SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — In front of a sellout crowd at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium, the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (20-10) delivered a commanding performance to upset No. 14 USC (27-7) in a 5-1 victory. The Gaucho pitching staff — Calvin Proskey, AJ Krodel, Van Froling, Raymond Olivas and Cole Tryba — combined to allow just one unearned run, while Nate Vargas' breakout night powered the offense. Santa Barbara's backstop was making his first appearance since March 21 and marked it with a home run and a double as he finished a triple shy of the cycle. Corey Nunez also blasted his first home run of the season on the night.
 
The upset win is the Gauchos' third over a ranked opponent this season, having earlier toppled No. 20s Southern Miss and Oregon, and with the Trojans entering the night ranked 14^th in the country, it is Santa Barbara's highest-ranked win since defeating No. 1 UCLA in March of 2020. With USC also entering the night at No. 9 in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), the win boosts the Gauchos' resume for selection come NCAA Tournament Time, giving Santa Barbara a second Quad 1 win of the season and an improvement to their already solid RPI of 33.
 
QUOTEABLE
From head coach Andrew Checketts: "The real highlight for today is Proskey being back and having an inning," Checketts said. "Throwing a clean inning and looking like himself, healthy and stuff looked solid, so hopefully we can continue to extend him an inning each time he goes out or two innings and he can turn into a legitimate extra starter for us, whether that's on Tuesday or end of the weekend if we have to make a change, which I'm not anticipating, but it's a luxury to have that fourth starter.
 
That's what we talk about with the bullpen, is make sure you pass the baton and hold on to it. All the guys did their job, and I thought guys came in and did their job making clutch pitches with runners in scoring position and didn't allow the guy was out there before, his runs to come in. And then you know, Tryba being Tryba changes the game for us. To be able to give the ball to somebody with a lead at the end of the game and feel pretty comfortable that it's over, his last three outings have been like that. We've gotten him a lead, and it's been over."
 
From Nate Vargas: "It was awesome," Vargas said. "I'm just happy to be out there and compete with my guys. I'm glad that we were able to get a good win against a ranked team today. During my time off, I just used the time to make sure I'm staying ready so that when I did get an opportunity like today, I made the most of it.
 
Honestly, I think the oppo off the fence," Vargas said was his favorite at-bat of the night. "For me, that just felt like vintage me. That's what I do, and at the end of the day, I don't want to get too excited because I expect that of myself, but at the same time I want to kind of congratulate myself for putting in the work and seeing it pay off."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Proskey made his return from injury as the Gauchos' opener on the mound Tuesday night and was near-perfect to get things started, getting a foul-out and his first strikeout of the season on three pitches to retire the first two Trojan hitters. He allowed a two-out single but ended the inning five pitches later. Krodel picked up where he left off in the second, allowing just a two-out walk, then retired the side in order in the top of the third.
 
In the bottom of the third, like they did a week earlier in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara scored first, hanging a crooked number on the scoreboard. Vargas led off the inning by blasting a no-doubt home run to right field, nearly hitting his own face on the video board. Ryan Severns reached when the USC third basemen mishandled a hop at third base, and Rowan Kelly's sacrifice bunt put Severns in scoring position. A wild pitch got the Gaucho second baseman 90 feet from home, and Nick Husovsky plated him with an RBI groundout.
 
It looked like a repeat of last week's back-and-forth, nail-biting affair at Dedeaux Field when the Trojans scratched across an unearned run in the top of the fourth to cut their deficit to 2-1, but the Gauchos put together two pivotal half-innings to keep themselves out of a slugfest. First, Nunez lined a home run to left field to get that run back in the bottom of the fourth. Second, Froling followed that up with a shutdown frame in the top of the fifth, retiring the Trojans in order with a pair of strikeouts.
 
Froling was clutch again in the sixth, tapping into the reserve tank to extend his outing after a lead-off double and retiring the next three batters to put up another zero. His offense rewarded his effort by putting another run on the board in their half of the sixth, with Nunez's lead-off walk coming all the way around to score thanks to Kelly's sacrifice fly.
 
Olivas handled the seventh and the first third of the eighth on the bump, retiring the side in order in the seventh and exiting with a runner on second in the eighth, with Tryba relieving him. The lefty struck out the next two Trojans to end the eighth inning, then saw his path to a five-out save become that much easier with another Gaucho run on the board.
 
In their final chance to bat, Vargas and Liam Barrett combined to provide that insurance run. Vargas started the rally by blasting an opposite-field double off the left-field wall, no more than a foot shy of clearing the fence for a second home run of the night. After Kelly was intentionally walked, Barrett made USC pay for that free pass, caressing an RBI single into center field to make the Gauchos' lead 5-1.
 
A walk and a single with one out put some bumps in Tryba's road, but he navigated them with a pair of groundouts securing his first save of the season, the 10^th of his Gaucho career.
 
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara now has four wins in a row and will take that momentum into a crucial Big West series at home this weekend. The Gauchos, currently in third in the conference standings, will host current leaders UC San Diego, April 10-12, at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. Tickets are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets.