Gauchos stay alive at Austin Regional with lopsided win

AUSTIN, Texas. (KEYT) - Jackson Flora broke the single-season UCSB strikeout record and the Gauchos offense put up their most runs ever in an NCAA Tournament game in a 15-1 rout of Holy Cross in an elimination game.

UCSB advances to Sunday and will face the loser of Saturday night's Tarleton Sate-Texas matchup. The Gauchos second elimination game will begin at 10 a.m. Pacific Time.

Flora improved to 12-0 on the season and has a nation-leading 1.06 earned run average. He allowed one run on two hits in 7 2/3 innings and his 9 strikeouts give him 133 on the season, passing Rodney Boone's previous record mark of 128 set in 2021.

"I can't pitch every game, so I'm just glad my team got me this far into the season and I was glad to go out and help them win today," Flora said. "Strikeouts are a really fun part of the game but it all starts with the process, going and getting strikes early and then finishing hitters and executing pitches, but that was pretty sweet."

"Fantastic effort by Jackson and the rest of the guys, grinding out some offense there," said UCSB baseball coach Andrew Checketts. "Took us a little while to get going but got going. Happy to get back in the win column and be here another day."

Flora and the Gauchos were leading 3-1 after six innings and then the bats exploded for UCSB highlighted by a grand slam from catcher Nate Vargas. The Gauchos batted around in the seventh inning scoring 9 runs to turn the tense game into a laugher.

Xavier Esquer went 4-for-5 with 3 RBI and Rowan Kelly collected three hits and 3 RBI.

(Quotes courtesy of UCSB Athletics).