The UC Santa Barbara baseball team secured its first Big West series win since March in emphatic fashion Saturday afternoon, scoring five runs in the first inning, then piling on five more before the seventh to take a 10-3 win over UC San Diego on Saturday in La Jolla.
The Gauchos improved to 9-5 in the Big West and 24-12 overall. UC San Diego is 11-6, 22-14.
 Corey Nunez hit his first collegiate home run, with Jonah Sebring and John Newman, Jr. adding long balls of their own in the game.
Hudson Barrett worked five scoreless innings to earn the win in his first collegiate start.
The Gauchos wasted no time getting going Saturday afternoon, with the first five batters reaching base safely. Zander Darby led off the game with a single, then Josh William and Justin Trimble were both hit by pitches to load the bases. Broc Mortensen doubled to right center to score two, then Christian Kirtley worked a walk to reload the bases. LeTrey McCollum worked a four-pitch, one-out walk to make it 3-0, then Nunez collected his first two RBIs with a two-out single through the left side.
Barrett took the mound for his first collegiate start and promptly shut down the Tritons, retiring the first six hitters he faced. The freshman lefty then worked himself out of trouble in the third, escaping a bases-loaded, two-out jam with one of his eight strikeouts on the day. He struck out two more in the fourth, then stranded Tritons on first and third to end the fifth inning.
By the time Barrett left the game, the Gaucho offense had added a pair of runs to the lead, both on lead-off home runs. Sebring replaced Trimble to start the second inning and promptly crushed his second home run of the season, continuing his eventful weekend. Then, to lead off the top of the fifth, Nunez got all of a 3-1 pitch and launched it over the fence in left center for his first collegiate home run.
UCSB padded their lead in the top of the sixth, scoring three runs in the frame.
Up 10-0, Nick Welch relieved Barrett on the mound and worked a clean bottom of the sixth, but hit some trouble in the seventh. A walk and then four consecutive one-out singles plated three runs for UC San Diego before Michael Rice was able to induce a double play to get out of the inning.
With their three home runs Saturday afternoon, the Gauchos became the first team in The Big West to hit 60 home runs this season. No other team in the conference has more than 40.
Barrett’s line from his first collegiate start reads: five innings pitched, zero runs allowed on three hits and two walks, with eight strikeouts.