IRVINE, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team fell in the opening game of a three-game Big West series at No. 16 UC Irvine Friday night, 9-3. Nick Oakley continued his clutch hitting despite the defeat, recording his 27^th RBI of the season. The Gauchos are now two games back of the Anteaters in the conference standings, with two games still to play in this series.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Friday night's contest began as a pitcher's duel between Ryan Gallagher and Irvine's Nick Pinto, with the first three innings taking a grand total of 40 minutes. Gallagher scattered two hits over those first three frames, striking out a couple Anteaters in the process.
 
The Gaucho offense was first to break the deadlock, getting on the board in the top of the fourth with a two-out rally. Jessada Brown, Brendan Durfee and Jonah Sebring all reached safely to extend the inning, then Justin Trimble delivered a run-scoring single past the first baseman to make it 1-0 Santa Barbara.
 
The Anteaters did get that run back in the bottom half of the inning, but the Gauchos got on the board again in the fifth, retaking the lead on Aaron Parker's RBI groundout after a pair of infield hits and a fielder's choice put runners on the corners. However, UC Irvine broke the game open with a four-run bottom of the fifth, an inning that would go on to decide the game.
 
The Anteaters added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to extend their lead to 7-2, with the Gauchos' best attempt at a rally coming in the seventh. Oakley's single up the middle added to his team-leading and career-high RBI tally while cutting the lead to four. Reed Moring added his own spark to the attempted fire in the bottom half of the inning with a shutdown, one-two-three frame that included a pair of strikeouts.
 
But those sparks did not lead to fire, as the Anteaters scored two more runs in the bottom of the eighth to put the result beyond any doubt.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• UC Santa Barbara's seven hits Friday night each came from a different player, the second such game this season after six Gauchos each contributed a solitary hit in the March 17 win over Long Beach State.
• Aaron Parker's 14-game hitting streak was snapped on Friday, but he did record his 20^th RBI in just 15 games played this year on a fielder's choice.
• Jonathan Mendez now owns the longest active hitting streak on the team at 12 games; Nick Oakely is close behind with a hit in each of his last 10. Oakley also owns the longest active on-base streak for the Gauchos, having reached safely in 22 consecutive contests.

 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos and Anteaters will play game two of this three-game series in the national spotlight on Saturday, April 6, with the game to be broadcast on ESPN 2. First pitch from Anteater Ballpark in Irvine is set for 5:30 p.m. Fans can also catch the game live on ESPN+ or follow along with the audio broadcast and live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.