MORAGA, Calif. — It was a bullpen day Tuesday afternoon in Moraga, and the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (15-7) got the horns from Saint Mary's (13-11). The Gauchos scored runs off of two of the nine Gaels pitchers who took the mound on Tuesday, while only two of Santa Barbara's six arms managed to keep the hosts from scoring in the 10-4 loss. The two who managed to solve the Saint Mary's bats were both making their collegiate debuts — Hudson Aber and Kole Laubach.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
An error on the very first pitch of the game set the tone for the Gauchos' evening, keeping the first inning alive despite back-to-back strikeouts and setting up a two-run home run to put the home team ahead. A hit batter, a walk and a single made it 3-0 in the bottom of the second.
 
Santa Barbara got two of those runs back in the top of the third, with singles from Corey Nunez and Rowan Kelly setting the table for Cole Kosciusko's two-RBI hit up the middle to make it 3-2.
 
That one-run margin lasted all of one out in the bottom of the third, when a lead-off double set up an RBI bunt single to make the score 4-2. After a walk loaded the bases, a two-out single plated two more runs to stretch the Gaels' lead to 6-2.
 
The Gauchos settled in the middle frames, with AJ Krodel and Nic Peterson keeping Saint Mary's off the board in the fourth and fifth innings, but the offense was not able to chip away at the deficit. Back-to-back walks to start the sixth only made Santa Barbara's task harder, as both came around to score on an RBI single. Another Gael home run made it 10-2 before the inning was up.
 
Despite plenty of action in the top of the seventh, the Gauchos were only able to scratch across one run, on Nico Libed's two-out, bases-loaded walk. The silver lining on the afternoon, at least on the mound, was that Santa Barbara's two debutants kept Saint Mary's from scoring any more runs. Aber pitched the seventh and into the eighth for his first collegiate action, collecting his first career K to end the seventh. True freshman Laubach took over to finish the eighth, working out of a runners-on-the-corners, one-out jam and picking up his first career strikeout as well.
 
The Gauchos scored their final run on a Noah Karliner homer in the top of the eighth, a towering shot that was never in doubt, leaving the bat at 110 mph and traveling 407 feet out to left field.
 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara returns home this weekend. With a bye week in The Big West schedule, the Gauchos will host No. 20 Oregon, who they last welcomed to town during the 2024 NCAA Santa Barbara Regional. First pitch times against the Ducks are scheduled for 4:35 p.m. on Friday, March 27, 3:05 p.m. on Saturday, March 28 and 12:05 p.m. on Sunday, March 29. Sunday is Youth Day at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium; kids 13 and under will get to run the bases following the game and Gaucho student-athletes will sign autographs. Tickets are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets.