DALLAS — For the first time in the 29-year history of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's District Players of the Year, a UC Santa Barbara Baseball player is best in the west. Jackson Flora, the Gauchos' single-season strikeout king, was named the District 9 Player of the Year on Friday, the only pitcher in a three-way tie for the title. Joining him on the rostrum are UCLA's Roch Cholowsky and Arizona State's Landon Hairston.
 
Flora not only racked up a program record 133 strikeouts to rank third among all Division-I pitchers, but he did it while maintaining the nation's best ERA, 1.06, also the best by any Gaucho in a single season since the program joined Division I in 1970. At no point this season did Flora's ERA even touch 2.00, and it dipped as low as 0.63 after a streak of 38 1/3 consecutive innings without allowing a run across March and April. He was named The Big West Pitcher of the Year, an All-Big West First Teamer and Big West Championship All-Tournament Team member as well as an Austin Regional All-Tournament Team member.
 
Thanks in part to Flora's 12 victories (and zero losses) on the season, the Gauchos finished 40-20, earning a share of The Big West Regular Season Championship and an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, where they reached the Austin Regional Final.
 
Flora is unanimously projected to be the first pitcher selected in this summer's Major League Baseball Draft, which would make it back-to-back years with UC Santa Barbara producing the first arm off the board.
 
The NCBWA has named District Players of the Year since 1998. Their District 9 covers California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Arizona and Alaska.