The UCSB baseball teams’ Jack Dashwood was blasted in his outing in the first game of the series by a strong UC Irvine team. With little offensive support to match the deficit, the Gauchos would lose the match, 10-2.

With the loss, Santa Barbara falls to 15-14-1 on the season and 2-2 in Big West play. It also remains winless on the road at 0-6. UCI improved to 19-14 on the year and 4-3 in conference play.

Dashwood headed into the bottom of the third inning up 1-0 thanks to a Marcos Castanon triple which scored Sam Cohen. The southpaw had only given up one hit until his third trip out to the mound where the lefty allowed two hits to the first two batters he faced and quickly ran into some trouble.

With men on first and third, sophomore Christian Koss singled to give the Anteaters their first run of the game. After getting an out in the inning, Dashwood gave up a single to freshman Brendan Brooks bringing another run to the plate and earning UCI the 2-1 lead.

RBI and home-run leading senior Ryan Fitzpatrick stepped up to the plate and cleared the bases with a left-center shot that put the Eaters up 5-1 at the end of three innings.

The Gauchos’ starter could not stop the bleeding and the UCI batters would pile on to their lead in the subsequent inning.

The pair of Christian Koss and Matt Reitano would strike again in the bottom of the fourth inning when the pair earned their second RBI and run of the game respectively.

Sophomore Konnor Zickefoose would also make his second trip around the bags and at the end of four, the Anteaters were ahead 7-1. The Zickefoose run would end Dashwood’s night at 3.1 innings pitched with seven earned runs.

Clay Fisher would score the Gauchos’ final run of the game in the top of the eighth, but UCI simply added onto their lead even more in the bottom of the same inning.

Senior Cole Kreuter hit a home run to start off the inning while sophomore Ryan Johnston and Ryan Fitzpatrick would each hit singles to bring home runners of their own. UC Irvine would end the first game of the series, victorious by eight at 10-2.

It was a tale of two different pitchers as UCI’s starter Andre Pallante went the distance, giving up the lone earned run in the third over seven innings pitched. Pallante was able to keep the Gaucho bats silent before forcing his team to go to the bullpen to pull him.

The sophomore has had a great month of April so far with 15 innings pitched, one earned run, and two wins over his two appearances. Much like the Dirtbags on his April 6 start, the Gauchos were similarly stifled and failed to get any significant offensive rhythm.

Dashwood had an unexpectedly mediocre outing and is now the possessor of a less than exciting 2-5 record.

The freshman had been on a recent wave of success before his start against UCI, going at least five innings pitched with one earned run or less in each of his past three starts.

However, the 18.90 ERA posted for today’s game is Dashwood’s worst start of the season. No matter the lefty can certainly move along in the season with the assurance of seemingly nowhere to go but up.

The Gauchos will continue the series against the Anteaters on Saturday, April 14 at 2 p.m.

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