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

Immediately following its loss in the first of Sunday’s scheduled games, the UCSB baseball team attempted to salvage the final game of the series but were unable to push the go-ahead run in the latter innings of the game as both teams benefitted from quality relief appearances which kept the score all tied up at 4 by the time the game was called in the 8th inning.

Taking the mound for UCSB was redshirt junior RHP Chris Clements who was able to get out of a jam with a man on third by forcing infielder Jaylen Hubbard to ground out to third base.

Texas State’s sophomore RHP Zachary Leigh was not so lucky to escape his inaugural inning unscathed, as the one hit he allowed in the first frame was a deep shot to left which was good for Andrew Martinez’s second home run of the season.

It didn’t take long for the Bobcats to put up their own equalizing run on the board in the top of the second. After a walk and single allowed by Clements, the run was brought home from third on a scoring sacrifice fly tying the game at one a piece.

UCSB had their biggest offensive inning in the second where five runners each reached base. Leigh quickly allowed the bases to be loaded after Sam Cohen and Jason Willow each singled and Michael McAdoo was walked. The bases-loaded pressure clearly rattled the Bobcat’s starter, as evidenced by the two more walks he would allow, and essentially gave UCSB an effortless 3-1 lead once the Bobcats made the final out.

Similar to the first inning, the Gauchos’ redshirt junior allowed the first batter he faced on base and was unfortunately never able to recover for the rest of the 3rd inning. The runner was subsequently able to get around to third on a two-out single to Jaylen Hubbard where he was finally brought home on a single to left by senior Luke Sherley. The Bobcats would put up another run in the frame off of a bases clearing, double by freshman John Wuthrich to give his team the lead 4-3. The extra-base blow was too much for Clements as he was pulled with one out remaining in the inning in exchange for Luke Andrews in relief.

Leigh would go on to allow two hits in the fourth inning, giving the Gauchos the run they needed to tie the game at 4-4. The game would subsequently be called in the 8th inning as a tie, due to a travel regulation for the visiting team.

The appearances by Luke Andrews and Chris Troye always kept UCSB in the game, as both pitchers were able to absolutely stifle the Texas State batters who could not come up with an answer to the Gaucho bullpen. From just before the third inning until the end of the game the two relievers would pitch a combined two-hitter with seven strikeouts.

Not to be outdone the Bobcat bullpen was equally stellar in their relief appearances as three reliever hurled their own two-hitter after the fourth inning. The bullpens four innings of work preserved the lead for their team as starter Zachary Leigh’s struggles nearly became too much for Texas State to recover from.

The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos will play their next game at home against Dartmouth University Wednesday, March 14 at 3 p.m. PST.

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