SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (16-9) proved its pitching credentials against No. 20 Oregon (23-5) and its top-30 offense, holding the Ducks to just two runs on Sunday. Starter Kellen Montgomery's seven strikeouts over 4 1/3 innings contributed massively to that success, as did AJ Krodel's sparkling three innings of scoreless relief. However, the Gauchos' mercurial offense was unable to solve their visitors' pitching in return and dropped the series finale, 2-0, despite two swings that nearly left the yard in the bottom of the ninth.
 
While the offense remains in search of its mojo, Santa Barbara's pitching staff can take plaudits for holding an Oregon lineup that entered the weekend averaging 8.9 runs per game to just eight over three games. As Gauchos Head Coach Andrew Checketts highlighted postgame, both sides scored eight runs over the weekend, his team just scored theirs on the wrong day. The 1960 New York Yankees can relate.
 
QUOTABLE
From head coach Andrew Checketts: "You know, positives, (Cole) Tryba back doing his thing and looking normal, AJ (Krodel) pitching to I think what he's capable of," Checketts said. "He hasn't done that this year, as good as his stuff is and being in zone and throwing the ball well, I thought that that was something we can take away from it.
 
That was (Krodel's) best of this year. We know he's capable of doing that, he's got good stuff, so that was nice to see. Him and Tryba, for us to be good, they've got to be good at the back end of the game and they both were this weekend."
 
"I've been doing it 25 years, unfortunately I've been here before, this isn't the first time I've been on a team that struggled to score runs," Checketts said. "The best way to get through it is make sure that we keep getting better, stick together.
 
I think there's enough good hitters in there, you know? We don't have crazy power, we don't have crazy speed, so that means you better get on base, you better have the ability to get some hits. I think we're better than that, for sure.
 
When you're struggling to get hits, you're hoping that they hit one out of the ballpark, and Karliner just missed his and Husovsky just pulls it foul. We needed a little magic there and it didn't show up."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Checketts revealed postgame that he and his staff have pushed Montgomery to pitch with greater intent early in games, and they certainly got what they wanted from the hometown hero on Sunday. The Dos Pueblos alumnus charged out of the gates with back-to-back strikeouts to start the day, and the baseball gods seemed to acknowledge his effort and help him out on a two-out double that got lodged under the fence in the left-field corner with a runner on first. The unplayable ball made it an automatic double, which importantly held the lead runner to third base. A groundout to first got Montgomery out of the jam unscathed. He punched out two more Ducks in a perfect second, then collected his fifth K of the day to end a scoreless third.
 
Even when Oregon tagged him with a solo homer in the top of the fourth, Montgomery kept his fire hot. He picked up his seventh and final strikeout of the day to end that fourth frame with just the one run across, and got the first out of the fifth before finally running out of gas with his pitch count entering the 90s. Krodel relieved him and picked up his first of four strikeouts on the day to end the inning. He struck out two more in the sixth to work around a two-out single, then left Ducks on second and third with K number four in the top of the seventh. He got the first out of the eighth, then his afternoon was done in turn.
 
Van Froling finished the game on the mound with a straightforward eighth but a busy ninth, which he was so close to escaping unscathed. After a one-out triple and a hit batter, Nico Libed and William Vasseur joined Froling in a rundown that kept that lead runner from scoring while picking up the second out. The Gauchos walked the next batter intentionally to set up a force out (which would end the inning) at any base. Froling would get that third out, but only after a wild pitch brought home Oregon's second run of the day.
 
Frustratingly for Santa Barbara's offense, they were not facing a run-of-the-mill Sunday starter, but instead last year's West Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year and the University of San Diego's ace, Cal Scolari. The Gauchos did put traffic on the basepaths against the righthander, but they entered the ninth inning needing two runs to tie the game. Santa Barbara had stranded runners in scoring position with two outs in the second and one out in both the third and seventh, but the inning they most looked like scoring was the ninth. It started with Noah Karliner sending the first pitch of the inning to the warning track in left field, then Colin Beazizo working a walk. Nick Husovsky cranked a 2-0 pitch deep down the left field line that would have gone for a game-tying home run, but it was the wrong side of the pole. He flew out, as did the next man up to end the game.
 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara's week does not get any easier, as the Gauchos will head to Los Angeles for a Tuesday night matchup with No. 12 USC, which came into this weekend with the best team ERA in the country. First pitch from Dedeaux Field is set for 7 p.m. Santa Barbara's next home game will be a rematch with those same Trojans one week later, April 7, at 4:35 p.m. from Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.