LOS ANGELES — The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (16-10) took an early lead but could not make it stick on an all-around slippery night at Dedeaux Field, and the Gauchos' late comeback attempt fell just short of upsetting No. 12 USC (27-3). Despite tallying 10 hits and six runs, the Santa Barbara offense was left to rue missed opportunities to score even more in the 7-6 loss.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Early in the evening, the trip south looked like it was going to be just the tonic the Gauchos needed, with their early season clutch hitting back in vogue. Rowan Kelly led off the game with a two-strike double into the right-center gap, his first of two on the day. Colin Beazizo followed him with another two-strike hit, a single into left center, and Santa Barbara had a run on the board against the best pitching staff in the country before making an out. A two-out double to right center from Xavier Esquer made it even better, extending the lead to 3-0.
 
Starter Josh Jannicelli backed up his team's bats with a perfect first, and he almost watched his left fielder give him another run to work with in the top of the second. Kelly drove a fly ball to the wall in center field but no further, with USC's center fielder hopping to catch the final out in front of the 390-foot marker.
 
Still, Jannicelli kept the Trojans from making any headway on the Gauchos' lead with another perfect inning in the second, and he got that fourth run of support in the top of the third. As the rain started to mist its way down from the clouds, Beazizo led off with a single, moved over to third on a pair of productive groundouts, then scored when Noah Karliner smacked a bouncing RBI single down the first-base line.
 
That fourth run ended up mattering, as the Trojans got to Jannicelli in the third with a bloop double, walk and then a triple that was centimeters out of Beazizo's reach in center field. The Gauchos traded another run for the second out of the inning, and it was 4-3 by the time Santa Barbara got its third out.
 
The rain picked up as the fourth inning began, and a first-pitch home run in the bottom half tied the game. As if to emphasize that when it rains, it pours, USC scratched across two more runs in the inning to take a 6-4 lead.
 
Starting in the fifth, the heavier rain slowed the frenetic pace of the game, as pitchers had to work harder to put the dewy baseballs where they wanted them. In the three dry innings to start the game, there had been just one walk; there were five in the final six wet frames, with Kelly working one to lead off the top of the fifth, though he would be left stranded.
 
More importantly, Raymond Olivas entered from the bullpen and stopped the downpour of Trojan runs with a perfect bottom of the fifth. Esquer's one-out triple into the right-field corner got the Gauchos a run back in the top of the sixth, thanks to Nico Libed's RBI groundout, but USC would get that run back in their half of the inning.
 
From there, the score remained at 7-5 Trojans until the ninth, though the Gauchos certainly threatened. They mounted a two-out rally in the seventh, with Beazizo being hit by a pitch, prompting a pitching change, and Husovsky smacking the first pitch he saw from that new reliever back up the middle for a single. Max Stagg worked a pinch-hit walk to load the bases, but Santa Barbara left empty handed.
 
In the top of the eighth, Nico Libed was robbed of a hit by a sliding catch in right center, and Corey Nunez was left stranded on second after a (rain-induced) wild pitch gave him an extra 90 feet.
 
In the ninth, facing USC's closer and the man ranked second in Division I in saves, the Gauchos nearly made good on their last life. Kelly started the inning with his second double of the game, hustling all the way as the ball rolled to the wall in right. Another wild pitch took him to third, and for a second it looked like Beazizo's fly ball to deep right was going to tie the game. On a drier day, it might have, but the ball died in the rainy sky for just a sacrifice fly. The Gauchos would not get any more baserunners.
 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara has a quick turnaround before their next series, a three-game conference set at Cal Poly, April 2 through 4, with Sunday off for Easter. First pitch times from Baggett Stadium are set for 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday.