FULLERTON, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (29-14, 13-11 Big West) heads to Goodwin Field for a three-game series against Cal State Fullerton (23-21, 14-7 Big West) this weekend, a series which will massively influence whether the Gauchos return to the same venue for The Big West Championship at the end of the month. Santa Barbara enters the weekend in fourth, two and a half games behind the Titans in The Big West standings. UC San Diego and Hawai'i, the two teams chasing the Gauchos, both hold the tiebreaker over Santa Barbara, leaving little margin for error. On the flip side, if the Gauchos could leapfrog the Titans and finish in third, they would avoid having to play a play-in game on the opening day of the tournament.
 
Following their series in Orange County, Santa Barbara will return to Caesar Uyesaka Stadium for their final mid-week game of the season, hosting USC (30-14) on May 6.
 
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO
Plan to Park in Lot 22 — 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. Lot 27, in front of the Thunderdome, will also be available. 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 find themselves in a fight for their postseason lives after dropping a frustrating series at UC San Diego last weekend. The offense was effective enough, tallying 18 runs over the three games, but Santa Barbara allowed an uncharacteristically high 22 runs in the same span. Silver linings for the Gauchos came on Monday at the University of San Diego. Hudson Barrett not only made his return to the mound but pitched excellently, a perfect inning on just 11 pitches, his velocity touching 95 mph. The electric lefty will be a welcome addition in the Santa Barbara bullpen for the stretch run, as will the version of Frank Camarillo who the Gauchos saw on Monday night. The junior delivered 6 1/3 innings of strong relief and could be a viable starter option if Santa Barbara has to take the long way through The Big West Championship's double-elimination bracket. At the plate, Nate Vargas was strong all weekend in San Diego, hitting three home runs and two doubles in the four games. Rowan Kelly continued his strong rookie campaign too, going 6-for-14 on the trip. He is now batting .391 in Big West games, the best of any qualified Gaucho.
 
SCOUTING THE TITANS
Cal State Fullerton has quietly made the turnaround of the season in The Big West this year. After finishing 10^th in the conference with just seven Big West wins in 2024, the Titans enter the weekend in third, having already doubled their conference win total. However, Fullerton's conference schedule is backloaded; after playing the Gauchos this weekend, the Titans finish the year with series against Hawai'i and UC Irvine. In their series against second-place Cal Poly and fifth-place UC San Diego, they managed just one win, salvaging the final game against the Tritons.
 
Still, the Titans are not to be underestimated. They have a reliable offense, with five every-day players batting .300 or better, and they excel at turning baserunners into runs. Fullerton batters have dropped down a total of 30 sacrifice bunts this season, which ranks 27^th in all of college baseball. To go along with their situational hitting, they have a knack for finding extra bases, ranking 10^th nationally in triples (18) and 47^th in doubles (91). One way or another, the Titans manage to get Andrew Kirchner up in clutch situations often, and he frequently delivers. The first baseman is The Big West's RBI leader, with 56, and he also ranks second in the conference with 10 home runs. His bat, which has never taken a day out of the Fullerton lineup, is one the Gauchos will need to silence.
 
The mound is a different case for the Titans, who have only one qualified pitcher (at least one inning pitched per game played by the team): Friday starter Mikiah Negrete. Negrete has gone at least five innings in all 11 of his starts, but he is yet to post a scoreless outing, with a 4.68 ERA coming into the weekend. Opponents are batting .268 off of him, and he has 26 walks to 56 strikeouts. Outside of Negrete, seven different Titans have made multiple starts, but only one of them, Jason Blood, has an ERA under five. Blood's sits just under that threshold, at 4.62, though he has featured in all three of Fullerton's shutouts this season. However, at the other end of the equation, the Titans do have one of the best closers in The Big West: conference saves leader Andrew Wright. In 21 appearances, Wright has a 0.82 ERA and nine saves
 
SCOUTING THE TROJANS
Since the Gauchos last saw USC, the Trojans have gone 21-11 and enter this weekend riding a seven-game win streak. However, this weekend sees them put that win streak on the line against their cross-town rivals, No. 14 UCLA. When the Gauchos and Trojans got together in March, USC had just lost a non-conference game against the Bruins, and Santa Barbara added insult to that injury with a dominant 8-1 win.  
 
Nathan Aceves and the Gaucho pitching staff effectively smothered the Trojan offense in that March 4 win, but they will have to work hard to do it again. As a team, USC has the third-most hits and the most triples of anyone in the Big Ten, with third baseman and closer Ethan Hedges owning five of those three-baggers to lead the team and rank 11^th nationally. Hedges also ranks in the top 100 hitters nation-wide in slugging percentage and total hits, while leading the Trojans in RBIs. Hedges also walks a lot, but not more than teammate Brayden Dowd, who has worked 39 free passes this season, the 35^th-most in the country.
 
While Hedges powers the offense, he also plays a key role on the USC pitching staff, which is their real strength. As a team, the Trojans rank 40^th in hits allowed per nine innings, 41^st in strikeout-to-walk ratio and 42^nd in strikeouts per nine innings. Andrew Johnson got five of his six outs by way of the K last time he saw the Gauchos, while Jude Favela and Tee Southisene also pitched at least one inning while holding Santa Barbara scoreless back in March. However, the Gauchos tagged Jackson Baker for three runs, Sax Matson for two unearned tallies and Andrew Harbour for three more in that same game.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
First pitch times from Fullerton's Goodwin Field are set for 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 2, 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 3 and 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 4. When the Gauchos host USC at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium on May 6, that game will begin at 4:35 p.m. All four games will be live on ESPN+ with live stats and an audio broadcast available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
Tickets for Santa Barbara's tussle with the Trojans are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets, and the first 300 fans in attendance will receive a t-shirt replica of the Gauchos' Isla Vista jerseys.