DAVIS, Calif. — Following a perfect homestand, the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team hits the road again this weekend to start a four-game stretch away from Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. The Gauchos will head north to take on UC Davis in a three-game series, April 19-21, then return to Southern California for a mid-week matchup at Loyola Marymount on April 23.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
Santa Barbara's games in Davis will begin at 2:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday from Dobbins Stadium. Tuesday night's game at LMU will begin at 6 p.m. from Page Stadium in Los Angeles.
 
All four games will be broadcast on ESPN+ with an audio broadcast and live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos completed a perfect homestand on Tuesday night, shutting out UCLA for the first time since 1984, 6-0. Aaron Parker hit a grand slam and Santa Barbara's defense made plays all over the park to keep the Bruins off the board. It was a whole-staff pitching effort, wrapped up by Jackson Flora's fifth save of the season. Parker caught two runners stealing in the game to go along with his first inning slam.
 
SERIES HISTORIES
The Gauchos' 34 games against the Aggies since Head Coach Andrew Checketts arrived in Santa Barbara may be one of the most dominant stretches in Big West baseball, with the Gauchos winning 27 of those 34 matchups, including each of the last 14. Santa Barbara has won eight of the last 11 series, with seven of those being sweeps. That is not to say there have not been close games. In 2021, the Gauchos' needed a two-run eighth inning to complete the sweep at home. The last time the Gauchos were in Davis, Christian Kirtley scaled the left field wall to rob what would have been a game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth, securing a 5-3 Friday victory. Checketts earned his 400th win as Gauchos' skipper in this series last year, as Corey Nunez delivered a walk-off single in the 11th inning of the Friday contest. Kirtley has graduated and Nunez is injured, so the Gauchos will have to turn to someone new if they need heroics this weekend.
 
Santa Barbara's series against LMU is one of the longest running in program history, with their April 9 meeting the 147^th between the Gauchos and Lions. Santa Barbara now has a six-game winning streak against LMU and 80 wins overall. Ivan Brethowr has been quite the Lion tamer, hitting 7-for-13 with a double, three home runs and 10 RBI in three career games against LMU. The most recent two of those three homers came last Tuesday, and the first came last year at Page Stadium, when he blasted a shot over the 37-foot-tall Blue Monster in left field.
 
The Gauchos already have one win at Page Stadium this year, defeating Villanova, 10-0, in a neutral-site contest there on March 5. Reiss Calvin made like Brethowr and cleared the Blue Monster as part of a tremendous performance. The switch-hitting centerfielder went 3-for-4 on the night, adding a double to his homer and totaling three RBI.
 
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE GAUCHOS
Lefties Leading the Offense
Left-handed batters Nick Oakley, Justin Trimble and Brendan Durfee would all be strong candidates to play the hero role if needed, as all three have been crucial to the Gaucho offense this season. The Santa Barbara native Oakley has been his hometown team's top RBI guy this season, driving in 33 runs while batting a resurgent .314 after hitting just .197 in 2023.
 
Trimble is right behind him with 32 RBI on the year, the last four of which he collected on his Sunday afternoon grand slam, which was also his team-leading seventh home run of the season. After playing in just 29 games his first two years, Trimble has started 31 of 32 in his junior season and is maintaining one of the top OPS on the team at .957 thanks to his combination of power and plate discipline; Trimble's 17 walks are second on the team, and he has been hit by more pitches than any other Gaucho (13).
 
Durfee is also in the .900 OPS club (.910) in his first season of Division I baseball. Both his durability behind the plate and his ability at it proved crucial during an early season stretch where multiple key Gauchos missed time due to injury, including typical catcher Aaron Parker. Despite Parker's return to the lineup, Durfee has continued his streak of starting every game for Santa Barbara, though he now plays first base when Parker is behind the dish. While Durfee's .328 season batting average is impressive, his .366 average in Santa Barbara's 17 true road games is even more formidable.
 
Milestone Watch on the Mound
A pair of UC Santa Barbara pitchers are closing in on their 200th strikeouts in Blue and Gold, with both Matt Ager and Mike Gutierrez very capable of reaching the milestone this weekend. Ager, who was striking out just about anyone and everyone in his 115 K 2023 campaign, has certainly not had the season he wanted, carrying a 5.68 ERA into the weekend, but he is just four away from strikeout 200. He K'ed a pair of hitters in his 1 2/3 inning save against Hawai'i last weekend and struck out six San Jose State Spartans in his other relief appearance this season. He could also take up the Sunday starter role, though Tyler Bremner delivered an impressive seven-inning performance in that spot against the Rainbow Warriors.
 
