CARY, N.C. — It is becoming a tradition for UC Santa Barbara Baseball's elite sophomore pitchers to spend their summers in North Carolina at this point, as Jackson Flora has accepted an invitation to USA Baseball's Collegiate National Team Training Camp. This is the third year in a row that a Gaucho pitcher has been invited, with Flora joining Matt Ager and Hudson Barrett in 2023 and Tyler Bremner in 2024; both Ager and Bremner accepted their invites and made the final Collegiate National Team roster in their respective years.
 
Flora's invitation to Cary comes after the sophomore broke into the Gauchos' weekend rotation this season and delivered a series of marquee moments in Blue and Gold. The hard-throwing righty started his season with back-to-back six-strikeout, scoreless starts against Campbell and San Diego State. After a rough stretch in March, a long relief outing with eight strikeouts in six innings at Long Beach State got him back in the groove. The Pleasanton native roared back in his next start, pitching seven innings against UC Davis without allowing an earned run, then went one better against Cal Poly on April 19. In the rubber match, Flora became the first Gaucho since 2011 to throw a one-hitter, striking out nine Mustangs in a complete game shutout, the first of his career. He kept on strutting his stuff down the stretch, striking out a career-high 12 hitters in a crucial win over Cal State Fullerton, then punched out 11 Roadrunners to begin the Gauchos' sweep of Cal State Bakersfield on the final weekend of the regular season. He wrapped up the year with 86 strikeouts to just 17 walks over 75 innings of work.
 
Flora will now join 55 other non-draft-eligible college players at Collegiate National Team Training Camp for a five-game Stars vs. Stripes intrasquad series, June 29 through July 3. After the fifth game on July 3, USA Baseball will name the final Collegiate National Team, the squad which will head to Japan for the 45^th USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Championship Series, July 8-13. The remaining players from Training Camp will stay in North Carolina to play a Fourth of July game against the Appalachian League Select Team at Atrium Health Ballpark in Kannapolis.  
 
Atrium Health Ballpark will also host the first of the five Stars vs. Stripes games at 5:35 p.m. Eastern Time on June 29. The next three games will be held at USA Baseball's National Training Complex in Cary, with 6:30 p.m. Eastern first-pitch times. The Stars vs. Stripes finale is set to be played at Segra Stadium in Fayetteville — home of the Fayetteville Woodpeckers and Gaucho alumnus Justin Trimble — at 6:35 p.m. Eastern. First pitch for the Fourth of July game is set for 6:35 p.m. Eastern. For ticket information, visit USABaseball.com, and to follow the Collegiate National Team this summer, check out @USABaseballCNT on Twitter/X and @USABaseball on Instagram.