Holman and Jackson lead UCSB to win over Seattle at Tony Gwynn Legacy
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The No. 21 UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (4-1) got back into character and back into the win column against Seattle University (0-5) on Friday, scoring eight unanswered runs over the final five innings to earn a 9-3 victory over the Redhawks in the first game of the Tony Gwynn Legacy weekend. Jack Holman had a monster day at the plate, going 4-for-5 with a home run, and Donovann Jackson was rock-steady on the mound, pitching six shutout innings of relief to earn his first Division-I win. The lefty allowed just two hits and struck out seven over the game's final six frames.
FROM HEAD COACH ANDREW CHECKETTS
"Great outing by DJ finishing the game," Checketts said. "He was in the zone a bunch and did his thing."
HOW IT HAPPENED
Santa Barbara's flamethrowing right-hander Tyler Bremner started on the mound Friday and served up his usual stuff, striking out six Redhawks in just three innings of work. However, Seattle fought fire with fire, turning around a pair of Bremner fastballs, one in the first and one in the third, for solo homers. A second-inning RBI single made for three runs on Bremner's ledger. He finished his day after the third, as he was working on a pitch count Friday.
When Bremner left, the score was 3-1 in favor of the Redhawks, with Isaac Kim's RBI infield single scoring Jonathan Mendez in the top of the third for the Gauchos. Jackson entered for the fourth and immediately smothered any lingering Seattle flames, striking out the side.
In the top of the fifth, it was Santa Barbara's turn to heat up their offense, though the Redhawk defense did little to help themselves. The Gauchos scored four runs on four hits and three Seattle errors in the frame. Xavier Esquer got the rally going with a one-out double, then took third on a wild pitch. Mendez followed him and drove his second triple of the season into the right field corner, scoring Esquer. Holman then strode to the plate and made it three consecutive extra-base hits for the Gauchos with an RBI double to score Mendez and tie the game. After a flyout, the errors began. Nate Vargas reached on a fielding error at short, then Cole Kosciusko reached on a throwing error by the shortstop, with Holman scoring the go-ahead run on the play. LeTrey McCollum legged out an infield single to second to keep the inning alive, and the second baseman missed his throw to first, allowing Vargas to score and make it 5-3, Gauchos.
A lineout and a double play meant Jackson faced the minimum in a shutdown bottom of the fifth, and he faced just one over the minimum in the bottom of the sixth. Holman smacked his second double of the day to lead off the seventh inning, and he would come around to score on Kosciusko's two-out RBI single. Jackson struck out two in another one-two-three frame in the bottom half of the inning.
After Jackson limited Seattle to just a two-out walk in the bottom of the eighth, the Gauchos put the game out of reach in the top of the ninth. Holman led off the inning with his fourth home run of the season, then a bases-loaded walk pushed across run number eight for Santa Barbara. Corey Nunez hit a sacrifice fly to right to plate the Gauchos' ninth and final run.
Jackson came back out for the ninth and while the Redhawks finally got their first hits off of him, they could not score. Nunez made a nifty play to snare a line drive and flip it to Mendez at second for a double play, then Jackson punctuated the game with his seventh strikeout of the day.
BY THE NUMBERS
Through his first two games in Blue and Gold, Jackson has been phenomenal in long relief, pitching 10 innings out of the bullpen and striking out 12 hitters. He owns an ERA of 1.80 and a WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) of just .80.
Another new guy off to a hot start, Holman has already surpassed his home run total from 2024 in just five games as a Gaucho. Admittedly, his three long balls represented a down year, but he is on track to return to form and then some. The senior's single-season career high is 15 homers, from 2023. The Santa Barbara single-season record is 20.
With five games in the book, the Gauchos have three hitters whose OPS (on-base-plus-slugging percentage) is above 1.000: the aforementioned Holman (1.765), plus Mendez (1.526) and Esquer (1.155).
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara will continue their Tony Gwynn Legacy weekend on Saturday, Feb. 22, when they will face co-hosts San Diego State at Tony Gwynn Stadium in San Diego. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m., with Gaucho sophomore Jackson Flora set to start on the mound, opposed by junior Xavier Cardenas III for the Aztecs. The game will be streamed live on the Mountain West Network, with an audio only broadcast and live stats available at ucsbgauchos.com.
(Article courtesy UCSB Athletics).
