The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (4-2) had to put their backs into it a bit to secure their first sweep of the season on Sunday, with Kellan Montgomery playing the workhorse role in front of an active Gaucho defense to keep things close while the offense toiled away before finally breaking through late.
Thanks to Montgomery holding Portland (2-5) to just one run over his first seven innings of work, Nick Husovsky’s late-game two-RBI single and two-run homer were enough to put Santa Barbara ahead and then out of reach en route to a 6-2 victory.
The win is Montgomery’s first in his hometown team’s jersey, the Dos Pueblos High School alum transferring back home after three years at Long Beach State.
Husovsky’s heroics completed what was a tremendous first weekend at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium for him as well, the grad student having joined the Gauchos this season off the back of two successful years at Ball State.
“I thought defensively, we were outstanding. Kellan throws in the zone a lot, doesn’t strike out a lot of guys, so we’ve got to be able to play defense behind him, and we did,” UCSB head coach Andrew Checketts said. “Their pitching staff did a great job, that kid that started for them had a real deceptive fastball up, we knew it was coming and couldn’t lay off it.
“He did that last week, five shutout against Purdue, so he’s good, we’re lucky that we made him throw some pitches, we took some walks early and that allowed us to get into the bullpen and do some work there. Guys hung in there, it’d be really easy to get frustrated after some of those at-bats yesterday and then today, but they did a good job hanging in there.”
For the first time this season, the Gauchos did not score first on Sunday, as Portland scratched across a run by the narrowest of margins in the third inning, manufacturing the score with a leadoff walk, bunt single, broken-up double play and sacrifice fly.
For the best part of two hours, that was the only blow that either team could land, the only rain cloud threatening the Montgomery’s homecoming parade.
Finally, in the seventh inning, Husovsky and the Gaucho offense blew that cloud away. Santa Barbara had already left the bases loaded twice in the game, but after a Rowan Kelly single and back-to-back hit batters filled up the bags with nobody out, Santa Barbara made sure the third time was the charm.
Husovsky smacked a grounder just past Portland’s diving third baseman, bringing home Kelly and Cade Goldstein to put the home team on top.
Noah Karliner’s one-out single re-loaded the bases, and the Gauchos converted again, this time Colin Beazizo lifting a sacrifice fly into left field. Max Stagg scampered home, and it was 3-1 Santa Barbara.
Just like that, Montgomery’s return home was back on track. And the veteran righty had pitched so efficiently that he was still on the mound after his offense had given him the lead.
Pitching for the Gauchos at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium for the first time, the local kid punctuated a perfect first inning with his first strikeout of the day, then set the Pilots down in order again in the second.
After surrendering that one run in the third, he faced the minimum in the fourth, thanks in part to some well-timed defense.
Gaucho Head Coach Andrew Checketts called for a pitchout at the same time as Portland attempted a hit-and-run play, meaning catcher Nate Vargas received the pitch already set to throw down to second, which he did in plenty of time to catch the runner.
Montgomery picked up another K, then induced a soft lineout to Goldstein at second to end the frame. After working around a leadoff single in the fifth, Montgomery was perfect again in the sixth and seventh, earning the right to return to the mound for the eighth.
He did not finish that inning, but received a standing ovation after a two-out single put a second run on the board for Portland and an end to Montgomery’s afternoon. AJ Krodel was the reliever tasked with stopping the Pilots’ rally, and he answered that call with an inning-ending strikeout.
After toiling at the plate all afternoon, the Gaucho hitters had something of a party in the eighth inning, putting together a rally which evolved from crucial insurance into a game-clinching crooked number.
After Goldstein was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game, Jordan Marian made the most of his pinch-hit opportunity, driving his first collegiate hit to the wall in right center field for an RBI double.
That prompted a pitching change, only for Husovsky to greet the new Portland arm with an opposite-field, two-run home run. And the fun nearly kept going.
Jonathan Mendez smacked what looked like his first homer of the season as the very next man up, but had to settle for a triple off the wall. Then Karliner hit a line drive that was very gone but also very foul. His at-bat (and the inning) ended with another hard-hit ball, right into the glove of the Pilot third baseman.
Those four runs set Krodel up for a comfortable first save of the season, though the Santa Barbara outfielders did have to stretch their legs one last time. Kelly took care of a fly ball in right center for the first out, then Karliner ran a long way from his position in right field to track down the second. Krodel then put the game and series to bed with a strikeout.
The Gauchos will now head south for their first mid-week game of the season, paying a visit to LMU on Tuesday, Feb. 24 at Page Stadium in Los Angeles. Santa Barbara will return home on Friday, Feb. 27 for the first game of a three-game set against Utah.
Season and single-game tickets are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets or by calling the ticket office at (805) 893-UCSB(8272).