SANTA BARBARA, Calif. —The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team had to work for their 21st straight home win on Tuesday night, but they held on for a 7-5 win over Pepperdine. The Gauchos had to reach further into their bullpen than they would have liked, with Matt Ager recording his seventh save of the season. Cole Trybaanother key bullpen arm, earned the win in relief of yet another typical weekend reliever, Jackson Flora. On offense, LeTrey McCollum made the most of his second start in as many games, driving in a run with a double and stealing home for another run, while Brendan Durfee, Jessada Brown and Nick Oakley all continued their excellent seasons with two-hit days.
FROM HEAD COACH ANDREW CHECKETS
“Kind of an ugly win, you know, we did enough,” Checketts said. “We did a good job of throwing the ball in the zone, we had one walk and it was intentional. Part of that was we were aggressive and part of that was their offensive approach. Left a lot of guys based on scoring position, 12 guys on base, and didn’t execute in some key spots that could have changed that game and how we ran the pitching staff, which was a little disappointing. We wanted to give some other guys opportunities and needed a little bit more of a cushion.”
“I’m happy that we ended up on top, we did enough, Matt (Ager) came in and made a really big pitch throwing that fastball in there with the bases loaded, and I thought some of the guys out of the ‘pen were really good, particularly (Brady) Huddlestun and (Frank) Camarillo’s stuff was really, really good, unfortunately he got a run tacked on.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
The teams spent most of the game trading punches offensively, starting with Pepperdine capitalizing on a one-out triple to put up a run in the first inning. The Gauchos were poised to punch right back at the bottom of the first, loading the bases with three straight singles, but a strikeout and double play got the Waves out of the jam.
Pepperdine could not escape the Gaucho offense in the second, with McCollum leading the charge. I have doubled home Jonathan Mendez after the shortstop’s leadoff single, then McCollum stole third. Later in the frame, with the bases loaded and two outs, McCollum made a mad dash for the plate after Pepperdine threw to second base, stealing home. A bad throw home let the two trailing runners, Justin Trimble and Durfee, move up to second and third, but they would stay there.
The Gauchos got another run from a triple of their own in the third, Nick Oakley providing the three-bagger and Mendez the RBI, but the Waves got that run right back at the top of the fourth, a sacrifice fly cutting Santa Barbara’s lead to 3-2. The teams really went at each other over the next two frames, with Brown’s RBI double at the bottom of the fourth making it 4-2, only for Pepperdine to scratch across two runs in the fifth and tie the game. The Gauchos punched back with two runs of their own to re-take the lead at the bottom of the fifth. Trimble’s towering fly ball barely stayed in the park but managed to stay out of the outfielder’s glove for a long RBI single, and later in the fifth Durfee drove in Trimble with his second hit of the game.
Brady Huddlestun came out of the bullpen and kept the Waves off the board in both the sixth and seventh innings, with a Zander Darby RBI single giving him an extra run to work with between those two frames. Huddlestun was part of a slick, 3-6-1, double play in that seventh inning, then punctuated his outing with a strikeout to end the frame. Frank Camarillo relieved him for the eighth and set the side down in order, touching 96 mph on the radar gun. He was back out to start the ninth but gave up a hit to the first batter he faced, and Head Coach Andrew Checketts summoned Ager from the bullpen.
The recently appointed Gaucho closer did give up a pair of hits, including a double, that allowed that leadoff runner to score, but after an intentional walk to load the bases with two outs, he induced a game-ending groundout to first.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Brady Huddlestun’s two-inning outing on Tuesday was his longest of the season and one of his best, allowing no runs and issuing no walks while working around three hits and striking out two. He has made seven appearances on the season and only allowed to run in one of them.
- With two hits and a pair of walks, Brendan Durfee He reached base safely in all four of his trips to the plate Tuesday night.
- After a stretch of homering in 15 consecutive games, Santa Barbara has gone homerless in two of its last three contests but won both. The Gauchos are now 10-2 when kept inside the yard this season.
UP NEXT
The Gauchos hit the road for their next series, playing a three-game set at Cal State Bakersfield this weekend, May 10-12. First pitch times are set for 6 pm Friday, 5 pm Saturday and 1 pm Sunday. All three games will be live on ESPN+ with live stats and an audio broadcast available through ucsbgauchos.com.
