HONOLULU — The No. 15 UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (15-2, 4-0 Big West) leaned on their ace pitcher Friday night, with Tyler Bremner striking out eight Hawai'i (12-5, 1-3 Big West) batters and allowing just one run as the Gauchos took the opening game of their series with the Rainbow Warriors, 2-1. Isaac Kim drove in both of Santa Barbara's runs, and Donovann Jackson nailed down his second save of the season with three innings of scoreless relief.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
It was a good, old-fashioned pitchers' duel on Friday night, with neither starter allowing a run the first time through their opponent's order. The Gaucho defense had Bremner's back in the early going, turning a double play to help Santa Barbara's ace work around a single and a walk in the first, with Bremner punctuating the inning with a strikeout. The righty came back out and nearly took care of the second inning all by himself, ending the frame with two more punchouts. In the third, he struck out two more Rainbow Warriors to move up into ninth place on the Gauchos' career strikeouts leaderboard.
 
On the other side of the ball, Santa Barbara's offense finally cracked Hawai'i's pitching in the top of the fourth, which Jack Holman led off with a double down the right field line. The Gauchos then played situational baseball, with Jonathan Mendez's flyout to right moving Holman to third and Kim's sacrifice fly to center bringing Holman home for a 1-0 Santa Barbara lead.
 
Bremner kept on climbing the Gauchos' strikeout leaderboard in the bottom of the fourth, issuing two more K's to work around a couple of walks and take eighth place in program history. The only blemish on Bremner's ledger came on a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth, but the righty got a measure of revenge by picking a Rainbow Warrior off at first to end the inning afterwards.
 
Santa Barbara's offense got a more meaningful measure of revenge on their pitcher's behalf in the top of the sixth by restoring the lead. Again, the Gauchos led off with a double, this time Cole Kosciusko providing a two-bagger to left field. After Xavier Esquer was hit by a pitch, Holman showed off some wheels by getting down the line fast enough to break up a double play, then stealing second. Kim smacked a single into left for his second RBI of the night, scoring Kosciusko, but it was too shallow for Holman to score, despite the big first baseman being in a running mood. The lead would stay at 2-1.
 
In fact, it would stay that way for the rest of the evening. After a leadoff single in the bottom of the sixth, Esquer made an athletic play at shortstop to take away a hit and nearly managed to turn a double play with Mendez's help but had to settle for the one out. The Gauchos' middle infielders did get their double play on the next batter, turning two to end the inning.
 
Santa Barbara was unlucky not to increase their lead in the top of the seventh, with LeTrey McCollum hitting the Gauchos' third leadoff double of the night. Reiss Calvin bunted him over to third, but Jeremiah Crain's line drive up the middle was snagged by the Hawai'i second baseman to take away a hit, and while Kosciusko's safety squeeze attempt with two outs was a near-perfect bunt, he was beaten by an even better defensive play.
 
Not that the Gaucho pitching staff would need any more runs. Jackson took over for Bremner to start the bottom of the seventh and retired the Rainbow Warriors in order in just two minutes, recording a pair of strikeouts. The crafty lefty then got the first two outs of the eighth on a grand total of three pitches and picked off another Hawai'i runner at first to wipe out a two-out walk.
 
The only real traffic Jackson had to navigate came in the bottom of the ninth. He bounced back from a lead-off walk to get the first out thanks to an over-the-shoulder catch in shallow center by Esquer, and the Gaucho infield nearly turned their third double play of the night to end the game. They had to settle for just getting the lead runner, but then a passed ball and walk put two 'Bows on with two outs. However, Jackson responded by inducing a first-pitch flyout to center to end the game.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• After becoming the 10^th UC Santa Barbara pitcher to record 200 strikeouts in his career last Friday, Tyler Bremner climbed two spots on the Gauchos' all-time strikeouts list with his eight-K outing in Honolulu. He now sits eighth all-time with 210 career punchouts. Steve Lane, a Gaucho from 1992-1995, is ahead of him in seventh, with 213.
• Isaac Kim continued his hot streak with two more RBIs on Friday; he now leads the Gauchos with 17 on the season, 10 of which have come in the last four games.
• Donovann Jackson was impressive out of the bullpen again on Friday, recording his sixth straight scoreless outing. He now has an ERA of just 0.79 in 22 2/3 innings with 24 strikeouts. Friday was his second hitless outing of the season, the first coming on March 1 against Fresno State, also over three innings.
• The Gaucho defense turned two double plays in Friday's game, the fourth time doing so this season. Over the last four games, Santa Barbara has turned six double plays, at least one in each game.

 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara and Hawai'i will play game two of this three-game series on Saturday, March 15 at 9:35 p.m. Pacific Time. The Gauchos have not announced their starter for game two, though sophomore right-hander Jackson Flora would be in line to go; the Rainbow Warriors will send right-hander Liam O'Brien to the mound. A free audio broadcast of the game will be available at ucsbgauchos.com/BSBRadio with live stats available at ucsbgauchos.com/BSBLiveStats.