The UC Santa Barbara bats failed to break out of a recent slump and visiting UC Irvine feasted on the Gauchos’ bullpen.
The Anteaters executed brilliantly in game one of a Big West Conference showdown with UCSB on their way to a 10-0 victory. It is the Gauchos’ third consecutive loss after starting the season 15-2.
“Give credit to Irvine, their guys did a great job of executing their game plan. I think we had a good {plan} going into it and we weren’t able to execute,” said UC Santa Barbara coach Andrew Checketts. “We struggled to lay off the fastballs up. It wasn’t a surprise that they were going to do that to us. We’ve got plenty of experience seeing that from some of our guys that throw the ball up there, but didn’t respond the right way.”
The Gauchos had to feel confident with their ace Tyler Bremner on the mound, but the lack of offensive production of late has put additional pressure on the pitching staff. UCSB has not scored a run in its last 18 innings.
Bremner and UC Irvine starting pitcher Riley Kelly engaged in a pitcher’s duel through the first four innings. In the first inning, Bremner worked around a pair of singles, racking up a pair of strikeouts, then stranded a lead-off walk on first in the top of the second. He left another lead-off runner stuck on first base in the top of the third and then set the Anteaters down in order in the top of the fourth, finishing off the inning with his fourth strikeout of the day.
In the top of the fifth inning, Bremner appeared poised to work around a leadoff base runner again, but UC Irvine shortstop Colin Yeamen had other ideas as he hit a two-run homer to open the scoring with two outs in the inning.
The Anteaters followed up Yeamen’s home run with a walk and two singles to take a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning.
The Gauchos had opportunities to score in the middle innings, but Ian Fernandez was stranded on third in the bottom of the fifth inning . In the sixth inning, Jonathan Mendez andLetrey McCollum each recorded singles, but failed to advance past second base.
Bremner was replaced on the mound to start the top of the seventh inning and the game took a sharp turn away from UCSB as the Gaucho bullpen surrendered seven runs in three innings of work.
“We got to get ahead in the count more and locate our fastball better,” Checketts said. “Most of their damage came off of sloppy offspeed.”
UCSB (15-5 overall. 4-3 Big West) and UC Irvine(15-5 overall, 6-1 Big West). Will play game two of their three-game series on Saturday, March 22 beginning at 3:05 p.m.