Skip To Main Content

University of California, Santa Barbara

William Vasseur (26), wearing the Saturday blue uniform with Gauchos in script across his chest, cocks his right arm back to make a throw after fielding a ground ball at second base.
Lexi Brintle // UC Santa Barbara Athletics Intern

Baseball Returns Home, Looks to Bounce Back against Hawai’i

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (14-4, 4-2 Big West) returns to the friendly confines of Caesar Uyesaka Stadium this weekend looking for the comforts of home to reset and rebound after a tough series loss. The Gauchos will host Hawai'i (10-9, 1-5 Big West), March 20-22, before kicking off their Spring Break slate with a road trip up to Moraga and a Tuesday evening meeting with Saint Mary's (11-9, 0-0 West Coast) on March 24.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Santa Barbara was brought back down to earth last weekend, when UC Davis took the final two games of a three-game conference series, snapping the Gauchos' 13-game win streak. The weekend began well, with Gaucho ace Jackson Flora twirling a 7 2/3 inning, two-hit, 11-strikeout gem in a 4-0 win, an outing which earned the presumptive first-round draft pick National Team of the Week honors from Baseball America. Flora's Friday start was the best in the nation by game score, a sabermetric measurement of pitcher performance, clocking in at 84 in D1Baseball's Friday Stat Roundup. Colin Beazizo drew a number of impressed eyes over the weekend as well, including those of D1Baseball's Eric Sorensen, going 5-for-11 with three walks across three starts in left field. His RBI triple scored the game-winning run on Friday night.
 
Despite the series loss, the Gauchos still bear the marks of a great team. Santa Barbara dropped in the NCAA Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) rankings, but only down to seventh. Their 2.91 team ERA still leads The Big West and ranks eighth nationwide, while their .300 team batting average also tops the conference and sits just outside the top 50 teams in the country. Flora's personal ERA, down to 1.15 after his stellar Friday, puts him 21st out of 200 qualified Division-I pitchers.
 
SCOUTING THE RAINBOW WARRIORS
Hawai'i is coming off of a similarly frustrating weekend in Long Beach: a dominant 11-1 win on Friday night followed by a pair of one-run losses, 7-6 on Saturday and 2-1 on Sunday. After being swept by Cal Poly on the first weekend of conference play, the Rainbow Warriors have just one conference victory and enter the weekend in a tie for last place in the standings.
 
However, they too bear the marks of a tough opponent; while the Gauchos' ERA is best in the conference, Hawai'i is close behind in second with a 3.11 mark, good for 11th in the country. Their three shutouts, ninth-most in the country, have contributed to that mark, as has Sunday starter Liam O'Brien. The senior leads a weekend rotation whose ERAs are all under four with a 2.86 mark. Friday's game promises to be an elite pitching duel, as Isaiah Magdaleno will oppose Flora on the mound. In 7 2/3 innings across three games against Santa Barbara in 2025, Magdaleno allowed three total baserunners, just one hit, no runs and struck out 10 Gauchos.
 
SCOUTING THE GAELS
The Saint Mary's squad that brought a 10-5 record in Caesar Uyesaka Stadium nine days ago now stands just two games over .500 at 11-9, having lost three of four (two to Grand Canyon and one to Rice) last weekend in Arizona. Like the Gauchos, they will be looking to reset and rebound at home, as they host 4-16 Pepperdine in their West Coast Conference opener before welcoming Santa Barbara to town.
 
Saint Mary's will need its mercurial pitching staff to perform more like the group that shut out CSUN twice and held Creighton to two runs earlier this season than the group that allowed 12 runs to CSUN and 11 to Creighton in those same series. When they visited Santa Barbara, none of the four pitchers who took the mound for the Gaels escaped without giving up multiple runs.
 
The offense has been more reliable for Saint Mary's. Lost in the 10-run defeat last Tuesday was third baseman Brady Petit's 2-for-4 day that included a double and catcher Ian Armstrong's 3-for-3 day that included a triple and a run scored. The team's top two hitters, corner outfielders Jacob Johnson (.439 average on the season) and Diego Castellanos (.405 average on the season) also both got hits against the Gauchos.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
First pitch times are set for 4:35 p.m. Friday, 3:05 p.m. Saturday and 1:05 p.m. Sunday against the Rainbow Warriors. The first 200 fans to Caesar Uyesaka Stadium on Friday can pick up a pair of Gaucho sunglasses thanks to weekend sponsor Santa Barbara Airport, and kids can run the bases following Sunday's game. Tickets are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets.
 
When the Gauchos visit Saint Mary's on Tuesday, first pitch will be at 4 p.m. from Louis Guisto Field in Moraga. All four of this weekend's games will also be live on ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.
 
Print Friendly Version

Related Videos

Related Stories