SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The No. 20 UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (9-1) showed one of the marks of a great team on Saturday, winning despite pretty much everything going wrong for them. The Gauchos raced out to a 6-0 first-inning lead against Fresno State (4-6), only to watch it disappear, but they fought back to force extra innings and then walk off as 8-7 winners thanks to Xavier Esquer's game-winning double.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The game hardly looked like one that would require heroics at the start, as starter Jackson Flora blazed through the Bulldogs in the top of the first. The sophomore righty touched 100 mph on the radar gun and was one pitch away from an immaculate inning, striking out the side on 10 pitches, none of them balls.
 
Things got even better for the Gauchos in the bottom of the first, as they mounted a monster two-out rally to score six runs. Jonathan Mendez's one-out double got things started, with Nathan Vargas driving him home with a two-out single. Cole Kosciusko was next in the hit parade, driving a single up the middle. Isaac Kim scored Vargas with an RBI single to left, and LeTrey McCollum was hit by a pitch to load the bases and extend the inning. Rex DeAngelis then cracked a double deep into the right field corner, narrowly missing a home run. Instead, he drove home two Gaucho runs, with McCollum scoring and DeAngelis taking third on an errant throw by Fresno's cutoff man. Corey Nunez then singled into right field to score DeAngelis on the very next pitch.
 
However, the Bulldogs had no intentions of rolling over, and Mother Nature seemed to have put her lot in with the visitors. The wind, which may have helped keep DeAngelis' first-inning double in the yard, helped the Fresno leadoff batter put a ball over the fence to start the top of the second. Hitting the next batter did the Gauchos no favors, especially when that batter stole second. He would come around to score on a two-out double.
 
The wind on their side or not, the Bulldogs had the momentum after setting the Gauchos down in order in the bottom of the second, and Flora had to work around another Fresno double in the top of the third to keep it at 6-2. The Gauchos went in order again in the third, and there was more trouble in the top of the fourth. The Bulldogs smacked a leadoff triple to left that just kept carrying and carrying until it bounced off the wall. The next batter up drove a home run out to right (that was leaving the yard with or without the wind), making it 6-4. Two batters later, the Bulldogs put another ball up into the jet stream, and it stayed up there until it had cleared the left field wall.
 
The Gauchos ended the inning with their lead still intact but could not manufacture any more runs in their half of the fourth. After the top of the fifth, the lead was gone. Another home run to left field, this one a two-run shot, put the visitors up, 7-6. But in the bottom of the fifth, Santa Barbara got their bats going again and answered right back. Vargas led off with a single, then moved to third on Kim's one-out single. McCollum doubled down the left field line to score Vargas, but Kim was called out at home after a strong relay throw. The Gauchos would have to settle for one run in the frame.
 
The top of the sixth started with a new arm on the mound, as Donovann Jackson relieved Flora. He worked around a hit batter to keep the game tied, then did the same in the top of the seventh. In the top of the eighth, Jackson worked around two walks with the help of a 5-4-3 double play to keep the game tied.
 
Nathan Aceves relieved Jackson in the top of the ninth and immediately found himself in a tough spot. An error and a single put two Bulldogs on without an out, but a lineout to first kept the runners put while getting an out on the board. The right-handed Aceves was then lifted for lefty Van Froling, who got the left-handed Bulldog he was set to face to ground out. After an intentional walk, Froling took advantage of the more favorable matchup, inducing an inning-ending flyout.
 
The Gauchos nearly walked things off in the bottom of the ninth, loading the bases with two outs, but the game ended up in extra innings, where again Froling had work to do. A one-out single and a sacrifice bunt put a Fresno runner in scoring position, and a wild pitch moved that Bulldog to third. But Froling got a big strikeout to strand him there and turn things over to his offense again.
 
Santa Barbara would not waste their opportunity this time, and they finally managed to get Mother Nature on their side for once. DeAngelis was hit by a pitch, and when Esquer popped up a pitch towards right center field with two outs, DeAngelis was running all the way. Fortunately for the Gauchos, none of the Bulldog fielders could spot the ball, and it landed safely on the grass, and DeAngelis scored the winning run.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• In the first inning, UC Santa Barbara's TrackMan system recorded Jackson Flora throwing a 100-mph pitch — an 0-2 pitch that was fouled away to deny Flora a potential immaculate inning. It is the first verifiable 100-mph pitch thrown by a Gaucho, despite an exuberant radar gun clocking Flora at 102 mph last weekend in San Diego.
• The four home runs that Santa Barbara allowed are the most against them in a game since last April's visit to California Baptist, when the Lancers hit five to hand the Gauchos a 9-6 loss. The last time Santa Barbara allowed four or more homers in a win was a 7-6 win at Pepperdine on Feb. 26, 2021.

 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos and Bulldogs will conclude this three-game series on Sunday, March 2 at 1:05 p.m. from Caesar Uyesaka Stadium, with Santa Barbara's Calvin Proskey set to pitch against Fresno State's Aidan Cremarosa. Tickets are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets, and kids in sixth grade and 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 at ucsbgauchos.com/BSBLiveStats.