SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — For the third Friday in a row, Jackson Flora did his thing on the mound for the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (6-2), striking out 10 over seven innings of one-run ball in the Gauchos' series opener against Utah (4-3). And on this particular Friday, the hitters joined in the party, putting up their highest run total of the young season in a 7-2 victory. Cole Kosciusko and Rowan Kelly both had two-hit games, while Nate Vargas smacked his first home run of the season.  
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Santa Barbara followed the old adage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," repeating the formula from Flora's last two starts of scoring in the first inning. After Kelly led off the game with an infield single and Cade Goldstein's sacrifice bunt attempt forced an error which allowed him to reach first safely, a pair of two-out walks earned the Gauchos their first run. It was Jonathan Mendez and then Noah Karliner with the good eyes at the dish, the former loading the bases and the latter forcing home Kelly.
 
The scoring continued in the second with another two-out rally, this time started by Kelly walking. Goldstein put runners on the corners with a two-out single, then stole second. Kosciusko was able to loft a blooper right over Utah's first baseman and down the right field line for a two-RBI double, scoring both Kelly and Goldstein.
 
And the way that Flora was pitching, the Gauchos' 3-0 lead would have been plenty. The righty was perfect through his first two innings, then got a great play behind him to start the third inning, with William Vasser snaring a 100-mph line drive out of the air at third base. A pair of strikeouts for Flora helped him work around a one-out single and two-out walk. There was just one moment, in the top of the fourth, where he looked like anything other than a presumed first-round pick in this summer's Major League Baseball Draft, as a lead-off walk and one-out single turned into a run as the Gauchos missed a chance at an inning-ending double play. But even then, Flora met the moment. With Utes on the corners and still just one out, he fired in his fifth strikeout of the game, and after a stolen base put two in scoring position with two outs, strikeout number six ended the inning.
 
It was back to business as usual in the fifth, with a lead-off single the only Ute baserunner. Flora allowed just a two-out single in the sixth, then finished his evening with a perfect seventh. Van Froling finished the game in relief, allowing a run in the eighth on a leadoff single, wild pitch and RBI groundout, but then set down the side in order in the ninth.
 
And by the eighth inning, that second Utah run did nothing to loosen Santa Barbara's grip on the game. In the fifth inning, the Gauchos scored four runs on four hits to make their way well clear of the visitors. It started with Kosciusko's single up the middle, then a double from Nick Husovsky to get them on second and third. Mendez drove home Kosciusko with a groundout, then Vasseur brought Huskovsky to the dish with a single between the third baseman and shortstop. And to cap it all off, Vargas cracked a no-doubt, two-out, two-run homer deep down the right field line. That 7-1 lead held until the Utes made it 7-2 in the eighth, which stood as the evening's final score.
 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara and Utah return to the field for game two of the series on Saturday, Feb. 28 at 3:05 p.m. from Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. Nathan Aceves is set to start for the Gauchos, facing Payton Riske for Utah. Tickets are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com, and fans can catch the action from anywhere, live on ESPN+.