Box Score SANTA BARBARA, Calif.— The No. 25 UCSB baseball team saw its seven-game winstreak ended Sunday afternoon as Cal State Fullerton avoided a sweep and took game three 7-6.
On the Stat Sheet
- Seven different Gauchos accounted for the team's 10 hits including Jordan Sprinkle, Jason Willow, and Broc Mortensen who all had a pair. Sprinkle had a double, a walk, a stolen base, and a run. Willow touched home once as well.
- Blake Klassen made his first plate appearance since UCSB's series with Nevada in late February and in a big spot hit his first home run in a Gaucho uniform.
- The Gauchos best pitching performance of the game came from Michael Rice who added to his already impressive season with 4.1 more scoreless innings as the sophomore allowed just one hit. He faced the minimum batters to get his 13 outs.
How It Happened
- Game three wasn't short of scoring for either team but every time the Gauchos put up a pair of runs, which they did in three different innings, the Titans promptly answered by tying the game exactly a half inning later.
- Sprinkle got things going in the bottom of the first singling and stealing second before being moved to third on a Mortensen single. The shortstop would score an at bat later on a sac-fly from Nick Vogt and Mortensen came home shortly after on a Titan error to give UCSB the early 2-0 lead.
- Cal State Fullerton iced the game at 2-2 in the top of the second, but UCSB grabbed the lead the third as both Kyle Johnson and Christian Kirtley collected RBI singles to put their team up 4-2. Once again, the Titans tied it with a pair of runs in the fourth.
- In came Rice who got the Gauchos out of tough spot in the fourth striking out the first batter he faced to end the inning and strand two Titans in scoring position. He then proceeded to retire the next six batters in a row and thanks to a double play faced the minimum in his 4.1 innings of work.
- Willow led off the bottom of the eighth with a single and found himself at second base thanks to a solid bunt by John Newman Jr. Enter pinch-hitting Klassen, who took three straight balls to start the at-bat. With the green light Klassen barreled up the first strike thrown hitting a towering home run over the right field wall to put his team up 6-4.
- UCSB needed just three outs, but a pair of errors allowed three runs to come across for the Titans who then retired the Gauchos in order in the bottom of the ninth to end it.
Next Up
UCSB now heads to northern California for a spring break road trip that features a Tuesday night game at Saint Mary's and a weekend series at UC Davis.
