RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (23-10, 9-8 Big West) repeated the trick of Friday night on Saturday, with all nine starting batters recording hits as the Gauchos rolled to an 18-8 win over UC Riverside (12-21, 3-14 Big West). Jonathan Mendez and Nate Vargas both homered, with Mendez racking up five RBIs on the night. On the mound, Calvin Proskey was his usual self, earning the win for six innings of work, allowing just two runs.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
For the second night in a row, Santa Barbara put up a crooked number in the first inning, helped by Xavier Esquer and LeTrey McCollum being plunked by the first two pitches of the game. Cole Kosciusko drove Esquer home with a worm-burner that got under the Highlander shortstop's glove, then Mendez smashed a three-run homer to left field, his team-leading seventh of the season.
 
In the second, Reiss Calvin led off with a single and after Nolan Farley bunted him over to second, Calvin scored on McCollum's two-out single up the middle. After Kosciusko walked, Mendez doubled to bring home both him and McCollum, putting the Gauchos on top, 7-0.
 
The game settled a bit after the second. Proskey had set the Highlanders down in order in the first and worked around a hit batter and single in the second, thanks to a pair of strikeouts and a pick off at first. In the third, his long scoreless streak came to an end on a two-out, two-run homer, but his offense did get him those two runs back over the next two innings.
 
In the fourth, Esquer led off with a double then scored on Kosciusko's triple that banged off the top of the center field wall. In the fifth, Esquer was involved again. Liam Barrett had singled to lead off the inning and made his way to second on a groundout, meaning he was in scoring position when Esquer hit a single to the opposite field in right center, restoring Santa Barbara's seven-run lead at 9-2.
 
Having bounced back from the homer with a perfect fourth inning, Proskey set the Highlanders down in order again in the fifth, then watched his offense break the game even further open in the top of the sixth.
 
Vargas put the Gauchos into double digits with a one-out oppo-taco home run to left, and Santa Barbara kept the fun going later with a two-out rally. Walks to Rowan Kelly, Calvin and Farley loaded the bases, then Esquer hit a firm grounder towards first base that caused chaos. The UCR first baseman made a good effort to glove it but his throw was away from the covering pitcher; Esquer was credited with an infield single that scored the lead runner, Kelly, but thanks to the overthrow, Calvin was able to score too. The next man up, McCollum, drove a double deep into the gap in left center to plate both Esquer and Farley, making the score 14-2 Gauchos.
 
A triple and an error led to an unearned run for UCR in the bottom of the sixth, but Proskey punctuated his night with a strikeout, his eighth of the game. The Santa Barbara bullpen's path to getting the last nine outs of the game was not the prettiest, but their offense had given them plenty of margin for error. Nic Peterson allowed a run on walk and a double in the seventh, but also struck out two Highlanders. After a hit batter and a single in the eighth, Elliot Gallegos was summoned to take over. One of the runners he inherited scored after a walk and an infield single, but back-to-back punchouts got Gallegos out of the inning.
 
In the top of the ninth, the Gaucho offense provided their pitchers even more run support to work with. Kosciusko led off with a double and scored on Vargas' RBI single, then a walk to Kelly and a single from Barrett loaded the bases. Calvin got an RBI when he hustled down the line to break up a double play, with Vargas scoring on the play, then Farley crushed a double off the wall in left center, just missing his first collegiate home run. He would have to settle for just two RBIs, as both Kelly and Calvin scored.
 
Two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases for UCR in the bottom of the ninth, but the Gauchos got two outs in the process. Before they got the third though, an infield single and error scored two runs, then a wild pitch scored a third for the Highlanders. Carson Timothy came in and ended the game with a backwards K.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• The 18 runs that Santa Barbara scored on Saturday are the most the Gauchos have totaled in a single game this season, though their 10-run margin of victory is one shy of their biggest win of the year; a 13-2 triumph at Pepperdine in February. The last time the Gauchos scored 18 runs in a game was on May 24, 2024, when they hung 20 runs on UC Riverside.
• Last season's series against UCR was also the last time that the Gauchos have scored 30 or more combined runs in the first two games of a series; the last time they scored even 20 runs in the first two games of a road series was April 8 and 9, 2022 at CSUN.
• Proskey's final line on Saturday read 6 innings pitched, 4 hits, three runs, only two of them earned, one walk and eight strikeouts as he recorded his fifth quality start in the last six games. The third-inning home run brought his scoreless streak to an end at 16 2/3 innings, meaning Donovann Jackson still holds the longest scoreless streak of the year for Santa Barbara at 19 1/3 innings, from Feb. 15 to March 21.
• Six of the top seven batters in the Santa Barbara order had multi-hit games on Saturday, with Esquer's 3-for-6 leading the team. Esquer has the most multi-hit games of any Gaucho, with 15 on the season. McCollum's 2-for-5 night extended his on-base streak to 29 games.

 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara will look to complete the sweep on Sunday, April 13, as the series finale is set to begin at 2 p.m. from the Riverside Sports Complex. The game will be live on ESPN+ with live stats and an audio broadcast available through ucsbgauchos.com.