SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — If last weekend's trip to Hawai'i was the biggest road series of the season for the No. 21 UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (15-4, 4-2 Big West), this weekend's three-game set against UC Irvine (14-5, 5-1 Big West) could very well be the biggest home series of the Gauchos' season. The Anteaters were one of just two Big West squads to beat Santa Barbara last year and come in riding a five-game winning streak in conference play. The Gauchos come in as the preseason favorites to repeat as conference champions but are looking to bounce back after a frustrating series loss last weekend. Santa Barbara will also be looking for a measure of revenge after UCI won each of the last two series between these two teams.
 
Fans attending Friday's series opener will receive a free Gaucho blanket, while supplies last.
 
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO
Parking Impacts to Lot 30 — Due to ongoing construction, parking in Lot 30 next to Caesar Uyesaka Stadium will be extremely limited. Fans are encouraged to park in Lot 22, the garage next to the Thunderdome. UC Santa Barbara Athletics will provide assistance getting to and from the ballpark for seniors and people with mobility issues.
 
Introducing the Yardi Youth Pass — In partnership with Yardi Systems, UC Santa Barbara is offering free admission to all home baseball games for young Gauchos in 6^th grade or below. Tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, beginning 60 minutes prior to each game from the Yardi Youth Pass table outside the front gate of Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. Availability may be limited due to the stadium's capacity.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos saw their 25-game Big West winning streak snapped at Hawai'i last weekend, dropping the last two games of the three-game series. Sunday's 1-0 defeat did have a silver lining, in that Calvin Proskey delivered another quality performance on the mound. After going six innings with five strikeouts against CSUN on March 9, Proskey went 6 1/3 with nine strikeouts last Sunday, his second quality start in a row. Tyler Bremner was also strong on Friday in Honolulu, issuing a season-high eight strikeouts over six innings of one-run ball. Donovann Jackson was excellent out of the bullpen after Bremner, earning his second save of the season with three shutout frames. Jackson now ranks 11^th among all qualified Division I pitchers with a 0.79 ERA and 18^th with a 0.79 WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) over seven appearances. On offense, the Gauchos will be looking for more consistency this weekend after plating seven of their nine runs last weekend in just one game. LeTrey McCollum and Jonathan Mendez swung Santa Barbara's best bats over the weekend, and McCollum is batting .500 in conference play so far.
 
SCOUTING THE ANTEATERS
UC Irvine joined UC Santa Barbara in the NCAA Tournament last season, the first time since 2017 that two Big West teams made the field, and the Anteaters entered 2025 as the Gauchos' main title rivals. The two sides are something of a foil for each other; whereas Santa Barbara's success is built on pitching first, Irvine's has been built around their hitters, a contrast exemplified by the two teams' stars: Gaucho ace pitcher Tyler Bremner and Anteater slugger Anthony Martinez. Bremner and Martinez were both selected to USA Baseball's Collegiate National Team last summer, and D1Baseball projected them to be The Big West Pitcher and Player of the Year, respectively, ahead of this season.
 
While Martinez is the talisman of an Anteater offense that ranks 21^st nationally in scoring, 36^th in slugging percentage and 57^th in batting average — leading the conference in all those categories — he has not quite returned to his form of last season after missing the first two weeks with an injury. Instead, the trio of Jacob McCombs, Colin Yeaman and Chase Call have been leading the line for UCI, all three owning batting averages north of .300 and on-base-plus-slugging percentages over 1.000. McCombs leads the team in nearly every offensive category, coming into the weekend with a .383 average, 1.252 OPS, nine doubles, three triples, six home runs and 24 RBI. He has also been hit by a pitch nine times, something the Anteaters do extremely well. UCI ranks third nationally, having been plunked 60 times this season.
 
Like how the Gauchos have a strong offense to back up their stellar pitching, the Anteaters have a strong rotation to back up their stellar offense. UCI generally takes a whole-staff approach to getting through a weekend, with only Trevor Hansen — who started out as their Sunday starter but took the ball on Saturday last weekend — pitching over 19 innings coming into the weekend, owning a 4.10 ERA and 1.29 WHIP with 25 strikeouts to eight walks in 26 1/3 innings. Aside from Hansen, six different Anteaters have started at least one game this season, with Riley Kelly drawing the start in the opening game last weekend and Ryder Brooks starting on Sunday. Both Kelly and Brooks went four innings; Ricky Ojeda pitched five shutout frames in relief of Kelly.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
First pitch times are set for 4:35 p.m. on Friday, 3:05 p.m. on Saturday and 1:05 p.m. on Sunday at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. Tickets are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets, and for fans following from afar all three games will be live on ESPN+. An audio broadcast and live stats of all three games are also available for free at ucsbgauchos.com.