The UC Santa Barbara baseball team suffered its first conference series loss and sequence of back-to-back defeats since March on Sunday, falling, 6-1, to Cal State Fullerton at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
With three weeks left in the regular season, the Gauchos (27-14, 13-8 Big West) and Titans (21-21, 13-8 Big West) now both sit two games out of first place in The Big West standings, behind UC San Diego and Cal Poly. Santa Barbara holds the tiebreakers over both the Tritons and Mustangs, while both of those teams remain on the Titans’ schedule.
Fullerton did its scoring in bunches, with two-run home runs in the first, second and fifth innings, the last of which came after the wild swing between a diving catch by Liam Barrett in right field and a dropped fly ball in left.
The Gauchos got their run in the bottom of the fourth after a pair of singles set up Cole Kosciusko’s sacrifice fly.
Donovann Jackson, Raymond Olivas and Stunner Gonzales combined to prevent Fullerton from scoring any more runs, with Olivas’ three shutout innings a highlight. The offense, meanwhile, struggled to create any additional threats. Corey Nunez’s seventh-inning double was Santa Barbara’s only extra-base hit of the game, and he was left stranded at third.
The Gauchos conclude their four-game homestand on Tuesday, April 28 as they welcome a No. 1 UCLA squad that is coming off a difficult weekend against Sacramento State, the Hornets becoming just the fourth team to hand the Bruins a loss this season in Sunday’s series finale. General admission tickets for Tuesday’s game are sold out, with limited availability remaining for students only on game day. Gates will open at 3:30 p.m. Fans can also catch all the action by watching live on ESPN+.