SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The No. 25 UC Santa Barbara Baseball team begins its quest for a fifth Big West Championship on Friday, as the preseason favorite Gauchos will welcome Long Beach State to town for a three-game series this weekend. The Dirtbags have gotten off to a hot start in 2024, but the Gauchos swept them the last time they came to Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
First pitch times are set for 4:35 p.m. Friday, 3:05 p.m. Saturday and 1:05 p.m. Sunday. Single-game tickets for all of the Gauchos' home contests are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets, with prices beginning at $5. UC Santa Barbara students get in free with their campus ID. For fans following from afar, the games will be live on ESPN+ with an audio broadcast and live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos come into this weekend riding a four-game win streak, with their latest result a 12-1 win over UConn on Sunday, completing a three-game sweep of the 2023 BIG EAST Regular Season Champions. Aaron Parker returned to the lineup over the weekend for the first time since picking up an injury in the season opener, helping Santa Barbara win its third straight weekend series of the season.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Long time Big West rivals, the Gauchos and Dirtbags have met nearly 200 times in their histories, with Long Beach leading the all-time series, 97-91. Santa Barbara has held a slight edge in recent years, having won three of the last five series and 10 of the last 15 games against the Dirtbags, though they did only win one of three meetings last season at Blair Field. However, the Gauchos have not lost a game, let alone a series, to Long Beach State at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium since 2017, sweeping the series in both 2019 and 2022. In 2022's sweep, Santa Barbara out-scored the Dirtbags 27-5.
 
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE GAUCHOS
Last weekend's sweep of UConn was confirmation that, despite offseason preparations complicated by field maintenance and rain, despite opening the season with 11 straight games away from home and despite some key players missing time with injury, the Gauchos are fully back in character. Santa Barbara pitched well, slugged the heck out of the ball and were aggressive as ever on the basepaths against the Huskies, leading to their 13th regular-season sweep since 2022, the third-most in Division I in that timeframe.
Offensively, the Gauchos' depth has been a major strength as key players have missed time due to injuries. Brendan Durfee and Justin Trimble have provided the power, hitting three home runs each in the absences of usual catcher Parker and every-day third baseman Zander Darby respectively. Parker's return to the lineup as a designated hitter was an added highlight of last weekend's series, the junior marking his return with what was a second five-RBI game. Durfee remained Santa Barbara's every-day catcher against UConn though, as there was no way his .345 average and 1.045 OPS, both second on the team, were going to come out of the lineup. Trimble has been similarly impossible to remove since he got his first opportunity, batting .311 with the best OPS among qualified Gauchos (1.108). Likewise, Jessada Brown has made left field his, as his .403 batting average ranks fifth in The Big West. Elsewhere in the lineup, 2023 Junior College All American Reiss Calvin had a breakout week last week, hitting his first two Division-I home runs, one from each side of the plate, to bring his RBI total up to 13 on the season. Only Nick Oakley has driven home more Gauchos this year (17). The Santa Barbara native has kept his average above .300 for the last 10 games after batting just .197 in 2023.
 
On the mound, the Gauchos' weekend rotation of Matt Ager, Mike Gutierrez and Ryan Gallagher have all knocked off whatever rust they had by now, each delivering quality starts in their outings last weekend. Ager's last two outings have been reminiscent of his All-American 2023 campaign, including an eight-strikeout effort in which he allowed just one unearned run at Oregon two weeks ago. Gutierrez has delivered quality starts in each of his last three Saturdays on the bump, including striking out a career-high nine Huskies last weekend. Ryan Gallagher shook off a tough day at Oregon with a dominant one against UConn, allowing just one run over seven innings. Opponents are batting just .130 against him this year.
 
SCOUTING THE DIRTBAGS
Long Beach State went unbeaten in its first six games of the season before falling to UCLA in a 10-inning midweek showdown, but they have lost three of their last four games, dropping two out of three at Wichita State and a mid-week home matchup against Dartmouth. That 12-11 loss to UCLA on Feb. 28 is one of four extra-inning games the Dirtbags have played already this season and their only loss. Long Beach earned bonus-baseball wins over Omaha and Milwaukee and played a 17-inning marathon against Washington which ended as a 3-3 tie.
 
Their 11-inning, 5-4 win over Milwaukee saw Dirtbag pitchers strike out 21 opposing hitters, led by a career-high 13 from Friday starter Myles Patton. Patton ranks 12th in all of Division I with 37 strikeouts on the year. As a unit, Dirtbag pitching leads The Big West with 169 strikeouts and a 2.68 team ERA. Saturday starter Kellan Montgomery has the best individual ERA of Long Beach's weekend rotation, coming in at 2.25 with plenty of strikeouts (22) himself, while Sunday starter CJ Hood has been the hardest of the Dirtbags' weekend starters to hit, allowing just a .175 batting average against. Opponents are hitting .226 against Montgomery and .238 against Patton.
 
Former Gaucho John Newman, Jr. has had a strong start to life as the Dirtbags' catcher, leading the squad in slugging percentage (.526), on-base percentage (.462) and homers (3). Outfielder Connor Charpiot leads Long Beach in average (.315) and freshman shortstop Adrian Lopez in RBI (14). Designated hitter Cole Santander is the only other Dirtbag to drive in double-digit runs this season (11).
 
UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara hits the road again next weekend to renew the Blue Green Rivalry Series against Cal Poly with a three-game set in San Luis Obispo, March 22-24. The Gauchos will then visit UCLA on March 26 before returning home for a three-game series against San Jose State.