Gauchos get #14 seed and will host Fresno State, Oregon & USD in Santa Barbara Regional

UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team, hosting an NCAA Regional for the first time since 2015, will be the No. 14 national seed in this year's tournament, it was announced during the Selection Show Monday morning. San Diego, Oregon and Fresno State will come to Caesar Uyesaka Stadium for the Santa Barbara Regional, with the Gauchos opening the weekend against the Bulldogs at 6 p.m. PT on Friday, May 31.

"We're excited to host, we know it's going to be a challenge, those are all good teams that we're familiar with," Head Coach Andrew Checketts said. "We haven't played USD in a while, but we had Fresno last year and Oregon this year, so that gives us some familiarity and it should be a great experience."

Santa Barbara (42-12, 26-4 Big West) earned an automatic bid into the postseason as The Big West Champions, their third conference title in the last five seasons. The Gauchos' win streaks headline their tournament resume; Santa Barbara has won 14 straight games coming into the weekend, won their final 21 conference games in a row to claim the title, and went a perfect 25-0 at home during the regular season. That resume also includes marquee wins over Oregon and UConn. The Gauchos were the only team to win a three-game series against the Ducks in Eugene this season and were one of only two to sweep the Huskies in a three-game set.

"They've set a high level of expectations for themselves," Checketts said of this year's Gaucho squad. "They've grown, the leadership side of it has really grown, has matured, and there's talent. There's talent on the field … talented players that work hard, they've got a really good foundation from that perspective."

San Diego (40-13, 20-4 West Coast) comes in off the back of their second West Coast Conference championship in three years, having also won the WCC's regular season crown. The Toreros are riding a 10-game winning streak, and they grabbed signature wins over Texas and Dallas Baptist during non-conference play. They also took two of three from the No. 13 national seed, Arizona.

Oregon (37-18, 19-11 Pac-12) earned an at-large bid after going 0-2 in the Pac-12 Championship this season. They had won nine of their last 10 regular season games coming into the conference tournament, but fell to Utah and USC, both by 4-2 scorelines. The Gauchos took two out of three from the Ducks in Eugene earlier this season, though Oregon did snag the last game of that series. The Ducks also split their four-game series against Oregon State and took two of three from Arizona.

Fresno State (33-27, 16-14 Mountain West) won their conference championship despite having just the No. 4 seed in the Mountain West tournament, upsetting New Mexico State and San Jose State (twice) who were joint-No. 3 seeds, as well as toppling top-seeded Air Force. The Bulldogs played 10 games against Big West opposition this season but won only four of them, though one of those victories was a 13-1 thumping of UC Irvine, handing the Anteaters their first loss of the season at the time.

Tickets for the Santa Barbara Regional will go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, May 28 at 4 p.m. PT.

(Article courtesy of UCSB)