SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The No. 25 UC Santa Barbara Baseball team is set for a big week on the road, traveling north for the Blue-Green Rivalry Series at Cal Poly over the weekend before making a trip to Los Angeles to face UCLA. The Gauchos come into the weekend on a seven-game winning streak and have won their last five against the Mustangs in San Luis Obispo.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
The series begins Friday, March 22 with first pitch set for 6 p.m. in San Luis Obispo. Game two will get underway at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 23 with the final game of the set to begin at 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 24. Fans making the trip north can purchase tickets through gopoly.com. For those following from afar, the games will be live on ESPN+ with an audio broadcast and live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
Tuesday's meeting with the Bruins in Los Angeles will get underway at 6 p.m. from Jackie Robinson Stadium in Westwood. Fans making the trip to the ballpark can purchase tickets through uclabruins.com. The game will be live streamed online on pac-12.com, and live stats and an audio broadcast will be available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos went undefeated in their first homestand of the season, sweeping consecutive weekend series to run their winning streak up to seven games. Santa Barbara out-scored UConn, 29-7, in a three-game sweep of the Huskies, then earned three straight comeback wins over Long Beach State to sweep the first Big West series of the year. Aaron Parker, Ivan Brethowr and Zander Darby each made their returns from injuries during the homestand; Parker hit .455/.519/.636 with a double a homer and seven RBI over the six games.
 
SERIES HISTORIES
The Blue-Green Rivalry Series has seen 185 prior meetings between the Gauchos and Mustangs, with Santa Barbara winning 104 of those meetings. Between 2021 and 2023, the Gauchos rattled off a nine-game winning streak against their rivals from up Highway 101, including sweeping the series at Baggett Stadium in 2022 and winning both games of a non-conference doubleheader in San Luis Obispo in 2023. Those two series included, Santa Barbara has won the last four series, though the Mustangs did win the most recent meeting to avoid a sweep in conference play last year. Across the five Blue-Green Rivalry games in 2023, the Gauchos out-scored Cal Poly, 36-19. Parker hit .438 with a home run, two doubles and five RBI in his four games against the Mustangs last year, while Brethowr put up a .300 average and .850 slugging percentage, launching three home runs and two doubles with eight RBI over his first five Blue-Green Rivalry games.
 
The Gauchos and Bruins have met over 100 times in their histories, with UCLA holding a slender advantage in the win column. The teams have met six times since 2020, with UCLA winning the last four. The Gauchos' last win at Jackie Robinson Stadium came in 2021, powered by an early offensive outburst that saw Santa Barbara take a 7-0 lead in four innings. Michael McGreevy, who would go on to be drafted in the first round that summer, struck out 12 Bruins and got the win in Santa Barbara's 10-4 victory.
 
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE GAUCHOS
UC Santa Barbara is rolling right now, having won seven games in a row as both their pitching and offense have found their grooves. The Gauchos have one of the best pitching staffs in the country at limiting hits, with their 6.60 hits allowed per nine innings the fourth lowest in all of Division I. That success has helped Santa Barbara lower its team ERA to 3.87, ranking them 25th in the nation. Sophomore right-hander Tyler Bremner has led that charge out of Santa Barbara's bullpen, allowing just 3.72 hits per nine innings and holding opposing batters to just a .131 average. Bremner is a candidate to start Sunday's game; he filled that role on opening weekend against Campbell and made eight starts as a freshman in 2023. Ryan Gallagher would be the other candidate to take the ball in the series finale, having started the last four Sundays for Santa Barbara. He comes in with a 2.18 ERA, the lowest in the Gauchos' usual rotation.
 
Matt Ager and Mike Gutierrez are scheduled to start Friday and Saturday, respectively, for the sixth time in as many weekends. Ager has not been as dominant as he was when he won the Friday job in 2023, but he has provided a solid presence on the mound for the Gauchos this season. He struck out seven batters and grinded through five innings despite giving up five runs against Long Beach State, which set up Bremner's clutch four-inning pitching performance to help Santa Barbara come back and win. Gutierrez has been sharp as ever this year, winning each of his decisions. His last two outings were his best strikeout games of the year, matching his career high with nine against UConn and K-ing six against Long Beach State.
 
While the key bats of Parker, Brethowr and Darby all returned to the lineup over the Gauchos' homestand, Santa Barbara's depth kept the offense running just fine without them. Brendan Durfee has caught every game of his first season in Division I and has hit the cover off the ball too, batting .358 with a team-high four home runs. Justin Trimble, who played his way into the everyday lineup and covered for Darby at third, also has four homers. One of the most patient Gauchos at the plate, Trimble has 13 walks and has been hit by six pitches; the only Gaucho with more free passes is also the Gauchos' leading base thief Reiss Calvin (16 and seven, respectively). Nick Oakley has been one of Santa Barbara's top clutch hitters, with a team-leading 20 RBI on the season so far, two away from his career high.
 
SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS
Cal Poly got off to a slow start this season but has picked up steam recently, winning eight of their last 10 games and each of their last two series, taking three out of four from Ohio State and two of three from CSUN, both at home. The Mustangs' offense has proved capable of fireworks during that stretch, scoring 19 runs against Ohio State on March 9, 19 again on March 13 versus UNLV and 17 against CSUN on Saturday, but they struggled remarkably against Texas' pitching staff earlier in the year, scoring zero runs over three games in Austin.
 
Jake Steels, Ryan Fenn, Ryan Stafford and Joe Yorke are some of the key bats leading the Mustangs' offense. Steels leads The Big West and is 21st in the nation with a .449 batting average through 19 games and his 1.133 OPS is second in the conference. Fenn is the reigning Big West Player of the Week after he went 13-for-24 across five games with 12 RBI, including multi-RBI games in each of Cal Poly's three contests against CSUN. Stafford is batting .333 on the year and will be the Mustangs' backstop for most if not all of this weekend and, like Santa Barbara's Ager, spent his summer with Team USA. Stafford has thrown out 11 would-be base stealers, but has allowed 18 steals. Yorke is hitting just .250, but leads the team in RBI with 18.
 
Cal Poly is scheduled to start pitchers Jakob Wright, Steven Brooks and Graham Naess in that order. Wright leads the team with a 2.73 ERA, but both Brooks and Naess have ERAs over four. Brooks does lead the team with 30 strikeouts on the year and has a remarkable WHIP of just .94, meaning he allows less than one baserunner per inning on average. That number comes largely from the fact he has walked just three batters in 33 innings. Naess also has an impressive walk total, issuing just five free passes this season, and he has the lowest batting average against of the three. However, the freshman is yet to go more than five innings into a game.
 
SCOUTING THE BRUINS
UCLA was ranked No. 22 in the D1Baseball preseason poll and swept its opening series, but the Bruins have slipped out of the rankings and under .500 since then, suffering losses to UConn and Long Beach State, as well as UC Irvine and a sweep at Cal. The Bruins bounced back by winning last weekend's series against Washington State, and they will host arch rivals USC this weekend before welcoming the Gauchos.
 
While the UCLA pitching staff has been solid, the offense has struggled to provide run support. As a team, the Bruins are hitting .254, the 220th ranked team in Division I. Averaging 4.9 runs per game, UCLA is currently the 252nd scoring offense out of 295 teams. There are bright spots, just outside of the everyday lineup. Freshman Blake Balsz has caught in two of the Bruins' four midweek games, including their most recent against UConn, and is hitting .500 in that limited playing time. Cashel Dugger is the only Bruin with at least 10 starts and a batting average above .300, batting .394 in his 13 games behind the plate. Freshman infielder Roman Martin is also in the .300 club for UCLA, batting .391 in eight games with the third-most RBI on the team. Graduate catcher Quintt Landis is the only non-freshman batting over .300 for the Bruins, hitting .375 in his eight games.
 
Freshman Landon Stump has been UCLA's Tuesday starter so far this season, carrying a 4.64 ERA and .295 opponent batting average through four starts this season.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos return home for their next series, hosting San Jose State for a three-game set. With Easter that Sunday, the series will begin on Thursday and run March 28-30. First pitch times are set for 4:35 p.m. Thursday, 3:05 p.m. Friday and 1:05 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com. The games will also be live on ESPN+ with live stats and an audio broadcast available through ucsbgauchos.com.