Needing a spark after four straight defeats, UC Santa Barbara Baseball Head Coach Andrew Checketts played the matchup and won big.

The Gauchos (15-6, 5-4 Big West) put Nico Libed, who entered the day with a .143 batting average, into the second spot of their lineup for the series finale against Hawai’i (12-10, 3-6 Big West) and the junior catcher delivered big time.

He reached base in all five plate appearances, going 3-for-3 with a double, two stolen bases and a pair of runs scored. Libed also threw out a runner to help the cause of Santa Barbara pitcher Kellan Montgomery, whose steady hand over five innings set the Gauchos on their way to a 5-1 win. 

Jonathan Mendez drove in three runs on the day, two of them Libed, and Van Froling wrapped up the result with a career-best outing and his first collegiate save.

Montgomery got the Gauchos going in the right direction on Sunday afternoon, striking out the first two Rainbow Warriors he faced in a scoreless top of the first, but the offense made sure the momentum stayed with the Blue and Gold by landing the first blow on the scoreboard in the same inning. 

Rowan Kelly was hit by a pitch and Libed smacked a single into right to put two Gauchos on just four pitches into the ballgame, then the pair pulled off a double steal. Cole Kosciusko’s RBI groundout put the home team on the board first.
 
Montgomery worked a quick and clean second, then navigated out of a tough spot in the third, with some help from William Vasseur. With runners on the corners and one out, Vasseur fielded a chopper at third base and decided to throw home to prevent the run.

Libed and Montgomery were both involved in the rundown to keep Hawai’i off the board, though the play did end with runners on second and third. The very next pitch was a grounder right at first baseman Nick Husovsky to end the inning.
 
In the bottom of the third, Libed stole his second base of the day, swiping second after a full-count walk. After Kosciusko and Noah Karliner both also walked (Kosciusko intentionally), Mendez cashed in with a base hit to the right-center gap, plating both Libed and Kosciusko to make it 3-0 and give the Gauchos their first crooked number of the weekend.
 
Vasseur made another great defensive play in the top of the fourth, firing a strong enough throw to second that Santa Barbara was able to turn a double play even though the Warrior baserunner had gotten a huge head-start with the hit-and-run play on.

That twin killing got Montgomery through the inning having faced the minimum. There was more great defense in the fifth, with Libed catching Hawai’i designated hitter Garret Greco napping. The former took too much of a lead off first base, and Libed had the wherewithal to throw behind him to first base, making for a crucial first out of the inning.
 
The catcher’s great day only continued from there as he was due to lead off the bottom of the fifth and drove a pitch deep to left center, missing what would have been his first collegiate home run by no more than five feet.

Still, the Gauchos turned his lead-off double into a run, with another Mendez bases-loaded hit bringing him home and extending the home team’s advantage to 4-0.
 
A lead-off single and a walk brought Montgomery’s day to an end with loud applause from the hometown faithful in the top of the sixth, though that hit would come around and score the lone run of the game for the visitors.

Froling made sure it was the only run despite the Warriors putting runners on the corners with just one out, as he entered and fired six consecutive strikes for back-to-back K’s to end the threat. He stranded another Hawai’i runner on third in the top of the seventh, with help from another strikeout and a diving catch from Colin Beazizo in left field.
 
Beazizo helped his pitcher out again in the bottom of the seventh, setting in motion a sequence that ended with the Gauchos putting their fifth run on the board. After Vasseur’s two-out single, Beazizo laid down a bunt that the Warriors’ catcher fielded cleanly but overthrew to first base, the ball sailing into right field.

Vasseur never stopped running, even when Matt Fonteno put up the stop sign at third base. Luckily for Vasseur, the catcher mishandled the throw in from right, allowing him to score safely.
 
Froling worked a perfect eighth inning, then made sure that a two-out double did not turn into a ninth-inning rally, ending the game with his sixth strikeout of the day. With 3 2/3 innings of work in the book, Sunday was the sophomore lefty’s longest collegiate outing and his largest strikeout haul.

Quotables

From head coach Andrew Checketts: “I thought Kellan set the tone for the day. Coming out in that first inning, had his best stuff and was attacking, I think he set the tone for the day on the mound,” Checketts said. “We talk a lot about when we’re at home, that first blow we can land is defensively. Starts on the mound, and then he really set the tone coming out, striking out the first two guys and getting after it a little bit.”
 
“Nice job by Nico, right? He’s hitting .140 and we stuff him in the two hole, just the way the matchup was working, we thought we’d get some on base out of him against a guy that has a little loose command, and he did what he was supposed to do,” Checketts said. “He got deep in counts, got on base what, four, five times, he walked once, so that was a big game for him. We needed him to step up and he did.”
 
“Our backs were up against the wall, you can’t get swept at home and expect to be a postseason team or to win the conference championship,” Checketts said. “So, our backs were up against the wall, and we got a good response out of them. We probably talked a lot after day one, and then today I was like, ‘we’re done talking, it’s time to do it. We need some performance, some production, not words but actual actions.’ I thought it was a good response.”
 
“(Froling) got a lot of outings last year, has had a lot of potential, he was nicked up to start the year, but he’s capable of doing that,” Checketts said. “We all believe that he’s capable of doing that, so that was a nice outing for him. Hopefully he can build on that.”
 
From Nico Libed: “We went on that skid for a little bit, those last couple games but we didn’t lose faith in our guys, trusted everyone,” Libed said. “We were just getting a little antsy there the last couple games, we just had to stay grounded, stay present, make them come to us and hammer pitches that we could handle, and that’s what we did today.”

The Gauchos will spend Spring Break in non-conference action, first with a visit to Saint Mary’s in Moraga on Tuesday, March 24 at 4 p.m. Santa Barbara then hosts No. 21 Oregon next weekend, March 27-29 at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.

Tickets for all three games against the Ducks are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets.