Sophomore Liam Barrett slides into base safely. Courtesy of UCSB Men’s Baseball
UC Santa Barbara men’s baseball delivered a dominant weekend showing against rival Cal Poly, sweeping the three-game Blue-Green Rivalry series.
April 2: The Gauchos set the tone for the weekend in Thursday’s opener with a shutout 6-0 win, led by ace junior pitcher Jackson Flora. Flora continues to dominate Cal Poly, throwing a complete game shutout while striking out nine. Flora extended his scoreless streak to 34 innings and lowered his ERA to 0.69, further building his case as one of the top pitchers in the nation. After this showing, Flora was named Big West National Pitcher of the Week and D1Baseball and the Golden Spikes Award named him their National Player of the Week. On the offensive side of the ball, UCSB ran away with the game in a five-run fourth inning highlighted by multiple contributions throughout the lineup, including a double from senior infielder Corey Nunez to make the score 6-0.
April 3: Friday’s game provided more adversity for the Gauchos as they fell behind 2-0 in the fifth inning. However, UCSB put together a response with a run in the sixth and two sacrifice flies from freshman infielder Ryan Severns and sophomore outfielder Rowan Kelly in the seventh, making the score 3-2. Coming out of the bullpen, junior left-hander Cole Tryba dominated, allowing zero runs from the Mustangs in the final three innings, only giving up a single. Using this momentum, the Gauchos added another run in the top of the 8th, making the final score 4-2 in favor of UCSB.
April 4: With the Gauchos already taking the series, they completed the sweep on Saturday afternoon, defeating Cal Poly 12-4. Redshirt junior infielder Xavier Esquer led the offense with an early home run blast to deep left field — this was Esquer’s first of the season. Severns continued his breakout weekend with multiple RBIs. The Gauchos steadily built their lead before erupting for five runs in the ninth inning to put the game out of reach. Severns and Esquer each finished with three RBIs, while several Gauchos contributed multi-hit performances in an all around offensive focused effort.
Across the three-game series, Santa Barbara outscored Cal Poly 22–6, combining dominant pitching performances with plenty of offense to back it up. This was the first Blue-Green Rivalry series sweep since 2022 and reinforced the Gauchos’ position as a contender in the Big West. The Gauchos are set to play at home tomorrow night, April 10, in a Friday night showdown against UC San Diego.
