MALIBU, Calif. — The No. 24 UC Santa Barbara Baseball team renews its longest-running non-conference series on Tuesday, heading to Malibu for a 148th meeting with the Pepperdine Waves. Outside of The Big West, the Gauchos have not faced any team more often than their South Coast neighbors.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
First pitch is set for 1:30 p.m. from Eddy D. Field Stadium in Malibu on Tuesday. For fans following from afar, the game will be live on ESPN+ with an audio broadcast and live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
LAST TIME OUT
UC Santa Barbara comes into its first mid-week contest of the season off the back of a first series win, taking the final two games of a three-game set at Sacramento State. The Gaucho offense clicked into gear on Saturday and Sunday, hanging 21 runs on the Hornets over the final two games to earn 9-1 and 12-0 victories. Strong starts from Mike Gutierrez on Saturday and Ryan Gallagher on Sunday helped the Gaucho pitching staff find their stride as well.
 
SERIES HISTORY
UC Santa Barbara has met Pepperdine more than any team currently outside The Big West, with the Gauchos and Waves getting together 147 times previously. UC Santa Barbara holds a slight edge in the all-time series with 75 wins, but Pepperdine has won each of the last two meetings in Malibu, including the most recent matchup in this series. The last Gaucho victory at Eddy D. Field Stadium was a 12-2 triumph in 2021 which saw Santa Barbara score six runs in the first two innings. Current Gauchos Leo Mosby and Hayden Hattenbach both featured, as did Director of Player Development Gianni Bloom.
 
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE GAUCHOS
Saturday and Sunday's wins in Sacramento were the best displays this season of what to expect from UC Santa Barbara Baseball: dominant pitching, aggression on the basepaths and power at the plate. The Gauchos are one of the top base-stealing teams in not just The Big West but the entire country through two weeks of the season. Their 16 steals rank 27th in all of Division I and top The Big West. On a per-game basis, the Gauchos rank 13th in the country with 2.67 steals per game, also topping the conference. Ivan Brethowr's five stolen bases are a team high; Reiss Calvin has three while LeTrey McCollum and Jonah Sebring each have two. None of those four have been caught stealing yet this season.
 
In the power department, the Gauchos are on pace to lead The Big West in home runs yet again this season, averaging a conference-best 1.5 homers per game through the first two weeks. Zander Darby leads the squad with three long balls, but a total of six different Gauchos have left the yard at least once this season. That includes redshirt freshman Nick Putnam, who homered in his first collegiate at-bat on Sunday.
 
Mike Gutierrez and Ryan Gallagher delivered performances fans have come to expect of Santa Barbara pitchers over the weekend, with Gutierrez delivering the Gauchos' first quality start — six innings pitched allowing three or fewer runs — on Saturday, then Gallagher starting Santa Barbara's first shutout of the year on Sunday. Freshmen Jackson Flora and Cole Tryba have made strong starts to their careers out of the bullpen; Flora struck out the final seven batters he faced to earn his first career save in Saturday's win.
 
Sophomore Reed Moring is expected to get the ball in Tuesday afternoon's game. He went 4-1 across 16 appearances (eight starts) his freshman season.
 
SCOUTING THE HORNETS
Pepperdine has had a rough start to the season, winning just one of their first eight games, being out-scored 87-21 in those eight contests. They have surrendered double-digit runs in four of their last five games, including a 25-4 loss at California Baptist and a 19-1 loss in their most recent game against Western Michigan.
 
Tuesday's probable starter, freshman righty Matt Queen, was one of five pitchers used in that 25-4 loss to the Lancers, working two innings and giving up three runs on five hits. Four of those five hits went for extra bases: a home run and three doubles, though he did strike out three batters without issuing a walk.
 
While their defensive struggles certainly overshadow the offensive ones, the Waves have struggled to turn good at-bats into runs. Three Pepperdine hitters are batting over .300, with two hitting .400 or better, but those three players account for essentially two thirds of the Waves' runs. Junior infielder Justin Rubin is batting .414 with three doubles and five runs scored through eight games, but has just three RBI. Senior outfielder Connor Bradshaw is also batting .400 and leads the team in slugging (.533), but is yet to hit anything out of the yard and has driven in just four runs.  Another veteran outfielder, Luke Pemberton, has hit a home run this season and is batting .323, but his five RBI are the most any Wave has so far this season. Pemberton is also the only Pepperdine player to hit a home run. To their credit, they have also only allowed four homers.
 
UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara will head to the Pacific Northwest this weekend for another meeting with the Oregon Ducks in Eugene. For a second straight year, the series was initially scheduled to be played in Santa Barbara but moved to PK Park; the Gauchos certainly did not seem to mind the move last season, sweeping the three-game set. Going back to 2022, the Gauchos are on a five-game winning streak in Eugene.