Luke Andrews pitches to the batter. Dustin Harris/Daily Nexus

Starting Friday pitcher Jack Dashwood did all he could Friday afternoon to give his team an opportunity to score, turning in seven innings of work with just one run allowed, but a lack of offensive execution in scoring opportunities from the UCSB baseball teams’ lineup led to the Texas State Bobcats squeaking out a 1-0 win.

With the loss, Santa Barbara drops to 4-8 overall on the season and now misses on an opportunity to possibly be .500 come the end of this series if it could’ve pulled off a sweep. Texas State improves to 8-4 overall on the season picking up its first road win of the season.

The redshirt freshman Dashwood wasted no time in taking control of the game early, allowing no hits, no base runners, and notching three strikeouts over the first four innings of the game. The southpaw was clearly dominant, getting batters to groundout when he wasn’t forcing them to swing at strike three.

Dashwood still looked to be in control headed into the top of the sixth despite allowing a single hit in the fifth, but the big lefty found himself in trouble after retiring the first batter he faced.

Texas State junior Jacob Almendarez shot a single up the middle to reach first base who would reach second base in a tough play on a squibber down the line that would leave two men on first and second.

Senior Derek Scheible certainly capitalized on what was perhaps Texas State’s only scoring opportunity, sending a shot into left field which brought Almendarez home from second base. Dashwood would pitch a clean 7th inning, before being pulled before the 8th to end his night.

The bottom of the 7th was where the Gauchos found themselves the closest to home they would get during the game.

The Bobcats quickly retired the first two batters in the inning, but the team would load the bases after a trio of batters were either hit by pitch or walked. Sophomore Eric Yang approached the plate looking to pick up the necessary RBI’s for the lead, but the catcher would strikeout swinging to end the threat from UCSB.

The Gauchos put together an exciting two-out bottom of the 9th, when Jason Willow and Marcos Castanon each singled off of Bobcat reliever Cam Baird. Tevin Mitchell would take off to first after striking out swinging where a bobble from the Texas State catcher and a throw from his knees that enough to beat Mitchell who was called out at first on the last play of the game.

Prior to starting Friday’s game, Dashwood struggled in his previous three starts where the southpaw allowed at least 3-plus earned runs, 6-plus hits, and 1-plus home runs. Also noteworthy before today’s game, Dashwood had not pitched past the sixth inning and only had 7 strikeouts on the season.

Scheible’s lone RBI of the game was the senior’s team-leading 12th RBI of the season. The senior has been just a part of the prime offensive contributors for the Bobcats so far this season. The trio of Almendarez, Ortega, and Schieble each have 11+ hits on the season and their combination in the lineup clearly made an impact in the game.

The big lefty responded well to his prior challenges, marking the first time he did not feature the same imperfections present on his stat sheet as previously mentioned. Should Dashwood continue in this newfound direction of success, he looks to be a key part of the Gauchos’ pitching rotation as they continue this season.

The Gauchos will play the midway game of the weekend series against the Texas State Bobcats on Saturday, March 10th at 2 p.m.

Editor’s note: Due to poor weather conditions the match scheduled for March 10th at 2 p.m. will be played on Sunday, March 11th in a doubleheader.

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