Ager pitches a gem and Oakley drives in 4 runs as UCSB blanks Cal Poly

UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Matt Ager pitched seven scoreless innings and Nick Oakley drove in four runs which included a home run off a former high school teammate as UCSB shutout rival Cal Poly 7-0.

The Gauchos pull into a tie for first place in the Big West along with Cal State Fullerton at 17-8 in league.

UC San Diego is right behind them at 19-9.

Ager struck out 8 as he outdueled former Santa Barbara High School star Bryce Warrecker who struck out a career-high 9 batters in his first career start against the Gauchos.

Both of the runs that Warrecker allowed in 6 1/3 innings came on solo home runs.

Ivan Brethowr went deep in the fourth inning for the first run of the game.

In the fifth inning Oakley took his former Dons teammate Warrecker deep with a solo home run to right center to give the Gauchos a 2-0 lead.

UCSB put the game away with a 5-run eighth inning which included a 3-run double by Oakley.

Ager improves to 5-3 on the season while Warrecker drops to 3-6.

It was the fourth time this season Cal Poly was shutout as they fell to 19-32 on the year and 9-16 in the Big West.

UCSB is 34-16 overall.

Game 2 of this series is on Saturday at 4:05pm.