IRVINE, Calif. ā The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (38-16) leaned on the power of its starting battery to win their opening game at The Big West Championship, with starting pitcher
Jackson Flora striking out nine Cal State Fullerton (24-31) batters over seven innings of one-run ball and starting catcher
Nate Vargas driving in three runs, including a two-run homer to lead the way in the Gauchos' 7-4 victory.
Rowan Kelly contributed a pair of RBIs as well, while
Jonathan Mendez's seventh-inning run-scoring single provided some crucial insurance to help
Josh Jannicelli wrestle the door closed on the Titans.
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QUOTABLE
From Andrew Checketts: "Well, I was joking in the dugout that I'm a pretty good coach when (Flora) pitches and a lot of the stuff that I call works when he pitches," Checketts said. "That's sarcasm there, but with a player like that going out there, leading us, somebody that wants to win, somebody that's not only talented but cares about the team and gets after it ā¦ makes it fun to come to the ballpark every day. That's his 11
th win on the season, and he probably threw well enough to win another two or three games where we didn't score. (He) sets the tone for us and gives us a chance every weekend to win on Friday."
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From Jackson Flora: "The offense made my job pretty easy today. When you ambush them and get up early like that, for me there's no pressure out there and I just need to attack and get shutdown innings, get zeroes and help the team win."
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HOW IT HAPPENED
Vargas leant his pitcher a hand in the top of the first, twisting and turning behind home plate to track down a wind-jostled foul pop-up as Flora allowed just a single. Vargas' support in the bottom of the first was the more traditional kind: run support. He just missed a home run, settling for a 402-foot RBI double to open the scoring after
Liam Barrett's leadoff walk. A dropped fly ball got
William Vasseur to second base and Vargas to third, then Kelly drove them both home with a single punched to left field.
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Another Titan miscue helped the Gauchos stretch their lead further in the bottom of the second, an errant throw breaking up a potential double play, with Mendez scoring on the play and Barrett remaining safely at first. A double play would have prevented Vargas from coming to the plate in the inning, but he made the most of the extra life, smashing a home run well over the wall that had contained his first-inning double. His fourth long ball in as many games gave Santa Barbara a 6-0 lead, but with the way Flora was pitching, it could have been ten times that.
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The Gauchos' ace had picked up his first strikeout of the day in the second and got two more in the third, with a batter's interference call wiping out the one baserunner the Titans had managed. Flora got two more strikeouts in the fourth, another in a perfect fifth, then two in a perfect sixth. It was the seventh before the Titans managed to get to The Big West Pitcher of the Year, managing just one run on a hit batter and an RBI single. Flora ended his outing with strikeout number nine.
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Even better, the Gaucho offense got that lone run back in their half of the seventh, with back-to-back walks setting up Mendez's RBI single up the middle.
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Jannicelli took over to start the eighth and did get punished for a mistake pitch, surrendering a three-run homer, but the freshman did not let the moment get bigger than him. He got a groundout to end the eighth, then worked through trouble to end the game in the ninth. He responded to a leadoff hit batter by getting the next two outs, but found himself facing runners on second and third with two outs. Jannicelli found a great time for his first strikeout of the day, getting the tying run to swing and miss to end the game.
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UP NEXT
The Gauchos advance to the winner's side of this weekend's bracket and will face the winner of no. 2 seed Cal Poly and no. 3 seed UC San Diego's Thursday evening matchup. First pitch in the 1-0 game from Anteater Ballpark is set for 1 p.m. on Friday, May 22. Fans can catch all the action live on ESPN+ or by following along with live stats and a free, audio-only broadcast at ucsbgauchos.com.
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