MORAGA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (15-7, 4-5 Big West) begins a five-game road trip on Tuesday, as the Gauchos travel to Moraga for a mid-week clash with Saint Mary's (12-11). Santa Barbara then heads down to face Long Beach State (8-15, 2-7 Big West) in a three-game series March 28-30 before rounding out the away stretch in Los Angeles against Loyola Marymount (14-10, 2-1 West Coast) on April 1.

LAST TIME OUT
The Gauchos are looking to bounce back and snap a five-game losing streak after being swept by UC Irvine over the weekend; a repeat of their last Tuesday performance, an 8-4 win over San Diego, would certainly help. A win in Moraga would also give Santa Barbara a measure of revenge after the Gaels won the first meeting of the year, 5-1, at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium in February. Jack Holman provided the Gauchos' only run in that Feb. 18 matchup with a solo home run. On the mound, Nathan Aceves made his collegiate debut in that game, throwing a perfect ninth inning. He is scheduled to get the start on Tuesday in Moraga.
 
The last time the Gauchos saw the Dirtbags, they swept Long Beach State in three games, with Tyler Bremner throwing four scoreless, hitless innings in relief on Friday, Jackson Flora working 3 2/3 scoreless innings of relief on Saturday and Cole Tryba pitching four innings to earn the win out of the bullpen on Sunday.
 
Santa Barbara's last meeting with LMU snapped a six-game winning streak against the Lions, though the Gauchos' last visit to Page Stadium was a victorious one, their 8-1 defeat of USC earlier this season.
 
SCOUTING THE GAELS
Saint Mary's has gone 8-10 in the 18 games since the Gauchos last saw them, most recently dropping a three-game series to Creighton in a snowy Omaha over the weekend thanks to 6-2 and 6-5 losses in a Sunday doubleheader.
 
Diego Castellanos, one of two Gaels who did serious damage to Santa Barbara in their last game, has been doing damage to pretty much everyone else this year too, maintaining a .356 batting average and 1.031 on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS) with 18 RBIs. But his average is good for just third on the team, as Cody Kashimoto is hitting .403, with Eddie Madrigal batting .370 as well. Madrigal also leads the team in OPS (1.154) and RBIs (25).
 
On the mound, Dylan Delvecchio has gone from the Gaels' Tuesday starter to a key piece of their weekend rotation since throwing two scoreless innings against the Gauchos. He and his 3.00 ERA, the best of any Gael to throw more than 10 innings, are unlikely to feature this time around, having worked six innings at Creighton on Saturday. Justin Santiago, the righty who shut out the Gauchos over the final three innings in February, pitched three innings in the Gaels' last Tuesday game as well, albeit with vastly different results, giving up four runs on seven hits to California.
 
SCOUTING THE DIRTBAGS
Long Beach State won for just the second time in their last 10 games on Sunday, shutting out UC San Diego, 10-0, in La Jolla for just their second Big West win of the season. However, their first three conference opponents have been the cream of the crop: the UC Irvine team that just swept the Gauchos, the Cal Poly squad that recorded wins at then-No. 1 Texas A&M and against No. 6 Oregon State, and then the Tritons. The Dirtbags will not play a mid-week game before hosting the Gauchos.
 
On the mound, only Kellen Montgomery has started in every weekend series for Long Beach State, though he has been less than effective, bringing a 6.26 ERA into this weekend. He got tagged for six runs on eight hits, four of them home runs, against UC San Diego on Saturday in just two innings. On Friday, Albert Roblez went four innings, giving up two runs, and on Sunday Owen Geiss pitched the first 6 2/3 innings of the Dirtbags' shutout.
 
Long Beach has a more solid trio at the plate, with Alex Champagne, Armando Briseno and Kyle Ashworth all hitting above .300. Champagne leads the squad with a .345 average, while Ashworth and Briseno are tied for the team lead in OPS at .911. Ashworth holds the team RBI lead with 18, one ahead of Briseno. In last season's series, Champagne went 1-for-9 over the series while Briseno went 0-for-3 in his one game. Ashworth went 5-for-12 with two RBIs, on the other hand.
 
SCOUTING THE LIONS
LMU won two of their three games against San Diego over the weekend and has dates with UCLA (March 25) and Portland (March 28-30) before hosting the Gauchos. Five of the six mid-week games that the Lions have already played have been against Big West teams, with the sixth being against future Big West member California Baptist; the Lions are 4-2 in mid-week contests, with wins over Long Beach State, UC Riverside, CBU and CSUN and losses to Cal Poly and Long Beach State.
 
LMU gave up four runs in the bottom of the seventh and three more in the bottom of the eighth against the Dirtbags last Tuesday to lose, 9-6, with the trio of Adam Behrens, Austin Schroeder and Sam Brady surrendering those runs on the mound. The late collapse ruined what had been the best start of freshman Zach Bender's young collegiate career, the rookie going three hitless innings to kick off the game. A week earlier, senior Oregon transfer Jacob Hughes allowed a run without the benefit of a hit, walking five CSUN hitters in just 1 2/3 innings.
 
At the plate, the Lions have one very big bat in the shape of redshirt junior Grand Canyon transfer Beau Ankeney and his eight home runs. LMU's first baseman leads them in both average and OPS, at .384 and 1.152 respectively, and is coming off a two-homer game against San Diego on Friday. He also has 31 RBIs, 12 more than the next Lion. In fact, the only area where Ankeney lags behind his teammates is in stolen basepaths. As expected of a Donegal Fergus-coached team, LMU loves to steal. The Lions have attempted 62 stolen bases through 24 games, succeeding 54 times. Cam Hassert is the team's top thief, a perfect 9-of-9. To add to the danger, he is also second on the squad in both average and OPS, at .329 and .991.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Santa Barbara's matchup with Saint Mary's will begin at 3 p.m. from Louis Guisto Field in Moraga on Tuesday, March 25 and will be broadcast on ESPN+. First pitch times against Long Beach State at Blair Field are set for 6 p.m. on both March 28 and 29, though the March 28 game will not be available on ESPN+. The series finale with the Dirtbags will begin at 1 p.m. on March 30, and the Gauchos' April 1 matchup with LMU from Page Stadium is set for 6 p.m. With the exception of the March 28 game at Long Beach State, the Gauchos' games will be broadcast on ESPN+ and all five will have a free audio broadcast and live stats available at ucsbgauchos.com.