the mound for Saturday, the game was billed as another pitchers' duel but shaped up as anything but. Both teams scored in their half of the first inning, with Zander Darby's RBI single putting the Gauchos on the board before a one-out home run tied the game for Bakersfield.

Santa Barbara took the upper hand in the second, plating five runs in the frame. Justin Trimble was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, and Jonah Sebring's single sent him around to third. Ivan Brethowr drove in Trimble on an infield single, then Oakley's single to right scored Sebring. With two outs, Parker took the first pitch he saw out to right center for a three-run homer to put the Gauchos up, 6-1. Mike Gutierrez followed that up with a one-two-three inning on the mound in the second half of the frame.

However, the Roadrunners got a big inning of their own in the bottom of the third, capitalizing on a pair of Gaucho errors to plate four runs and cut the deficit to one. Both sides went down in order in the fourth, and Bakersfield plated the tying run in the fifth. A leadoff single and sacrifice ended Gutierrez's day on the mound, with Matt Ager coming out of the bullpen to relieve him. The righty surrendered a double, which scored the tying run, but ended the inning before the hosts could take the lead.

Santa Barbara stranded a pair of runners in scoring position in the sixth, but Ager worked a perfect frame to get his offense back out there quickly. The Gauchos were not so wasteful in the seventh, sending 11 men to the plate and bringing seven of them around to score. Darby reached on a scalded grounder that ate up the first baseman, then Jonathan Mendez walked and Trimble loaded the bases with a single. Sebring broke the tie with an RBI groundout, then LeTrey McCollum brought home another run on a bunt single. After Brethowr was hit by a pitch to re-load the bases and draw a Bakersfield pitching change, Oakley laced a triple down the right field line to clear the bags and make it 11-6 Gauchos. Jessada Brown's double to left scored Oakley, and Parker drove in Brown with a base hit, giving Santa Barbara a 13-6 lead.

Ager started the seventh by issuing a walk, a strikeout and allowing a single before he was replaced by Reed Moring, who would finish the game. After giving up a single to the first batter he faced, a double play got Moring and the Gauchos out of the inning unscathed. He did allow a double and two singles in the eighth, surrendering a run, but he again stranded the bases loaded.

Santa Barbara's offense tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the ninth with four straight singles from Oakley, Brown, Parker and Darby, plus a Mendez sacrifice fly. Moring finished off the win with a one-two-three ninth inning, punctuated with a strikeout.

BY THE NUMBERS
Saturday was Aaron Parker's team-leading third five-RBI game of the season and 10th multi-RBI game. With his five-hit performance, he joins fellow catcher Brendan Durfee as the only two Gauchos with five-hit games this year. The two lead the team with 16 multi-hit games overall.
Mike Gutierrez pitched just 4 2/3 innings in his start on Saturday, the first time since April 7 that a Gaucho weekend starter did not pitch into the sixth inning. It is only the second time Gutierrez has not seen the sixth inning this year, the other coming on opening weekend at Campbell.
The 15 runs Santa Barbara scored on Saturday are the most they have scored in a single game against the Roadrunners since a 17-2 victory in April of 2009. They are the second-most runs the Gauchos have scored in a game and the most in a conference game this season.

UP NEXT
Santa Barbara will go for a fifth straight series sweep in the finale on Sunday, May 12 at 1 p.m. Tyler Bremner is set to take the mound for the Gauchos in Bakersfield. For fans not traveling to Hardt Field, the game will be live on ESPN+ with live stats and an audio broadcast available through ucsbgauchos.com.

(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)