SURPRISE, Ariz. (Feb. 19, 2023) — What began as a close game turned into batting practice for UC Santa Barbara Baseball (2-1, 0-0 Big West) in the middle and late innings, with the Gauchos scoring 10 runs from the fifth inning onward to cruise to a 13-2 win over Minnesota (0-3, 0-0 Big Ten) Sunday evening. Jared Sundstrom hit his first home run as a Gaucho, Corey Nunez had a team-high four hits, and Brady Huddlestun picked up his second win of the season as part of a relief effort which kept the Golden Gophers off the board while Santa Barbara ran up the score. 

HOW IT HAPPENED
After the first four Gauchos went down in order, Ivan Brethowr got the offense going in the top of the second with a single before Nick Oakley got on base the hard way, wearing an 0-2 pitch for a free pass to first. Santa Barbara thought they had the first run of the game when Brethowr stole third and watched the throw sail into left field, allowing him to scamper home, but the umpires instructed Brethowr and Oakley to return to their bases, calling apparent batter's interference on Leo Mosby. The Gauchos did get their first run on the very next pitch, with Jared Sundstrom taking the first pitch he saw to straightaway center field for a three-run homer.

Minnesota answered right back in the bottom of the second with a two-run homer off of freshman Reed Moring. Moring's first collegiate start only lasted three innings, walking six and striking out two, as walks were a problem for nearly every Gaucho who took the mound Sunday night. As a team, Santa Barbara walked 11 Gophers, but their pitchers and defense did enough to keep any of those free passes from turning into runs. In the sixth, Carter Benbrook inherited bases loaded with walked Minnesotans, but got out of the jam with a backwards K, ending what would be Minnesota's last scoring threat of the night.

Thanks to runs in the fifth and sixth (with the latter coming via a Corey Nunez triple), Santa Barbara led 5-2 after Benbrook's escape act, and they only padded their advantage in the seventh. Mosby, who Nunez's sixth inning triple brought home, drove home a pair of runs before the stretch with a triple of his own to break the game wide open. A Broc Mortensen two-RBI double followed by Brethowr's third hit of the night made for a three-run eighth, then Zander Darby smacked a ground-rule double down the left field line in the ninth to put the Gauchos up 10. Mortensen brought in the last run of the game with a sacrifice fly to right, while Jed Decooman and Frank Camarillo each made their collegiate pitching debuts to see out the game on the mound.

ON THE STAT SHEET
• Brady Huddlestun picked up his second win of 2023, both against Minnesota, in relief of Reed Moring Sunday night. Huddlestun's final line was 2.0 innings pitched, no runs on no hits, three K's, and a walk
• Carter Benbrook was excellent out of the bullpen as well, striking out three of the four batters he faced across 1.1 innings; Jed Decooman struck out two and walked one in his 1.1 innings following Benbrook
• Of the Gauchos' many impressive performances at the plate, Ivan Brethowr had the pick of the bunch, reaching base all six times he came to the plate, twice on balls and four times on singles. The Arizona State transfer is batting .583 after his first three games for UC Santa Barbara
• Corey Nunez also tallied four hits in his five at-bats Sunday night. He boasts a .500 batting average through three games

UP NEXT
UCSB's next and final game at the Sanderson Ford Classic will reunite their skipper with his alma mater, as the Gauchos take on Oregon State on Monday at noon Pacific time. Andrew Checketts has led his Gauchos against the university he once played for eight times, most recently in 2020, when UC Santa Barbara swept a three-game series in Corvallis. A live radio broadcast of Sunday's game will be available on ucsbgauchos.com. The game will also be live streamed on FloSports, which requires a paid subscription to watch.