SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (April 28, 2023) — With two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning Friday night, Corey Nunez knocked a soft line drive into center field, bringing Aaron Parker home from third to earn his UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (26-12, 11-5 Big West) a walk-off, 6-5 victory over UC Davis (14-23, 5-11 Big West). With the win, Head Coach Andrew Checketts earned his 400th victory as the Gauchos' skipper, making him one of just three head coaches to earn that many wins in Santa Barbara.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Both teams trotted out their aces on Friday, with Gaucho righty Matt Ager opposed by Aggie lefty Bryan Green. Both pitchers allowed three runs, but Ager was certainly the sharper of the two, striking out a career-high 11 through seven innings of work. He picked up two of those Ks in the first, then two more in the second, although he did give up a run in that frame. He had another multi-strikeout inning as part of a perfect fourth, then struck out the side to get through a rough sixth. A walk and a pair of doubles plated two Aggie runs in the top of the sixth, tying the game at three. Ager bounced back a perfect seventh to finish his evening.

While Davis had taken six innings to get to Ager, the Gauchos had cracked Green earlier, chasing him after 5 1/3 frames. After going down a run in the top of the second, the Gauchos got that run right back in the bottom half, with a pair of walks preceding an RBI single from Zander Darby. Santa Barbara took the lead in the third, when Jared Sundstrom's double down the line drove home LeTrey McCollum. Ivan Brethowr drove home Sundstrom in turn with a two-out single to make it 3-1 at the time.

The game remained tied at three heading into the ninth, but the Aggies got a great chance to change that with a lead-off double. A line-out to center advanced the go-ahead run to third with just one out, at which point the Gauchos called on Tyler Bremner out of the bullpen. The freshman walked the first batter he faced but put out the fire with some help from his defense, with Darby fielding a hot shot at third and turning the around-the-horn double play.

After the Santa Barbara hitters went down in order in the bottom of the ninth, the game headed to extra innings. And no defense in the world was going to keep Davis off the board in the tenth. A one-out single was followed by a no-doubt home run to left, putting the visitors in the lead for the first time since the top of the second. However, just like in the second inning, the Gauchos leveled the game right back up in the bottom of the tenth. Parker and Christian Kirtley led off the inning with back-to-back singles, and Darby bunted them over to second and third. Nunez lined a double to right center, driving them both home. A pair of intentional walks loaded the bases, but the Gauchos would have to wait for their walk-off.

Bremner was back out for the top of the 11th and gave up another lead-off hit, this time a double, but worked around it, striking out the side. Brethowr led off the bottom of the 11th with a hit-by-pitch, then was pinch-run for by Jessada Brown. Parker worked a four-pitch walk to move the winning run to second, and Kirtley thought he had walked it off on a hard-hit single to left, only for a perfect throw to beat Brown to the plate. With two outs, Parker and Kirtley moved up 90 feet, to third and second, on a wild pitch, then Nunez collected his third RBI in extra innings, driving Parker home for the win.

ON THE STAT SHEET
• Corey Nunez finished the evening 3-for-5 with three RBI. All three of those RBI came in the 10th and 11th innings
• Matt Ager's final line from Friday reads seven innings pitched, three runs allowed, only two earned on six hits and two walks, with a career-high 11 strikeouts
• Head Coach Andrew Checketts now holds a career record of 400-226-5 at UC Santa Barbara, giving him a winning percentage of .639 as the Gauchos' skipper. While this is his first head coaching job, he does hold a 1-2 record from games where he filled the role during his time at Oregon.

UP NEXT
The Gauchos will continue this series against UC Davis on Saturday, April 29, at 4:05 p.m. from Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. As a reminder, kids ages 12 and under receive free admission to all home Saturday and Sunday games this baseball season. For fans who cannot make it to the ballpark, the game will be live on ESPN+ with live stats available on ucsbgauchos.com.