IRVINE, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team scored four runs over the final three innings of Sunday's series finale, but it was not enough to dig out of an early hole as the Gauchos fell, 11-4, to No. 16 UC Irvine. Justin Trimble hit his sixth home run of the season and Nick Oakley reached the 30 RBI mark to key the late rally.  
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Santa Barbara got off to a rough start, surrendering nine runs over the first three innings with a four-run first, two-run second and three-run third while being held to just one hit over the first six frames, a first-inning single from Brendan Durfee. Jonah Sebring finally broke up that long hitless streak with a triple to center in the top of the seventh, and Zander Darby drove him home with an RBI single to get the Gauchos on the board.
 
After the early pitching struggles, Calvin Proskey had pitched scoreless fifth and sixth innings, facing just one batter over the minimum in the process. With Santa Barbara on the board, Ryan Troye relieved Proskey and faced the minimum himself in the bottom of the seventh, keeping the score at 9-1.
 
The Gauchos made a real threat to rally in the top of the seventh, sending seven men to the plate against a UC Irvine team that blew an eight-run lead late on a Sunday earlier this season. Trimble led off the frame with a home run over the right field fence, his sixth of the season, to make it 9-2, and four of the next five Gauchos to bat all reached base. Rex DeAngelis got on via a hit-by-pitch and would come around to score on Oakley's RBI single into center. Aaron Parker and Durfee both joined Oakley on the basepaths, but an Anteater pitching change got the home team a double play to end the threat.
 
Santa Barbara's momentum stalled further in the bottom of the eighth, when UC Irvine got both of those runs back, making it 11-3. Darby led off the top of the ninth with a double, and after Jonathan Mendez was hit by a pitch, Trimble became the third straight Gaucho to reach and recorded his second RBI of the game with a single through the left side of the infield, which scored Darby. However, that was the Gauchos' last hit of the day.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Nick Oakley's RBI single was both his 30^th hit of the season and his 30^th RBI. The Santa Barbara native ranks third on The Big West RBI leaderboard and is the only player in the conference with 30 or more ribbies on 30 or fewer hits.
• Calvin Proskey was the Gauchos' most effective pitcher on Sunday, working two scoreless innings while allowing just one hit. Thanks to Aaron Parker's first caught stealing of the season in the fifth and a double play in the sixth, Proskey took just seven batters to record his six outs.
• Zander Darby went 2-for-3 at the plate on Sunday, his second multi-hit game since returning to the lineup on March 17. He also recorded his second double since his return; the other game in his other multi-hit outing, a 3-for-7 game at UCLA.

 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos return home for their next five games, opening the homestand against LMU on Tuesday, April 9 at 4:35 p.m. They will host Hawai'i for a three-game series next weekend, then host UCLA on April 16.