HONOLULU, Hawai’i — UC Santa Barbara skidded to an almost certain end of its baseball season on Saturday when Stone Miyao’s two-run, walk-off home run with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning capped a wild, 13-11 victory for Hawai’i to complete a three-game sweep of the Gauchos at Les Murakami Stadium.
The drama included the ejection of UCSB coach Andrew Checketts for arguing with the umpires about their failure to call a foul ball on a play which triggered a two-run rally for the Rainbow Warriors. The sixth-inning uprising saddled the Gauchos with an 11-8 deficit.
They fell behind by as many as seven runs, 9-2, in the fourth before catching up at 11-all with a three-run eighth.
The defeat was UCSB’s fourth in a row — its longest losing streak of the season — and worsened its RPI computer power ranking to 57. The NCAA’s Selection Show will be televised on ESPN2, as well as on the ESPN Ap, on Monday at 9 a.m. PDT.
The Gauchos (35-20, 18-12 Big West Conference), who were once ranked in the national top 10 by Collegiate Baseball News, played just slightly better than .500 baseball (18-16) over the last two months of the season.
They led the Big West race by a one-game margin before their collapse began in last Sunday’s series finale at Cal Poly. UCSB’s four consecutive losses dropped it into a tie for fifth place with the Rainbow Warriors (29-20, 18-12) in the league’s final standings.
The victory was the ninth in a row at home for Hawai’i, which became the first team to sweep the Gauchos of a series since Oregon turned the trick in 2019. The Rainbow Warriors roughed up UCSB’s slumping pitching staff for 13 hits, giving them 45 in the three-game series. They scored 38 runs on the weekend.
Saturday’s game started the same as the first two of this week, with UCSB taking a first-inning lead. Ivan Brethowr hit his 11th home run of the season with a two-run shot to dead centerfield.
But Hawai’i wasted no time in bouncing back for the third-straight game. UCSB starter Mike Gutierrez was victimized by three cheap hits in the bottom of the first: a bloop single to left; an easy, two-out bouncer in front of home plate which catcher Aaron Parker gloved before falling down; and a run-scoring, infield single to third base.
Gutierrez gave up four solid hits during a four-run third — one which bounced right past his left fielder for a three-base error — before leaving the game with a 5-2 deficit. UCSB committed three errors in the contest which led to three unearned runs.
The Rainbow Warriors surged to a 9-2 lead after erupting for four runs in the fourth inning.
The Gauchos rallied for four of their own in the fifth on Parker’s RBI single, a two-run double off the top of the right-field wall by LeTrey McCollum, and a sacrifice fly by Broc Mortensen.
McCollum went 3-for-5 to lead UCSB’s 13-hit attack. Parker, Jared Sundstrom, and Nick Oakley added two hits apiece.
Christian Kirtley’s two-run double in the sixth reduced the Gaucho deficit to 11-9.
Hawai’i got both runs back in the bottom of the inning with the help of the disputed non-call. After Sean Rimmer rapped his fourth hit of the game, a ball that pinch-hitter Jared Quandt hit straight down appeared to deflect off his leg and spin toward the mound.
Pitcher Brady Huddlestun hesitated a moment after catching it. After seeing that the umpires weren’t calling it a foul ball, he threw wildly over McCollum’s head at first base for a three-base, run-scoring error.
The umpires declined to review the play even though the television replay showed the ball getting redirected off Quandt’s leg. Checketts argued their decision loudly and long before his ejection.
Quandt scored moments later on Zach Storbakker’s suicide squeeze bunt, improving the Hawai’i lead to 11-8.
UCSB rallied for three runs in the top of the eighth. McCollum scored Zander Darby when he beat out an infield single and Mortensen followed with a two-run single.
The last five Gauchos, however, were retired in order — three by strikeout.
Sam Whiting held the Rainbow Warriors in check, striking out four with two innings of no-hit relief.
But J.D. Callihan didn’t have the same success in the bottom of the ninth. He started off by walking No. 9 batter Jordan Donahue, who had struck out in all four of his previous at-bats.
Donahue was sacrificed to second and then scored in front of Miyao’s home run to right. The homer was his second of the season, with the first coming in Friday’s victory over UCSB.