Kellan Montgomery battled through eight innings, while Nico Libed and Liam Barrett came up with clutch hits to lead the UC Santa Barbara baseball team to a 3-1 win over first-place UC San Diego in the rubber match of a crucial Big West Conference series on Sunday afternoon.
The victory elevates the Gauchos to within a game of the Tritons in the Big West Conference standings and provides momentum going into a non-conference matchup against No. 1 ranked UCLA on Tuesday.
“It got better as the game went along. He gave up the homer and that was it,” said UCSB coach Andrew Checketts. “Sunday is mentality day. When you have someone who can set the tone for you like that it gives you a chance to breathe a little bit.”
The visiting Tritons got on the board first with a solo home run by Alex Leopard in the fourth inning. From that point forward Montgomery retired the next 13 batters he faced showing incredible will and determination in the process as he exceeded 120 pitches.
“I wish we go back like 30 years when you didn’t even count pitches,” Checketts joked. “I would have sent him out there for the ninth inning if I could have, but I think I would have felt pretty bad about that.”
The Gauchos’ offensive breakthrough came in the seventh inning after consecutive baserunners reached on a single and a misplayed ground ball. With two outs, Nico Libed came in to pinch hit and delivered a two-run double into the left field corner to give the Gauchos a 2-1 lead.
“Nico, he’s a really good .200 hitter,” Checketts said. “He’s better than that, he puts together competitive at-bats, we felt like at that time he gave us a really good shot. We needed a hit, he pulled the gear off in the bullpen, ran down there and did his thing, so it was pretty cool.
Montgomery returned for the eighth inning and retired the side in order, preserving the lead despite a high pitch count. In the bottom of the inning, Liam Barrett added an insurance run with a solo home run, extending the UCSB advantage to 3-1.
Van Froling came on with no outs and a runner on first in the ninth inning and struck out three consecutive batters, Including the dangerous Leopard to end the game and earn his second save of the season.
“He did a great job. He made some really good pitches there and showed a lot of poise,” said Checketts of Froling. “He didn’t have a great outing on Friday so it was a really good bounce back for him.”
The Gauchos (22-11 overall, 10-5 Big West) will travel to UCLA on Tuesday. The top-ranked Bruins are currently riding a 27 game winning streak.
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