Home Sweet Home! UCSB Baseball wraps up perfect 25-0 record at home this year.

UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -Saturday, May 25 will go down as a special day in UC Santa Barbara Baseball history, as the No. 13 Gauchos completed the school's first perfect season at home, winning their 25th of 25 regular-season games at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium, 6-3, over UC Riverside. They did it in front of the biggest crowd ever at the ballpark, a record 1,537 fans filling the main stand and watching from the outfield. It was Senior Day for Santa Barbara's own Nick Oakley, and the local kid delivered a storybook moment with his RBI single in the bottom of the seventh, which would prove to be the game-winning hit.

Saturday was also the perfect cap to a weekend-long final audition for the role of NCAA Regional Host, a role the Gauchos have held only once, though only in name, having never played postseason baseball at their home park. After clinching The Big West Championship on Thursday and putting on a show of just how powerful their offense can be Friday, Santa Barbara showed that Caesar Uyesaka Stadium is ready to welcome guests. Nearly half of Saturday's record crowd watched from the newly installed outfield bleachers, brought in specifically to accommodate tournament attendance.

FROM HEAD COACH ANDREW CHECKETTS
"I'm really proud of these guys," Checketts said. "Talk about an accomplishment, we came back from Irvine with our tails between our legs and had to show up on Monday and play wiffle ball so we could remember what it was like to play baseball and enjoy baseball and work baseball. They had a pretty amazing response, to win 21 straight conference games and go undefeated at home during the regular season is quite an accomplishment. Baseball's a hard game, and it's hard to be perfect, you've got to show up and bring it. To be able to do that over a month-and-a half, two-month period is pretty impressive."

On Nick Oakley's leadership of the team: "He's really grown into that role," Checketts said. "He's always had the instincts and the desire to want to do it. Sometimes it's hard to do that when you're not performing great, you worry about just trying to perform and get in the lineup, so I think that was challenging for him last year, but he has been able to perform and I think that has allowed him to feel like he's worthy to be able to say what has to be said, and he has grown as a leader. Earlier in his career, maybe he had one move, it was to kind of bark at everybody and he's grown now where he can go have that conversation, he can bring the team in. I've had him do some of the pre-briefs the last couple of weeks, just before the game, that I usually do. He had the last two at Northridge, he had today, so he has really grown as a leader. I was talking with JJ Muno and how he ran that (2016) Omaha team and I just got to step away; Nick's sliding into that role."

HOW IT HAPPENED
UC Santa Barbara celebrated Oakley before the game, with his grandfather, Bill, throwing the first pitch to Nick behind the plate. Once the game got started, the fans in the stands celebrated another hot start by the Gaucho offense, as the home team plated a pair of runs before making an out in the first. Back-to-back walks from Ivan Brethowr and Zander Darby set the table, and Jessada Brown's infield single loaded the bases for Aaron Parker. The catcher continued his dismantling of Highlander pitching with a ringing double to deep center, scoring Brethowr and Darby. Oakley was robbed a hit by a great snag from UCR's third baseman, and the side went down in order after that.

On the mound, Tyler Bremner was throwing his usual fire, though to slightly lesser effect than usual. An error and a single gave him two runners to work around in the first, and an error and a walk did the same in the second. He did strike out the side in both of those innings, getting seven of his first nine outs by way of the K. He set the Highlanders down in order in the third, but as the Gaucho bats went quiet, the fatigue of pitching on a day's shorter rest than usual started to show in Santa Barbara's sophomore.

Three straight singles turned into a run to cut the lead in half in the fourth, and a solo homer tied the game in the fifth. Cole Tryba replaced Bremner on the mound for the sixth and had to work out of a jam of his own. A one-out walk and single put the freshman lefty in a spot of bother, but Justin Trimble helped him out, snaring a line drive and doubling up the runner at second to end the frame.

Santa Barbara had hit into a double play of their own to end the fifth, and they did the same to snuff out a rally in the sixth before finally re-taking the lead in the seventh. UCR brought in their first reliever of the day to start the frame, and Jonathan Mendez greeted him with a single into left. Darby's single moved him over to third, and Brown laid down a great sacrifice bunt to bring him home. The Highlanders tried to tag Mendez out at the plate on the play but the throw was late, so Brown reached first safely. Oakley turned that one run into a rally with a two-out single to left, scoring Darby. Jonah Sebring followed that up with an infield single, and Brown scored on a gutsy baserunning call. The UCR second baseman bobbled the grounder and elected to throw to first with no chance to get Sebring; meanwhile Brown had been running on contact from second and Gaucho third base coach Spencer Erdman gave him the green light to go home on the play. Trimble was hit by a pitch to keep the inning going and load the bases, then LeTrey McCollum walked to force home Oakley with the sixth Gaucho run of the day.

Jackson Flora took over on the mound for the eighth and struck out the side, then turned the ball over to Matt Ager for the ninth. The Gauchos' closer gave up a lead-off homer but then struck out the next three Highlanders he faced to finish off the win.

FROM THE STUDENT ATHLETES
Nick Oakley on his Senior Day: "It was a lot of emotions, honestly," Oakley said. "Obviously I have a bunch of family and friends here, which is pretty cool, and then being the only senior was kind of a weird feeling. Hopefully we have more games here, but I couldn't be more thankful for Coach Checketts and Coach Fonteno and Coach Erdman and DJ (Coach Jones) and all my teammates. This is the only program that gave me a chance to play college baseball, so it means a lot to play in front of my friends and family and wear this uniform."

BY THE NUMBERS
Aaron Parker made 13 plate appearances over the course of the three-game series; the Highlanders got him out just once. The Gaucho backstop finished the weekend 7-for-8 at the plate with five walks, for a batting average of .875 and a .923 on-base percentage. Five of his seven hits went for extra bases, giving him a slugging percentage of 1.750.
Saturday's crowd of 1,537 people is the largest in Caesar Uyesaka Stadium history, though that record will surely fall if the Gauchos host an NCAA Regional next weekend. The previous record stood at 1,417, set on the final day of the 2019 season when the Gauchos defeated Cal Poly to claim what was their third Big West Championship.
The Gauchos will head into the postseason riding the nation's longest active winning streak, having won 14 straight. They also own the nation's longest active conference win streak, with 21 consecutive Big West victories, and the longest active home winning streak, that historic 25 in a row.

UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara will learn whether they are one of the 16 NCAA Regional hosts on Sunday evening, with announcements beginning at 5:30 p.m. The Gauchos will then learn who their opponents will be during the NCAA Selection Show, 9 a.m. Monday morning.

(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)