Mike Gutierrez is nailed down in his Saturday starter role, having pitched the second game of Santa Barbara's last 12 series, going back to 2023. He comes into the weekend with 194 strikeouts as a Gaucho, but can add 63 K's from his time at Mt. SAC to his career total. The lefty has struck out six or more batters in four of his last six starts, though he issued only three the last time the Gauchos visited Davis.
 
Not to be forgotten is the milestone Friday starter Ryan Gallagher hit in his last outing, which was a new career high of 12 strikeouts in his seven-inning outing against Hawai'i. The redshirt sophomore has been strong in his first season back from Tommy John surgery, but he has been less comfortable on the road than at home, working just 13 innings over three outings away from Santa Barbara, allowing eight earned runs. He did have an excellent day at Sacramento State in February, his first game back from injury.
 
SCOUTING THE AGGIES
UC Davis comes into the weekend at exactly .500 overall and two games below (5-7) in conference, but they can give anyone a hard time, especially at home, where they are 10-6 on the season. Four weekends ago, the Aggies took two out of three from defending Big West champs UC San Diego, and two weeks ago it took a pair of extra-innings games for Hawai'i to get the two wins they took out of Davis. The Aggies also handed UC Irvine a shocking loss at Anteater Ballpark on the first weekend of conference play, erasing an eight-run deficit in the ninth inning and winning 12-10 in extras.
 
Mark Wolbert, the team's leader (among qualified batters) in average, had three RBI in that game and also laid down a sacrifice bunt, which the Aggies do more successfully than nearly anyone in the country. Their 34 sac bunts rank ninth in Division I but just third in The Big West. Joey Wright is the Aggies' top bunter, ranking 10th in the country with eight on the year.  Damian Stone provides Davis with a power-speed combo, leading the team in both home runs (4) and stolen bases (12 on 13 attempts). He also leads the team with 21 RBI, though he is batting just .262. Stone does have eight two-hit games on the season but just one three-hit game. Wolbert has five three-hit outings to his name plus five more two-hit days.
 
On the mound, Noel Valdez and Bryan Green are likely to start this weekend, as each man has a team-high nine on the year and are the only two Aggies to pitch more than 30 innings this season. Kaden Riccomini leads the team in total appearances with 16, all out of the bullpen, but has pitched just 12.1 innings in those 16 games.
 
SCOUTING THE LIONS
It will be just eight games between UC Santa Barbara and LMU's two meetings this season, as the Lions will play a three-game series at Pacific before hosting the Gauchos. In the five games between their loss in Santa Barbara and now, the Lions went 3-2, winning mid-week games against UC Riverside and Fresno State either side of a home series loss to Saint Mary's. LMU's lone win over the Gaels came on a walk-off single in the 10^th inning.
 
Ryan Mullan, the same man who opened the Lions' loss in Santa Barbara, got the win in relief over the Gaels and went on to pitch again in the series and work two more innings against Fresno State on Tuesday, maintaining the national lead in pitching appearances alongside fellow 23-game player Austin Schroeder, who also pitched against the Gauchos. In the five innings (over four games) since he saw Santa Barbara, Mullan has not allowed a hit.
 
At the plate, Brendan Bobo has stayed hot for the Lions after hitting a grand slam against the Gauchos; the LMU first baseman went 4-for-4 with two RBI against Saint Mary's on Sunday, having hit his second homer of the week the day before. Sam Biller maintains the Lions' homer lead with nine, though Bobo is closing on him. Biller's last home run came on March 19, though he did go 3-for-5 against Fresno State on Tuesday. While the Gauchos were able to hold LMU hit leader Christian Dicochea hitless last time, he has four multi-hit outings in his last five games.
 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos will return home next weekend for a three-game series against Cal State Fullerton, April 26-28, during which they will make their second national television appearance of the season. Saturday's game against the Titans will be broadcast on ESPNU and will therefore start at 7 p.m. Friday and Sunday's first pitch times remain at 4:35 and 1:05 p.m., respectively, as usual.