SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team completed its first three-game sweep of Cal State Fullerton since 1986 with a 4-0 victory on Sunday afternoon. Tyler Bremner held the Titans scoreless for eight innings of two-hit ball on the mound, and Brendan Durfee powered the offense with a 3-for-5, three-RBI day.
 
FROM HEAD COACH ANDREW CHECKETTS
"Great start from Bremner," Checketts said. "In the zone, one freebee for him, didn't give them much of a chance and suffocated the strike zone with his pitches. We did enough offensively … They have good pitching, so it wasn't easy for us, those were some of their better relievers, they did a good job …. In general, it was a great weekend."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Gauchos landed the first two big blows of the game in the first inning, turning a slick double play to wipe away a lead-off single as Bremner faced the minimum in the top half, then getting a lead-off home run to center from Durfee.
 
The Bremner-Durfee combo kept on landing punches in the second, with Bremner working a one-two-three frame on the mound and Durfee driving in more runs at the plate. His bases-loaded grounder kicked off the diving Titan first baseman's glove for a single, driving in his second run of the game to double Santa Barbara's advantage. With the bags still juiced, Aaron Parker hit a sacrifice fly into left to make it 3-0.
 
Bremner worked around his lone walk of the game in the top of the third and set down the Titans in order again in the top of the fourth before Durfee tacked on again in the bottom of that inning. Jonah Sebring roped a double down the left field line, then Durfee laced one into the right field corner two batters later to bring home the fourth run of the game.
 
Bremner allowed his second and final hit of the game in the fifth, which was also Fullerton's last baserunner on the afternoon. The Gauchos' sophomore flamethrower struck out the side to get out of that inning, then worked perfect sixth, seventh and eighth innings, punctuating his outing with a pair of strikeouts. Having thrown over 100 pitches for just the second time in his career, Bremner's day was done after eight, with Cole Tryba replacing him on the mound. The freshman lefty followed Bremner's lead and retired the side in order, picking up a pair of K's himself.
 
FROM THE STUDENT ATHLETES
Tyler Bremner on ending his day after eight innings: "I wasn't really trying to fight for the ninth," Bremner said. "I understand it's still not really late in the season, and that's still the furthest I've ever gone. There's no need to push it for a CG right now, so I wasn't too mad about that."
 
Brendan Durfee on the Gauchos scoring first: "Brem (Bremner) did a nice job today, excellent, got us out of the first without allowing them to score, got us to the bats quick," Durfee said. "We're always trying to land that first punch; it was nice to do it today and pretty cool to start it off with a bomb."
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Tyler Bremner's eight-inning outing was the longest of his career so far and helped Santa Barbara pull off a Big West leading fourth shutout of the season. Three of those four clean sheets have come in the month of April, with one in each of the last two weekend series.
• Brendan Durfee's lead-off home run was the first by a Gaucho this year; the last Santa Barbara batter to start a game with a dinger was Christian Kirtley at UC Riverside in May of 2023.
• Jessada Brown had a great series at the plate, going 6-for-10 on the weekend with a pair of doubles and a team high five RBI over the three games.
• The Gaucho pitching staff has now allowed just five runs in their last six conference games and owns The Big West's lowest team ERA in conference play this year at 3.63.

 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara will make a quick road trip to Riverside for a mid-week contest against California Baptist on April 30 before returning home to host defending Big West Champions UC San Diego, May 3-5. First pitch against the Lancers is set for 5 p.m. on Tuesday from Totman Stadium. The game will be live on ESPN+ with live stats and an audio broadcast available through ucsbgauchos.com.