For the second time in three games the UC Santa Barbara baseball team failed to score a run against Oregon pitching as the Ducks narrowly escaped Caesar Uyesaka Stadium with a 2-0 non-conference victory on Sunday afternoon.
The hotly contested series featured elite pitching as both lineups struggled to put runs on the board. On Sunday, Oregon starting pitcher Cal Scolari continued the trend with six scoreless innings on the mound, including nine strikeouts. Scolari, a University of San Diego transfer, was last season’s West Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year, and kept UCSB’s hitters off balance throughout the contest.The Gauchos could only muster three hits and failed to capitalize on solid outings by starting pitcher Kellan Montgomery and reliever AJ Krodel.
“We scored eight runs and they scored eight runs. We just scored them on the wrong days,” said UC Santa Barbara coach Andrew Checketts. “I don’t know if there was a whole lot offensively that was good to take away from it. We’ve got to be better than that.”
The Ducks got on the board in the top of the fourth inning on a solo homer by Angel Laya. Montgomery ran into more trouble in the top of the fifth inning when he hit back-to-back batters with breaking balls. However, AJ Krodel entered in relief and ended the threat, inducing Dominic Hellman into a foul pop out and striking out Drew Smith.
“You know, positives—Tryba back doing his thing and looking normal, AJ pitching to what he’s capable of, he hadn’t done that yet this year as good as his stuff is,” Checketts said. “For us to be good, they’ve got to be good at the back end of the game, and they both were this weekend.”
While the pitching staff delivered, UCSB’s offense continued to search for consistency. The Gauchos stranded runners in key moments throughout the game and came closest to breaking through in the ninth inning. Noah Karliner opened the frame with a deep fly ball to the warning track, and later, Nick Husovsky narrowly missed a game-tying home run, pulling a deep drive just foul down the left field line.
“When you are struggling to get hits you are hoping that they hit one out of the ball park,” Checketts said, acknowledging the team’s ongoing offensive woes. “We needed a little magic there, and it didn’t show up.”
With the loss, UCSB (16-9 overall, 5-4 Big West conference) now turns its attention to another challenging matchup, traveling to Los Angeles to face the USC Trojans, currently ranked No. 12 nationally. The midweek game is scheduled for Tuesday evening at Dedeaux Field.
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