At the start of UCSB’s opening game of the NCAA baseball regionals, the tension of the occasion for the homestanding Gauchos was in full display.
Starting pitcher Ryan Gallagher struck out the first Fresno State batter. Catcher Aaron Parker stood and released what is normally a routine toss to the infield. But this time, Parker fired the ball 20 feet over first baseman Zander Darby’s head down the right field line.
This was not the usual iteration of a languid summer ballgame. There was a June Gloom chill in the evening air, and the Gauchos had to overcome big-time nerves.
They were in a targeted position as the No. 1 seed in the four-team regional. Against the odds, they had not lost a home game all year – 25 consecutive regular-season wins. That brought the fans out in record numbers at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium – a sold-out crowd of 2,110 – and the Gauchos did not want to disappoint them.
They fought to control their high anxiety level and succeeded for the most part in a 9-6 victory over Fresno State. They committed some uncharacteristic errors, but their bats – a 15-hit offense – helped swat the butterflies away.
“I get nervous before every game,” said Parker, who went 5-for-5. “You have to try to accept it, take a deep breath, look around, say OK, this just a backyard baseball game.”
Parker recalled that at a stressful stage in midseason, when they fell two games behind UC Irvine in the Big West standings, coach Andrew Checketts had them play a game of wiffle ball “to keep us cool.”
Now the Gauchos had to remind themselves to be cool. “You have to accept the fact this is the way that postseason baseball’s going to be,” Parker said. “You kind of swallow that pill, just stay even keel … let the punches be thrown, try to stay in the ring.”
Jessada Brown said he came into the game “the most nervous I’ve ever been, [but] once we get to the yard, look around, some of my friends down the street yelling at me in left field … it’s just another game. Try to play relaxed.”
Brown boosted the Gauchos with two big swings, a solo home run in the first inning and a three-run shot in fourth, sending UCSB’s athletic director Kelly Barsky on a fist-bumping excursion in the stands. Parker hit a towing home run in the sixth, and eventually the Gauchos took a 9-3 lead.
But Fresno’s Bulldogs sliced the cushion in half. UCSB alums Mike and Casey Gorman were too nervous to remain seated in the ninth inning. They paced around on a ramp in the stands, finally exhaling relief when a long flyout ended Fresno’s final threat.
The Gormans began following Gaucho baseball 40 years ago when they were on the volleyball team. “After we lost a volleyball regional, one of our guys said, ‘Let’s go out to baseball game,’” Casey recalled. “We didn’t have anything else to do. It was kind of fun. They won, so all right, let’s do that again. They were on a roll with winning. We started bringing more friends out there, and it morphed into an event.”
That was the birth of the Hammerheads, a notorious band of hecklers who parked themselves behind the opponent’s dugout. They wore cardboard or foam rubber headgear that identified sharks of the same name. They managed to smuggle in some cold beverages. They were creative in their heckling.
“We played against USC, and there was a guy played first base named Pops Michell,” Casey said.
“H e was a large guy. We started calling him Snack Bar. Somebody brought a bag of Doritos and a fishing pole, and we started hanging them over the fence.”
The Hammerheads supported the Gauchos in the 1983 season when they won the championship of the Southern California Intercollegiate Baseball Association and made a postseason run that fell a game short of the College World Series.
The Hammerheads started to go their separate ways after Casey Gorman graduated in 1986. But their exploits remained in Gaucho lore, and when Checketts took over the program 12 years ago, he looked them up.
“He called me and said, ‘I want to get you guys back,’” said Gorman, who lives in North Carolina. “I started calling guys. Let’s get the band back together. I have email list of 120 guys. I do an email at least once a week about the team.”
Many of the Hammerheads come back for the baseball alumni weekend at the start of each season. Of course, Gorman found his way to Omaha when the Gauchos made their appearance at the College World Series in 2016. But not until this weekend was Checketts’ team able to host an NCAA regional, much to the delight of the Hammerheads.
They’re seeing a different ballpark from what used to be called the Campus Diamond.
“Forty years ago, there were no stands here,” Gorman said. “Just a chain-link and some metal bleachers. This is unbelievable.”
And it’s exciting, so nerve-rackingly exciting.