SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team returns home this weekend, hosting a three-game series against Cal State Fullerton before making a quick trip over to Riverside, where they will end the month with a Tuesday game at California Baptist. Saturday's game against the Titans will be nationally televised on ESPNU, the Gauchos' second time on the national stage this season.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
Santa Barbara's Saturday, April 27 game against Cal State Fullerton will get underway at 7 p.m. due to the national TV spot, while the Friday and Sunday games retain their original first-pitch times of 4:35 p.m. and 1:05 p.m. respectively. When the Gauchos travel to Riverside on April 30, their game at California Baptist is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.
 
The Gauchos will be entering their Taylor Swift era on Saturday night as UC Santa Barbara hosts Taylor Swift Night. There will be a Gaucho-themed friendship bracelet giveaway, and all of the Santa Barbara players will switch their walkup songs to Taylor Swift music for the night. Gaucho fans can also collect a Ryan Gallagher trading card at Saturday's game. On Sunday, UC Santa Barbara will host Youth Day at the ballpark. Kids will be able to run the bases following the game, and fans can collect a Matt Ager trading card by coming to the ballpark.
 
Fans watching from afar can catch all four games live on ESPN+, including Saturday's ESPNU game, or follow along with an audio broadcast and live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos got a wake-up call as their eight-game winning streak was snapped at the hands of Loyola Marymount on Tuesday night. Free bases and crooked numbers bit Santa Barbara in the 9-4 defeat, though Brendan Durfee and Jessada Brown both homered early, and Frank Camarillo had another solid outing on the mound late in the game.
 
SERIES HISTORIES
As could be expected of a series between two Big West baseball powerhouses, the long history between the Gauchos and Titans is a competitive one. Neither team has swept the other since 2011, and each side has won five of the last 10 meetings. Since UC Santa Barbara Head Coach Andrew Checketts took over, the hosting team has won seven of the 11 series, with the teams splitting the four-game set in Fullerton in 2021. The Gauchos are 8-7 in 15 home games against the Titans under Checketts.
 
Santa Barbara and California Baptist have played just six times, with the Gauchos winning four of the six meetings since 2019. Tuesday will be just the second game between the two teams in Riverside after the Lancers won, 6-4, at Totman Stadium last May. Jonah Sebring had an RBI double as part of a late Gaucho rally in that game and went off when the Lancers visited Santa Barbara earlier this month. In two games against CBU, Sebring is 4-for-8 with two doubles, two homers and five RBI.
 
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE GAUCHOS
Home Sweet Home
The Gauchos have made Caesar Uyesaka Stadium a fortress this season, winning each of their first 14 home games, their longest home unbeaten run to start a season since 1982, when they went their first 16 home games without a loss. Santa Barbara's offense has out-scored opponents 110-46 at home this season, and five different pitchers are holding opponents under a .200 batting average. Gaucho hitters are out-homering opponents 21-9 at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium, and Santa Barbara pitchers have a 3.30 strikeout-to-walk ratio on their home mound. Individually, Justin Trimble and Jonah Sebring have enjoyed their trips to the plate at their home ballpark, while Jackson Flora has delivered his best stuff on his home mound. Trimble broke into the starting lineup on Santa Barbara's season-opening road trip but has been a beast at home, batting .353/.459/.608 with 21 RBI, the most by any Gaucho in the team's 14 home games. In contrast, Sebring has made the most of the comforts of home during an up-and-down season at the plate, batting .370 with three homers and three doubles in just 27 home at-bats. His .815 slugging percentage at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium is a team best. From power hitting to power pitching, Flora has a 2.08 ERA in 17 1/3 home innings, holding opponents to a .186 batting average over six outings. He has started mid-week games this season but will be part of Santa Barbara's closer committee during weekend series.
 
Milestone Watch on The Mound
Two Gaucho pitchers are on pace to collect their 200th strikeout in Blue and Gold this weekend. Mike Gutierrez has started every Saturday game so far this season, winning all six of his decisions, and has 196 strikeouts in his three-year Santa Barbara career so far. He has struck out at least four batters in all but his last two outings this year, not that he needed to last time out at UC Davis, when he allowed just one run while getting only two of his 16 outs by way of the K. The Gauchos would love Gutierrez to repeat his last nationally televised outing; he held UC Irvine scoreless over six frames while striking out seven on ESPN2 three weeks ago. Unlike Gutierrez, Matt Ager's role on the staff has evolved over the season, as the 2023 All-American struggled to start the season as the Friday starter before moving back to the bullpen, where he earned Freshman All-America honors in 2022. The righty comes into the weekend with 198 K's, having issued one in a no-hit eighth inning at LMU on Tuesday. He has earned saves in his last two home outings, striking out six over 3 1/3 innings against San Jose State a month ago and K-ing a pair against Hawai'i on April 13.
 
