The UC Santa Barbara baseball team is one win away from clinching a spot in the Big West Tournament.
The Gauchos held on for a 5-4 victory over Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday afternoon as closer Cole Tryba navigated out of trouble in the late innings to earn an 11-out save.
Jackson Flora got the start for the Gauchos and earned the win, while registering 11 strikeouts in 5.1 innings on the mound.
The visiting Roadrunners scored first in the top of the second inning on a two-out solo home run by Matt Dobson. However, the Gauchos bounced back to retake the lead in the bottom of the third.
Cole Kosciuko doubled to lead off the inning and LeTrey McCollum followed with a bloop single. Jack Holman brought in Kosciuko with a groundout and Isaac Kim scored McCollum with a sac fly, giving the Gauchos a 2-1 lead.
The Gauchos tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning with Kosciuko delivering a sacrifice fly that scored Rowan Kelly and Xavier Esquer coming home on a passed ball.
Jonathan Mendez added two hits, including a two-out RBI single that drove in Nate Vargas to give UC Santa Barbara a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning.
The Roadrunners climbed back into the game with one run in the sixth, eighth, and ninth innings. Cal State Bakersfield brought the potential go-ahead run to the plate in the top of the ninth in Evan Cloyd, who took a pitch off his elbow guard, but after review it was ruled that he had stuck his arm into the pitch to try and be hit. By rule, that action results in a strike, which was also strike three to end the game.
The second game of the three-game series against Cal State Bakersfield is on Friday, beginning at 4:35 p.m. at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
