FRESNO, Calif. (April 2, 2023) — Five different Gauchos hit home runs Sunday afternoon to help the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (18-6, 5-1 Big West) end their series at Fresno State (15-11, 7-4 Mountain West) with a 13-5 win. Sunday was Santa Barbara's second game with five home runs this season, and their first with five different players — Zander Darby, Jared Sundstrom, Christian Kirtley, Aaron Parker, and Broc Mortensen — each leaving the yard. Hudson Barrett shut down the Bulldog offense over the final 4 2/3 innings to earn his second win out of the bullpen this season.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Gauchos were the first to score on Sunday, getting on the board in the top of the second in classic, "get 'em on, get 'em over, get 'em in" fashion. Mortensen led off the inning with a single to right, then stole second base and scored on Nick Oakley's two-out double. Santa Barbara added on in the third, starting the inning with four straight singles to make it 2-0, then scoring two more with help from a Bulldog error. Fresno State's third baseman misplayed a John Newman, Jr. line drive, allowing Darby to follow Parker home as the ball rolled away.

The hosts got a run back in the bottom of the third and another in the bottom of the fourth, finally getting to Reed Moring, as the teams began to trade scores. Moring had been solid in the first two innings, allowing just one baserunner, but issued lead-off walks in the third and fourth, both of which came around to score.

The Gauchos got those two runs back and more in the fifth, as Darby led off the inning with his fifth home run of the season. Kirtley followed that up with a four-pitch walk, then Head Coach Andrew Checketts called on the right-handed Sundstrom to pinch hit against the left-handed reliever Fresno State brought into the game. That call paid dividends, as Sundstrom crushed Santa Barbara's second homer of the inning to make it 7-2.

However, the Bulldogs scored three runs of their own in the bottom half of the fifth, loading the bases and ending Moring's afternoon before scoring on a fielder's choice and two wild pitches. From there, Barrett was nearly untouchable, allowing just two baserunners over the final four innings, while his offense went to work behind him. Darby picked up his second RBI of the day on a fielder's choice in the sixth, then Kirtley mashed his second no-doubt home run of the weekend in the seventh to make it 9-5.

Fresno State sent out their closer in the top of the ninth, and Parker turned around the first pitch he saw, taking it well out to right center and putting the Gauchos into double digits.

The next three batters all reached to keep the rally going, with Mortensen capping things off with his fourth home run of the season, a no-doubter to right field that scored Santa Barbara's final three runs of the day. One of those runs was scored by Jessada Brown, who made his season debut as a pinch runner.

ON THE STAT SHEET
• With their nine total home runs over the weekend, Santa Barbara is the first team in The Big West to 40 homers this season; only one other team in the conference has more than 30
• Not only was Sunday the Gauchos' second five-homer game this season (at Oregon Feb. 25), it was their first with two multi-homer innings
• Five Santa Barbara hitters finished with multiple hits on Sunday, including LeTrey McCollum, who went 2-for-5, extending his hitting streak to 11 games, the longest such streak by a Gaucho this season
• After his 4 2/3 inning-long outing on Sunday, Hudson Barrett has now pitched 24 innings this season, the most of any Santa Barbara reliever and now holds an ERA of just 0.75 in those 24 innings
• Jared Sundstrom is the first Gaucho to record a pinch-hit home run this season

UP NEXT
Santa Barbara returns home tomorrow, Monday, April 3 to host Santa Clara at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. First pitch is set for 2:05 p.m., and fans can purchase tickets to the game for just $5. For those who cannot make it to the ballpark, the game will be live on ESPN+, with an audio-only broadcast and live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com