Un-Burying the Lede
For all their home success and upcoming pitching milestones, it would be irresponsible to talk about UC Santa Barbara Baseball without mentioning Aaron Parker, Ivan Brethowr, Ryan Gallagher and Tyler Bremner. Both Parker and Brethowr missed time due to injuries this season but are back and batting as expected now. Parker is hitting .396 on the season and .446 at home, driving in 29 runs in just 26 games. Three of his six homers have come in the last five games, including a grand slam against UCLA. Brethowr is also hitting the cover off the ball, blasting a home run in each of the Gauchos' wins in Davis. Gallagher threw a complete game shutout in Friday's win over the Aggies, continuing his phenomenal first season back from Tommy John surgery. With Gallagher taking the Friday role, Bremner has slid into the Sunday starter spot and excelled after filling the closer role for the injured Hudson Barrett. Bremner has a stunning 1.00 ERA and .115 batting average against at home.
 
SCOUTING THE TITANS
Cal State Fullerton finished second in The Big West last season and represented the conference in an NCAA Regional, but they are far from repeating that feat this year, coming into the weekend 10th in The Big West and with an overall record of just 13-25, having won just three of their last 10 games. Some of the Titans' early season games are a reminder that they should not be taken lightly, as they took a three-game series on the road at Stanford, out-scoring the Cardinal 20-10 on opening weekend. They also held then-No. 11 East Carolina to just two runs in an 11-inning loss.
 
The Titans' biggest strength is their pitchers' ability to limit walks, as Fullerton ranks 32nd nationally with just 3.76 walks allowed per nine innings. That control gives them a top-50 strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.31 and a top-40 ERA of 4.63. Mikiah Negrete has issued the most walks of any Titan, 19, but he has also worked the most innings, 58 1/3, starting the opening game of every Big West series for Fullerton. Negrete is the only Titan with double-digit starts, and Christian Rodriguez is the only other pitcher with more than 40 innings. Andrew Morones and Jason Krakoski lead the team with 17 appearances each, but neither has worked more than 21 innings.
 
The Titans are not afraid to play small ball on offense, with their 31 sacrifice bunts ranking 15th in the country, but their 5.4 runs per game this season are near the bottom of The Big West and rank 258th out of 295 Division I teams.
 
SCOUTING THE LANCERS
Since their last meeting with the Gauchos, California Baptist has gone 10-2 in 12 games. From a 1-0 win on the road at Sacramento State to a 10-0 win at home over Stephen F. Austin, the Lancers have won in just about every way imaginable over the last month; that shutout of the Lumberjacks was part of a three-game sweep in which CBU did not surrender a run, and they have scored double digits in three of their last four games, most recently taking a 12-8 slugfest from Long Beach State. The Lancers will host Utah Valley for three games over the weekend before hosting the Gauchos.
 
CBU showcased how potent their offense can be when they visited Santa Barbara, putting up a five-run inning built around a pair of RBI doubles. The Lancers have a penchant for two-baggers, ranking 32^nd in the nation with 88 of them this season. Michael Carpentier ranks third in Division I with 20 of them himself, one of which came against the Gauchos. Josh Paino and Mitch Simon both have 12 each, and Paino hit a homer in Santa Barbara earlier this month.
 
On the mound, the Lancers do have five shutouts on the year, the fifth-most in Division I, but all five have come in weekend series. The fewest runs CBU has allowed in a mid-week game is two, and the most they have surrendered is 18, against Dartmouth back in March. That loss to the Big Green was at home but it was also the last time they gave up double digits in their home ballpark. Cody New opened the game for CBU last time they played Santa Barbara and has featured in each of the last two mid-week contests for the Lancers, but as a reliever in both. Three different arms — Andrew Rudd, Ryan Kittredge and Ryne Palmer — have opened CBU's last three mid-week games, with none of them working more than two innings.
 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara will open the month of May at home, hosting UC San Diego May 3-5 and Pepperdine May 7 for a four-game homestand. UC San Diego are the defending Big West Champions and come into this weekend just one loss behind the Gauchos in the conference standings.