SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — It should hardly come as a surprise that the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team's ace pitcher, Jackson Flora, collected ABCA/Rawlings All-West Region First Team honors from the American Baseball Coaches Association on Tuesday. After leading the nation in ERA and becoming the Gauchos' new single-season strikeout king, Flora has made his case to be one of if not the top pitcher in the nation, let alone the west. He is one of five finalists for the Dick Howser Trophy — the Heisman of college baseball — and one of 25 semifinalists for USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award — given to the nation's best amateur baseball player. Last week, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association named Flora Player of the Year for their ninth district, which encompasses most of the same states that make up the ABCA's West Region.
 
At the end of the Gauchos' season, Flora led the nation with a 1.06 ERA, 12 wins and just 4.85 hits allowed per nine innings. His program-record 133 strikeouts ranked third in the country and second in the West Region, as did his 0.85 WHIP (walks and hits allowed per inning pitched). He is also one of just two pitchers in the country whose ERA never touched 2.00 or higher between opening day and June 1 and the only one of those two whose ERA was never even above 1.50.
 
Flora is Santa Barbara's 17^th All-West Region honoree under head coach Andrew Checketts, and the 11^th of them to earn the honor from the mound. Including Flora, eight of those 11 pitchers have been named to the All-West Region First Team, making them eligible to earn ABCA/Rawlings All-America honors, which five of the previous seven went on to do. This year's All-America class will be announced on Friday, June 12.