SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — A game out of first place in The Big West and with a statement win over No. 1 UCLA under its belt, the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (23-11, 10-5 Big West) embarks on a pivotal road trip this weekend, with four games scheduled in as many days. First up, the Gauchos visit their perennial rivals for The Big West title, UC Irvine (16-19, 7-8 Big West), for a three-game weekend series. Then, Santa Barbara heads to Riverside to take on an upstart California Baptist (30-7, 4-2 WAC) on Monday evening.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Santa Barbara reminded the college baseball world that there is more to the Gauchos than just Jackson Flora on Tuesday night, as the trio of Calvin Proskey, AJ Krodel and Cole Tryba combined to shut out No. 1 UCLA and end the Bruins' 27-game win streak. Colin Beazizo and Rowan Kelly made big plays with both the bat and the glove, and William Vasseur contributed an RBI double in the 4-0 victory. The Gauchos' winning streak is now back up to three, having bounced back from a frustrating Friday loss to win the final two games of their three-game series against UC San Diego over the weekend.
 
Santa Barbara's pitching staff, owners of the lowest ERA in the nation, has allowed one earned run or fewer in three of its last five games now, with just one unearned tally against then-No. 14 USC and their true-blue blanking of the Bruins. To go along with their 2.86 ERA, the Gauchos also rank second nationally with a 1.14 WHIP and third in hits allowed per nine, at just 6.79. Their ace, Flora, ranks first, third and fourth in those categories respectively as an individual.
 
While Beazizo and Kelly made the highlight reel with their diving catches on Tuesday night, the two are also among the Gauchos' top bats this season. Kelly leads the squad with an average of .328, though only because Beazizo is just shy of the playing time needed for his .333 mark to make him the top qualified hitter. Expect that to change as the only thing that kept the Washingtonian out of the lineup over the last week and a half was a light injury. Also back from the injured list is Vasseur, who is batting .351 in his 23 games. A third baseman by trade, he flashed the leather a bit at second base on Tuesday night to go along with his opposite-field double.  
 
SCOUTING THE ANTEATERS
UC Irvine came into 2026 seemingly guaranteed to make The Big West Championship that they are scheduled to host, with D1Baseball picking the Anteaters to make an NCAA Regional appearance, but they enter this weekend on the outside of the five-team field, half a game behind CSUN in the conference standings. The Anteaters have struggled for offense to an even greater degree than the Gauchos, ranking 286^th out of 304 teams in batting average and 289^th in scoring, 121 and 49 spots behind Santa Barbara respectively. And they do not have the same arsenal of pitchers to pick them up. UC Irvine's 4.88 team ERA ranks a respectable 71^st nationally but is a far cry from the Gauchos' elite mark. The Anteaters are headed in the right direction, having won seven of their last 11 games, but they come into the weekend after dropping two of three games at Hawai'i, losing by scorelines of 14-6 and 3-0 on consecutive days.
 
And in conference play, they have a trio of qualified hitters whose batting averages top .300, with Efren Ortega and Auggie Gutierrez both above .350 in Big West action. The rotation can be deadly on its day too. Left-hander Ricky Ojeda may have an ERA north of four, but he is coming off four no-hit innings at Hawai'i and allowed just two hits and no runs while striking out 11 Gauchos across two relief outings last season. Friday starter Trevor Hansen threw a quality start with three runs allowed over six innings last time he saw the Gauchos, and while he did give up six runs over 3 2/3 innings to the Rainbow Warriors last Friday, none of those were earned. Saturday starter Finnegan Wall has the best ERA of the bunch, coming in at 2.85. He did not face the Gauchos in 2025 or 2024 due to injury. The last time he faced Santa Barbara, the 2023 team got him for two runs off just two hits over 3 1/3 total innings of relief.
 
SCOUTING THE LANCERS
A surprise in the other direction, California Baptist has appeared in the received votes section of multiple rankings for multiple weeks now, as the Lancers have already matched last season's win total with 19 games left to play in the regular season. Their 30-7 record gives them the fourth-best winning percentage in the country, and like the Gauchos, their strength is on the mound, where they have the nation's sixth-best ERA. Oh, and they can hit pretty well to boot. CBU's team batting average of .316 is good for 17^th, and redshirt freshman catcher Cole Hansen is hitting .421 in his first season of collegiate baseball. That ranks 8^th among all qualified Division-I hitters.
 
Before they host the Gauchos, the Lancers will spend their weekend at Tarleton State in Texas, which is where they will deploy the top end of their potent pitching staff. Come Monday, Santa Barbara is more likely to face the likes of Sam Burgess or Ryne Palmer, the openers of CBU's last two Monday games respectively. And they have been openers. Burgess went just 1/3 of an inning against Long Beach State earlier this week before handing the ball to Palmer for 3 2/3 innings. Palmer himself only went one inning earlier this week against UC Riverside before his day was done.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
First pitch times are set for 6 p.m. Friday, 1 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday from Anteater Ballpark in Irvine this weekend, with the series finale on Sunday to be broadcast nationally on ESPN2. Monday's game against the Lancers at Totman Stadium in Riverside will start at 5 p.m. All four games, including Sunday's national broadcast, will be streamed live on ESPN+ with a free, audio-only stream and live stats available at ucsbgauchos.com.