Gauchos bash Bakersfield to complete sweep
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KEYT) - After grinding out a narrow win on Saturday night, the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (30-15, 16-8 Big West) made sure there was no doubt about Sunday's result, pouring on 14 runs over the final five innings at Cal State Bakersfield (20-28, 9-15 Big West) to run away with a 19-9 victory and a series sweep.
The Gauchos' 19 runs are a season high and the most they have scored in one game since hanging 20 on UC Riverside in May of 2024. Their seven doubles are also a season high and the most since 2024, when Santa Barbara tallied eight two-baggers in a March meeting with Cal Poly. Five different Gauchos had multi-hit games, all of them tallying three or more, but the three hottest bats belonged to Noah Karliner, Corey Nunez and Rowan Kelly, each of whom matched or exceeded their career-best hit totals. The three of them are the first Santa Barbara trio to all have four or more hits in the same game in the Andrew Checketts era.
Nunez's four matched his career best, Kelly set a new high-water mark in his young career with four more, while Karliner smacked five to beat his previous career best. The slugging right fielder finished a triple shy of the cycle and drove in seven runs, also a career high for him. The last Gaucho to tally seven RBIs in one game was their previous slugger, Jack Holman, who did it against the Roadrunners last May.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The game did not start as a rout, at least not one in the Gauchos' favor. The Roadrunners got out of the top of the first unscathed for the first time all weekend, then hung four runs on the board in the bottom of the inning. Instead, the game started as a back-and-forth slugfest, as Santa Barbara answered with a three-run second inning. With runners on the corners and two outs, Cade Goldstein's decoy steal of second drew a throw which allowed William Vasseur to steal home, with Goldstein safely taking second on the play. That not only got the Gauchos on the board but also extended the inning for Karliner, who drove his third home run of the week out to straightaway center field, bringing Santa Barbara back within one.
After Nathan Aceves took over on the mound in the second and delivered a perfect inning, the Gauchos took their first lead of the afternoon in the third, with doubles from Nate Vargas and Kelly tying the game, then Vasseur's single plating Kelly to put Santa Barbara in front. That lead lasted just one out into the bottom of the third before a double tied the game for Bakersfield then another gave the hosts the lead back.
The Gauchos struck the next blow, in the top of the fifth, with three two-out walks loading the bases for Karliner, who just missed his second home run of the game and had to settle for a three-RBI double off the top of the right-field wall, giving Santa Barbara an 8-6 lead. This time, the Gauchos held their advantage. Nunez led off the top of the sixth with a double and scored on Kelly's second two-bagger of the day, then Nick Husovsky's single into center field brought home Kelly and put Santa Barbara into double digits. Goldstein smacked the third double of the inning to right center, and Husovsky came home with Santa Barbara's 11th run.
Bakersfield responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth, but the Gauchos just kept on scoring to prevent any threat of a comeback. Karliner led off the seventh with a single and scored on Nunez's RBI base hit, then Vargas kept himself within touching distance of Karliner in Santa Barbara's home run leaderboard, driving a two-run shot out to left field. That homer brought up seven homers for Vargas on the year and 14 runs for the Gauchos on the day.
The Roadrunners scored for the final time with a triple and a double to start the bottom of the seventh, but Chase Hoover was summoned from the bullpen and he put an end to that. A pair of strikeouts put out the fire in the seventh, then two more got him out of a two-on, no-outs jam in the eighth.
In the Gauchos' half of the eighth, another hit from Karliner had scored Husovsky, but Santa Barbara had its best offense saved for the last inning, scoring four runs in the ninth. Vargas plated Nunez with a double to make it 16, Kelly singled home Vargas for run number 17, Husovsky's single drove in Kelly with the 18th, and who else but Karliner put the cap on things with a single to score Husovsky.
AJ Krodel took the mound for the bottom of the ninth and wrapped up the sweep with a zero on the board.
UP NEXT
The Gauchos return home on Tuesday, May 5 to host Pepperdine at 4:35 p.m. at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. Santa Barbara remains a game behind Cal Poly for first place in The Big West standings, with a road trip to CSUN on the Gauchos' calendar for next weekend.
(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)
