UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The No. 22 UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (1-0) put their new bats to work on Friday night, with first-year Gauchos driving in five of their six runs as Santa Barbara defeated Campbell (0-1), 6-1, on opening night. UCLA transfer Jack Holman marked his Gaucho debut with a two-run homer, with Arizona transfer Xavier Esquer going 2-for-3 with an RBI. Folsom Lake College transfer Nate Vargas went 2-for-4, as did Pomona-Pitzer transfer Isaac Kim, with the former collecting an RBI as well.
On the mound, AJ Krodel started his sophomore season with a bang, striking out eight Camels in 4 1/3 innings of relief to set up Cole Tryba for his first save of the season.
FROM HEAD COACH ANDREW CHECKETTS"Really good effort from the guys," Checketts said. "We did enough offensively, some guys had good days. Holman being able to get that big swing off obviously was a momentum-changer for us. AJ did a great job of long relief there, was fantastic, and that's what we had seen for all of January. I feel like he's turned that corner and grown a lot, then Cole came in and did his thing. It was a really good effort on the mound, we played clean baseball defensively, and had a couple big swings."
HOW IT HAPPENEDWith Tyler Bremner starting on the mound for the Gauchos, the game started as expected: without any hits. The junior righty fired three near-perfect innings, striking out two and allowing just one baserunner on a two-out hit-by-pitch in the third.
With their ace dealing, Santa Barbara's almost entirely new batting order was able to take their first hacks of the season without pressure. Five players made their Gaucho debuts at the plate on Friday night, and two of those debutants combined to score their new team's first run of the season. Kim led off the bottom of the second by hitting a grounder back to the Campbell pitcher, who let the ball roll under his glove. Thanks to the error, Kim was safe at first. He took second on a wild pitch, and Rex DeAngelis joined him on the basepaths after getting plunked. A foul-out and a strikeout sent Esquer up to the dish with two out and two on, and he delivered, knocking a soft single into left. With Kim running on contact, he was able to score from second for Santa Barbara's first run of the season.
The Gauchos got their first homer of the year in the bottom of the third, also from a new guy. LeTrey McCollum led off the inning and reached when he was hit by a pitch, and he promptly stole second. An out later, Holman strode to the plate and launched a ball into the power station well behind the right-center field fence, extending the Santa Barbara lead to 3-0. Kim kept things rolling with his first Division-I hit, another comebacker, but this time a screaming line drive that the pitcher was unable to do anything about, despite getting his glove on it. The third inning got even longer when Kim raced from first to third on a two-out Jonathan Mendez single, where he was initially called out. However, after a lengthy review process, Kim was called safe and the inning continued. When it was time for the Gauchos to pitch again, the fully fresh Krodel took Bremner's place on the mound.
Krodel gave up a one-out double in the top of the fourth but got around it with a strikeout and a flyout, then settled in, working perfect fifth and sixth innings, racking up six K's over his first three frames of work.
In the bottom of the fifth, his teammates gave him an extra run of cushion, with some help from the strong breeze that was swirling around Caesar Uyesaka Stadium Friday night. Holman led off the inning with a walk, then stole second base. With two outs, Jonathan Mendez hit a towering fly ball toward right field that just kept going further and further back. While it stayed in the park, the wind also kept pushing it further and further toward the corner, away from the Camels' right fielder, where it eventually landed safely in fair territory for an RBI triple.
Krodel allowed just a walk in the top of the seventh, picking up another strikeout in the frame, but ended up in real trouble in the top of the eighth. He hit the leadoff man, and while he bounced back with his eighth strikeout of the night, that runner stole second in the process. A wild pitch ball four put runners on the corners and ended Krodel's evening. Tryba came out of the bullpen and struck out the first batter he faced but hit the next two, forcing home a run. The Gauchos' left-handed fireman caught the next hitter looking to get out of the jam with just the one run surrendered.
Even better, the Gaucho offense got that run right back in their half of the eighth, then tacked on another one. Esquer got on base the hard way, the third Gaucho to be hit by a pitch, and Vargas drove him home on a double down the right field line that got all the way to the wall. After a pitching change, McCollum's groundout moved Vargas over to third, and he was able to score when what would have been strike three to Corey Nunez bounced away from the Campbell catcher, allowing Nunez to reach first and Vargas to score safely.
Tryba came back out for the ninth and looked every bit like an elite closer, setting the side down in order. After a flyout for the first, he issued backwards K's to the final two Campbell hitters for his first save of the season, securing a 6-1 Gaucho win.
BY THE NUMBERSKrodel's long relief outing was a career one for the sophomore, as he obliterated his previous career bests for innings pitched, going 4 1/3, as well as strikeouts, issuing eight.Holman's home run was his first as a Gaucho but his 19th as a Division I player; his stolen base was just the fourth of his career.As a group, the five Gaucho debutants — Holman, Kim, Cole Kosciusko, Esquer and Vargas — went a combined 7-for-16 at the plate, a .438 batting average, with four RBIs, two doubles, a home run and five runs scored on Friday night.
UP NEXTThe Gauchos and Camels are back at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium for game two of this three-game series on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 3:05 p.m. Jackson Flora is set to take the ball for Santa Barbara, opposed by right-hander David Rossow for Campbell. Season and single-game tickets are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com, and kids in sixth grade or below get in free to all Gaucho home games this season with the Yardi Youth Pass. Visit ucsbgauchos.com to learn more. For fans following from afar, the game will be live on ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.
(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)
Gauchos win season opener with plenty of new faces leading the way News Channel 3-12.
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