SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — There was no bad luck for the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (14-2, 4-0 Big West) on this Friday the 13^th, as ace pitcher Jackson Flora twirled a gem and the offense took advantage of some fortunate bounces to put up four runs against UC Davis (7-9, 1-3 Big West) for a 4-0 victory. Friday night's clean sheet is the Gauchos' first of the season and first since April 19, 2025, when Flora himself went the distance to blank the Cal Poly Mustangs in a 4-0 win.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Flora opened the game by winning a seven-pitch at-bat for his first of a season-high 11 strikeouts on the night, then retired the next two Aggie batters on a total of six pitches between them for a perfect first inning. In fact, Flora started his evening with 4 1/3 perfect innings, the first blot a walk in the fifth, which he made up for by striking out the side. It took until the sixth inning for UC Davis to manage a hit, breaking up the no-no with a one-out infield single. And again, Flora responded with another strikeout. He K'ed the side for a second time in the bottom of the seventh, with a two-out infield single in that frame the last hit the Aggies would manage all night. Flora got the first out of the eighth before Raymond Olivas relieved him and retired the final five Davis hitters in order to clinch the Gauchos' 14^th win and first shutout of the season, Flora's nation-leading fifth victory in as many starts, and a joint-team-leading third save for Olivas.
 
On offense, two pair was more than enough for the boys with the bats to back up their ace on the mound. Pretty much everything bounced the Gauchos' way in the top of the second, which Jonathan Mendez started with an infield single back up the middle. Colin Beazizo then opened the scoring with an RBI triple that bounced off an Aggie's glove instead of staying in it, and the Gaucho left fielder had no issues scampering home to double the lead on William Vasseur's infield single back to the pitcher. The only unlucky one in the Santa Barbara order that inning was Nate Vargas, who was thrown out at second after his single took a kind (or unkind to the Gaucho backstop) bounce off the wall; it still took a good throw to get him at second though.
 
In the fifth, another one-out infield single led to two more runs for Santa Barbara, this time Rowan Kelly bouncing one back up the middle that the Aggie shortstop nearly made a barehanded play on. Cole Kosciusko's high, arcing fly ball then dropped just fair inside the left field line for a double to put two Gauchos in scoring position, and Nick Husovsky brought them both home with a double of his own on the very next pitch.
 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara returns to Dobbins Stadium in Davis for game two of this weekend's three-game series on Saturday, March 13 at 6 p.m. Fans can catch all the action live on ESPN+ or by following along with live stats and a free audio-only broadcast at ucsbgauchos.com.