Montgomery and Libed lead UCSB to series win over Tritons to tighten Big West race

UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - Kellan Montgomery pitched eight strong innings and Nico Libed delivered the big hit as UCSB edged UC San Diego 3-1 to pull within a game of the Tritons in the Big West standings.

The Dos Pueblos High School alum Montgomery allowed just one run and four hits while striking out 9 as he improved to 6-2 on the year.

(Montgomery retired the final 13 batters he faced in the win. Entenza Design).

The Gauchos were trailing 1-0 but in the bottom the seventh inning Nico Libed came off the bench and delivered a two-out, 2-run pinch-hit double down the left field line to put the Gauchos in the lead for good.

From head coach Andrew Checketts: "Yeah, he looked bad on the first breaking ball, swung through it, then did a really good job of laying off some pitches and got a mistake and made the guy pay when he made the mistake. Nico, he's a really good .200 hitter. He's better than that, he puts together competitive at-bats, we felt like at that time he gave us a really good shot. We needed a hit, he pulled the gear off in the bullpen, ran down there and did his thing, so it was pretty cool."

Liam Barrett smashed a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Gauchos an insurance run.

"(Barrett) has been a breath of fresh air for us ever since we inserted him in there since he came back from injury," said Checketts. "Some other guys went down, he's done a really good job of taking quality at-bat after quality at-bat after quality at-bat and that was another example of that."

Van Froling struck out the side in the ninth inning for his second save on the year.

UCSB is now 22-11 on the season and 10-5 in the Big West as they try to chase down the Tritons who are 11-4 in league. The Gauchos are tied for second with Cal Poly in league.