SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The No. 22 UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (2-0) needed just two pitchers to defeat Campbell (0-2) on Saturday night, with Jackson Flora throwing five innings of shutout ball to start and Donovann Jackson working four strong innings of relief to finish the job. At the plate, Jack Holman hit his second home run in as many games as a Gaucho, and both Jonathan Mendez and Nate Vargas left the yard for the first time this season, powering Santa Barbara to a 7-2 win.
 
FROM HEAD COACH ANDREW CHECKETTS
"Fantastic start by Flora, really nice job by Donovann Jackson — the Jacksons," Checketts said. "In the strike zone, made them earn it … and we had obviously a couple more big swings. We had two errors on the board, which, we didn't give up extra outs but gave them extra bases, so it was a fairly clean game defensively. Xavier (Esquer) played great defensively at third again, so a good all-around effort."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Flora faced the minimum in the top of the first inning, catching a runner trying to steal third to wipe away a one-out single and steal of second. In the bottom of the inning, the Gauchos manufactured a run to give their starter a lead to work with. LeTrey McCollum would come around to score after his one-out walk; a Holman single moved him over to third and he scored when Isaac Kim hustled down the line to break up what would have been an inning-ending double play.
 
Flora made quick work of the Camels in the top of the second, issuing two strikeouts, and Corey Nunez made a shoe-top snag on a line drive to end the frame. In the bottom half, the Gaucho offense kept on putting up runs. Xavier Esquer led off the inning with an infield single to third base, then took second on an errant pickoff attempt and third on a wild pitch. McCollum's two-out single up the middle drove him home, and Holman worked a five-pitch walk to extend the inning. Kim paid that off with another single up the middle, this time scoring McCollum to extend the Gauchos' lead to 3-0.
 
Flora shrugged off a lead-off single and error in the top of the third, then watched his offense give him yet another run of cushion in the bottom of the inning, as Vargas hit his first home run for Santa Barbara, an opposite-field shot to left center. Flora worked a perfect fourth but had to deal with some traffic in his fifth and final inning. A hit batter and a two-out single put two Camels on, but Flora got a flyout to end the threat.
 
Mendez cracked a no-doubt home run 413 feet to left field with one out in the bottom of the fifth to bring the score up to 5-0 Gauchos, and Jackson entered to hold that lead in the top of the sixth. He allowed a single but struck out two in a shutout frame.
 
Not one to be left out of a home run party, Holman got in on the long-ball action in the bottom of the sixth, this time with a runner on base thanks to McCollum's two-out bunt single.
 
Jackson returned for the seventh and continued his cool, composed disassembly of the Campbell lineup, utilizing his strong but not overpowering fastball and a wicked changeup to keep the Camels guessing. He allowed just one baserunner in the seventh, then faced the minimum in the eighth thanks to an inning-ending double play. Campbell finally got to the lefty with a double and a home run in the top of the ninth, but he got the final two outs by way of the K to get the last laugh and his first save as a Gaucho.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Flora struck out six Camels over his five innings of work to earn his first win of the season, allowing just three hits and no runs, hitting one batter. Jackson allowed two runs on four hits and one hit batter of his four-inning save, striking out five. The Gauchos did not walk a batter on Saturday.
• Esquer and Vargas each recorded their second consecutive multi-hit games on Saturday, both going 2-for-4. Esquer is hitting .545 through the first two games of the year, Vargas .500.
• Holman's home run on Saturday went 418 feet, 33 further than his Friday night home run, which traveled just 385. He now leads the Gauchos in home runs and owns the longest long ball of the year so far, beating out Mendez's fifth-inning no-doubter by five feet.

 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos and Camels will play the final game of their three-game series on Sunday, Feb. 16, with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m. at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. Calvin Proskey is scheduled to start for Santa Barbara, with left-hander Lleyton Grubich set to oppose him for Campbell. Season and single-game tickets are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com, and kids in sixth grade or below get in free to all Gaucho home games this season with the Yardi Youth Pass. Visit ucsbgauchos.com to learn more. For fans following from afar, the game will be live on ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.