SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — UC Santa Barbara Baseball's star pitcher, Jackson Flora, continued his award tour on Friday, with both Baseball America and the American Baseball Coaches Association naming him to their All-America First Teams. Flora converts his ABCA/Rawlings All-West Region First Team selection from Tuesday into an All-America nod, and he is one of 11 unanimous selections on Baseball America's First Team.
 
Flora has improved every year that he has worn the Blue and Gold, with 2026 the record-setting culmination of his work. As a go-to bullpen option as a freshman in 2024, he was an All-Big West Honorable Mention and pitched in three of the Gauchos' four games at the Santa Barbara Regional. In 2025, he broke into the weekend rotation and made headlines with his one-hit shutout of Cal Poly, going on to earn All-Big West First Team honors and a USA Baseball Collegiate National Team invite. He caught eyes with triple-digit velocity that summer in North Carolina, but what has separated him this year is the slow stuff — a new kick changeup added in the offseason that was a devastating fourth option. Baseball America specifically highlighted that addition and refinement of his pitches in their reasoning for selecting Flora.
 
The work has paid off on the stat sheet too. With a 1.06 ERA, the best in a season by any Gaucho since the program entered the Division-I level in 1970, he led all qualified pitchers, while allowing fewer hits per nine innings than anyone else in the country. His single-season school record 133 strikeouts contributed mightily to that cause, as did his 0.85 WHIP (walks and hits allowed per inning pitched). Both of those figures ranked third among all Division I arms as of the end of regional weekend, June 1.
 
Flora is the third Gaucho to earn four or more All-America honors in the same season, joining Ryan Gallagher in 2024 and Dillon Tate in 2015. When the Major League Baseball Draft arrives in mid-July, Flora is projected to join Tate in being the first pitcher selected in his respective draft, a feat Tyler Bremner also achieved in 2025.