SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Ryan Gallagher made a triumphant return to the mound and the No. 22 UC Santa Barbara Baseball team scored in bunches Sunday afternoon, powering their way to a 12-0 win over Sacramento State in California's capital. Gallagher allowed just two baserunners in his five innings of work, striking out five before handing over to the bullpen. Hudson Barrett, Cole Tryba and AJ Krodel finished out the shutout. At the plate, Ivan Brethowr, Justin Trimble and Nick Putnam blasted homers to power Santa Barbara's offensive outburst.
 
FROM HEAD COACH ANDREW CHECKETTS
"Ryan Gallagher coming back from an injury, his first start in two years was really good, set the tone again with a second quality start in a row, which is what we needed," Checketts said. "The guys did a lot offensively early, getting the three-spot and giving him some room to breathe a little bit."
 
"We've had some guys who had to wait their turn to get their opportunities — Trimble, (Jessada) Brown — coming in and making significant contributions in the last couple days. A cool part was Putnam hitting the homer in his first collegiate at-bat after he's been catching all those bullpens for a year and a half. It's nice to put two solid games together on both sides of the ball, hopefully that gives us momentum going into Tuesday."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The late Earl Weaver famously said the key to winning baseball games is "pitching, fundamentals, and three-run homers," and while Gallagher delivered the pitching, Brethowr delivered the homer to give his starter some run support in the first inning. Some good fundamentals got two ducks on the pond for the Gauchos' slugger, as LeTrey McCollum singled then tagged up and took second on a fly-out to center. He took third on a wild pitch, and Trimble earned a walk before Brethowr launched his first home run of the year deep to center field.
 
With room to work, Gallagher cruised through his outing, allowing a pair of two-out baserunners in the bottom of the second but remaining perfect otherwise. The righty struck out at least one Hornet in every inning he worked, punctuating his fifth and final frame with K number seven on the day. He got some help from the defense behind him too, highlighted by Reiss Calvin's Superman dive to snag the final out of the fourth.
 
The Gaucho bats stayed hot all day, though it took until the top of the fifth for them to get on the scoreboard again. After Brendan Durfee worked a lead-off walk, Trimble hammered the first pitch he saw well over the right field fence for his second home run of the weekend, making it 5-0 Gauchos. Calvin then knocked a double into left, and Jonah Sebring legged out an infield single to join him on the basepaths. Nick Oakley's base hit to shallow left loaded the bags for Jessada Brown, who drove in Calvin with a hard-hit sacrifice fly which was more of a sacrifice lineout.
 
Santa Barbara kept rolling and added another handful of runs to the board in the seventh, capitalizing on Hornet miscues. With two out and two on, Zander Darby knocked a single into right which brought one run home, then Sacramento State's right fielder failed to connect with his shortstop on the cutoff throw, allowing Darby to take second and another Gaucho run to cross the plate. Durfee then drove Darby home with a scorching grounder to second which snuck under the defender's glove.
 
Oakley added two more runs in the eighth, drilling the first pitch from a brand-new Hornets reliever into right for a double with the bases loaded. In the ninth, both Jonathan Mendez and Nick Putnam made their collegiate debuts, and Putnam marked his with a bang. The lanky catcher got every stitch of a 2-1 pitch, blasting it off the wall of the parking structure behind left field, about three quarters of the way up the four-level building.
 
AJ Krodel debuted on the mound in the bottom of the ninth and sent the Hornets down in order, bookending the inning with his first two collegiate strikeouts.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Sunday was Ryan Gallagher's first pitching appearance in 630 days, having missed all of the 2023 season due to injury. He worked five strong innings in his return, allowing no runs on just one hit and one walk while striking out five batters.
• Justin Trimble continued his great weekend at the plate on Sunday, going 1-for-3 with a pair of walks and his second home run of the series. On the weekend, he hit .455/.538/1.091 with six RBI.
• Jessada Brown had a great weekend with the bat too, starting the final two games of the series and hitting .714 with two RBI in those games.
• Nick Putnam's mammoth home run came in his first collegiate at-bat, making him the first Gaucho since at least 2012 to go yard in their first time to the plate.

 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos will head to Malibu for their first mid-week matchup of the season on Tuesday, Feb. 27, when they will take on the Pepperdine Waves. First pitch is set for 1:30 p.m. from Eddy D. Field Stadium. The game will be live on ESPN+ with live stats and an audio broadcast available through ucsbgauchos.com.