Gauchos clinch at least a share of Big West title with sweep over CSUN

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - For the second straight day, the No. 22 UC Santa Barbara Baseball team put together a late rally to come from behind and defeat CSUN, this time downing the Matadors by a score of 6-4 thanks to a three-run eighth inning. Justin Trimble, Zander Darby and Jessada Brown drove in those three crucial runs, and Matt Ager recorded his second save in as many days with two scoreless innings of relief. The win gives the Gauchos a share of The Big West Title; Santa Barbara can clinch the outright crown and the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals with a win over UC Riverside on Thursday.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Both sides put runners on the bases early in Sunday's game, with only one of the first six half-innings ending after just three batters. That frame was the Gauchos' half of the second, when a double play wiped out Jonah Sebring's lead-off walk.

After Tyler Bremner had limited the traffic to just one runner in each of the first two innings, the Matadors took advantage of three singles and one bad pitch to get to the Gauchos' starter in the third. Only one of those three base hits left the infield, squeaking through the left side. With two outs, CSUN got all of a 2-2 pitch from Bremner for a grand slam, taking a 4-0 lead.

Aaron Parker immediately started chipping into that advantage in the top of the fourth, leading off the frame with a home run out to left field. Bremner got his first one-two-three inning of the day in the bottom half of the inning, and the Gaucho offense chipped away another run in the top of the fifth. Ivan Brethowr reached on a fielder's choice and took second on a wild pitch, setting up Brown to drive him in on a single over the leaping shortstop.

Bremner kept dealing on the mound, setting the Matadors down in order again in the fifth, and the Santa Barbara offense kept chipping away at the plate, pushing across a single run again in the top of the sixth. Sebring's one-out single chased CSUN's starter, and LeTrey McCollum worked a four-pitch walk off the incoming reliever. Jonathan Mendez's groundout moved both runners up 90 feet, and Sebring scampered home on a wild pitch.

Parker caught a Matador stealing in the sixth to wipe out a lead-off error and help Bremner face the minimum for a third straight inning, though the Gauchos were unable to scratch across a run in the seventh. Bremner gutted through a tricky seventh inning on the bump, escaping a one-out, runner-on-third jam thanks to a foulout to Trimble and a groundout to second.

Santa Barbara finally put up a crooked number in the top of the eighth. McCollum started it with a single through the left side, then Mendez executed a hit-and-run play perfectly to send McCollum all the way over to third with one out. Trimble made it three hits in a row to drive home McCollum with the tying run and Mendez took third. Brethowr followed that by walking to load the bases, then Darby provided the biggest hit of the game for Santa Barbara, despite it not leaving the infield. He knocked a slow, spinning grounder down the third base line which just stayed fair, allowing all runners to move up and putting the Gauchos ahead, 5-4. Brown worked a walk with the bags still juiced to give Santa Barbara their sixth run of the game and some breathing room.

Ager took the mound to start the CSUN half of the eighth and immediately had to work around a lead-off double. A strike out, a foul out which Darby caught right in front of the Gaucho dugout and a lineout to Brown in left got the Gaucho closer through the inning. Coming back out for the ninth, he set the Matadors down in order to collect his 10th save of the season in as many opportunities, the 15th of his career.

BY THE NUMBERS
With his two-inning save on Sunday, Matt Ager became just the fifth Gaucho to record 10 saves in a single season, joining Kyle Nelson and Chris Quiroz in a tie for fourth-most single season saves in program history. With 15 career saves, he is tied with Justin Segal for third in UC Santa Barbara history.
Zander Darby drew three walks in his five trips to the plate on Sunday, the most free passes he has earned in a game in his career. Over Saturday and Sunday, Darby walked five times.
With 11 straight wins and 18 consecutive conference wins, the Gauchos own both the nation's longest active winning streak in all competitions and the nation's longest conference winning streak.

UP NEXT
Santa Barbara returns home for the final three games of the season, hosting UC Riverside May 23-25. The Gauchos need just one win to clinch their fifth Big West Championship outright and the automatic bid to an NCAA Regional it carries. Santa Barbara will be looking to sweep the Highlanders, not only to maintain their perfect home record this season, but also to make their best possible case to be an NCAA Regional host site. First pitch times are set for 4:35 p.m. Thursday, 4:35 p.m. Friday and 1:05 p.m. Saturday.

(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)