SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (27-15) hosted a sellout crowd, as well as the No. 1 UCLA Bruins (40-4), at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium on Tuesday evening, with fans filling every bit of the venue. Those who made the trek out to peer through the chain-link fence in right field made fast friends with Gaucho slugger
Noah Karliner, and he gave the whole crowd something to cheer about, hitting a pair of mammoth home runs. The graduate student accounted for all of his team's scoring, as UCLA won, 15-3, to make the season series a split.
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QUOTABLE
From Head Coach Andrew Checketts: "We're going to be the hunted," Checketts said. "Teams are going to be gunning for us, there's no question about that. We need to be able to handle that and play better. We came in today and UCLA wanted some revenge and spanked our bottoms. We've got to be able to handle that and handle taking some blows and be able to respond."
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HOW IT HAPPENED
A two-run homer, sacrifice fly and two-run double gave the Gauchos a mountain to climb with five runs on the board in the first inning, and the deficit became six with another sacrifice fly in the second. The fifth saw another home run, then an RBI fielder's choice, two RBI singles and a two-run double as the visitors took a 12-0 lead.
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Karliner drilled his first of two homers in the bottom of the fifth, a towering shot over the eucalyptus trees in left field, but the Bruins got that run back in the top of the sixth, scoring despite grounding into a double play. A double and another RBI groundout brought the visitors' total up to 15 in the top of the seventh.
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Karliner crushed another long ball, 403 feet to left-center field, in the bottom of the seventh, scoring
Nick Husovsky as well, but it was not enough to prolong the game, as the NCAA's 10-run rule brought an early end to Tuesday's proceedings.
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UP NEXT
Santa Barbara hits the road this weekend in a return to Big West play, visiting Cal State Bakersfield, May 1-3. The Gauchos' next home game is on Tuesday, May 5, when they are slated to host Pepperdine.
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