AUSTIN, Texas — The NCAA Tournament has long been hailed as a place where heroes are born, and on Sunday afternoon in Austin, it was
Cole Kosciusko's turn to don the cape. With four hits in his first NCAA Tournament start, including a home run, Kosciusko led the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (40-19) to a 9-5 win over Tarleton State (38-21) in an elimination game, though he had some help.
Nathan Aceves delivered a quality start, and
Rowan Kelly drove in four runs, including his second long ball of the weekend. The Gauchos advance to their third regional final in their last four NCAA Tournament appearances, taking on hosts and No. 6 national seed Texas Sunday evening.
QUOTABLE
From head coach Andrew Checketts: "My first time coaching against (Tarleton State), I was very impressed with their approach and how business-like they were," Checketts said. "Our guys had a nice bounce-back after losing to them, obviously a fantastic start by Aceves."
"Obviously, we probably would not have wanted to go to Tryba there, but you've got to get to the second game. We would've preferred to save him, and we sent (Aceves) out in the seventh to try and get one more and the first fastball came out of his hand at 89 and he looked smoked, so we had to go get him. We did what we needed to to win the game, we used Hoover, we used Jannicelli, we used Tryba, we're going to need a quality start this second game for sure, but we got one out of (Aceves). We had a couple of moments early where he had to make some big pitches and he made those pitches, really did a nice job with his fastball today."
From starting pitcher Nathan Aceves: "Just trying to go out there, first-pitch strikes, one and two, the basics like that, win your even counts," Aceves said. "That's all I was trying to do out there, get the guys to this next game."
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Gauchos made the most of every opportunity to score in the top of the first, starting with a successful challenge that overturned what would have been an inning-ending double play. Santa Barbara turned their extra life into two runs when
Jonathan Mendez's comebacker was thrown away at first base and both Kelly and
William Vasseur were able to scamper home.
Aceves had his first big moment in the bottom of the first, facing bases loaded with one out, but he escaped thanks to a diving catch at shortstop by
Corey Nunez, then an inning-ending strikeout on a high fastball.
The Gauchos doubled their lead in emphatic fashion in the top of the second, with Kosciusko and
Noah Karliner mashing no-doubt home runs on back-to-back pitches.
Aceves mowed through the Texans in the second but got pipped for a run on back-to-back two-out singles in the third. The damage could have been more if not for the Santa Barbara backstop,
Nate Vargas cutting down a runner on the best base-stealing team in the field with a perfect throw to second on what could have been a double-steal attempt.
In the fourth, Kosciusko led off with a double and came around to score to get that run back, Kelly picking up the RBI on a groundout. Kosciusko's homer homie, Karliner, flashed the leather (and sacrificed his body) in the bottom half of the inning, crashing into the right-field wall to make a catch in foul ground. His effort helped Aceves set the Texans down in order, which he did again in the fifth. After allowing just a two-out walk in the sixth, Aceves was back out for the seventh but out of gas after his first six-inning outing since late March.
Josh Jannicelli cleaned up a messy bottom of the seventh, but only after a two-run triple got the Texans back within two, down 5-3. In their next chance to hit, the Gauchos responded. Kosciusko recorded his career-best fourth hit of the game to lead off the top of the eighth, and
Liam Barrett's double put a pair of Gauchos in scoring position. They would have scored from any position on Kelly's hit though, a towering three-run home run off the scoreboard in right field. After Vasseur singled and stole second, Vargas drove a double into the gap in left center to build Santa Barbara's lead up to 9-3.
It was a messy end to the game, as the Gauchos had to navigate traffic on the basepaths in the eighth and surrendered two more runs in the ninth, but
Cole Tryba induced a double play to end the game.
UP NEXT
Santa Barbara takes on Texas in the Austin Regional Final Sunday night, with first pitch at 5:06 p.m. Central Time. The Gauchos must win on Sunday night to force a winner-take-all game seven, which would be played Monday, June 1.
