A three-run outburst in the bottom of the ninth and an 11th-inning walk-off single off the bat of Xavier Esquer lifted UCSB Baseball to a dramatic 11-10 win over UC San Diego on Saturday at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
After a game full of back-and-forth action, the Gauchos found themselves trailing 10-7 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning.
Jonathan Mendez led off the inning with a solo home run to cut it to 10-8 before a pair of outs, a hit batter and a single put runners on the corners with UCSB facing its final out.
Esquer then drew a walk before Rowan Kelly roped an RBI single and Jack Haferkamp came home to score and tie the game at 10-10. The Gauchos then stranded the winning run at third to send the game into extras.
UCSB freshman right-hander Josh Jannicelli, who struck out three straight Tritons in the ninth to get out of the jam, was then on cruise control in extras. He fired three total scoreless innings, ending with seven strikeouts to keep the game tied at 10-10.
“I thought Josh Jannicelli was awesome today,” UCSB head coach Andrew Checketts said. “He came in with a runner on second and nobody out, was able to get that thing stopped, and then pitched fantastic. That was his first collegiate win, so that was certainly a highlight for the bullpen.”
In the bottom of the 11th, senior Corey Nunez led off with a single and redshirt sophomore Max Stagg moved him over on a sacrifice bunt. Following a strikeout, Esquer came through with a two-out RBI single up the middle to seal the victory.
“It’s actually funny because before the weekend, Coach Newman and I have a good relationship and we were talking about the weekend, we said [UCSD] would probably win the low-scoring game and [UCSB] would probably win the high-scoring game because they’ve scored runs and had trouble keeping runs off the board and we have kept runs off the board but had trouble putting them up,” Checketts said.
“He was right so far, they won the low-scoring affair, we won the high-scoring affair, which isn’t exactly how both teams typically win, so it would be nice to score a bunch tomorrow and not give up very many.”
After two scoreless frames to open the game, UCSB senior Nate Vargas hit his fourth home run of the season and his second the series to put the home team up 2-0.
UCSD immediately answered with a run in the top of the fourth, but UCSB fought back as senior Mitch Namie slugged an RBI double to left-center field to score William Vasseur and bring the lead back to 3-1.
The Gauchos continued to extend their lead in the fifth inning as Vasseur roped an RBI single and two runs came in to score on a double off the bat of Nunez to make it 6-1 heading into the sixth.
UCSD then fought back by plating four runs of its own and holding the UCSB offense off the board to trim the deficit down to 6-5 at the end of six frames.
Mendez supplied the Gauchos with a much-needed insurance run in the bottom of the seventh, driving in Liam Barrett, who singled earlier in the inning, to take a 7-5 advantage.
The Tritons fought back even stronger in the eighth and took the lead for the first time in the game on a two-out grand slam to flip the game on its head and give UCSD a 9-7 lead.
The Gauchos couldn’t score in their half of the eighth, and back-to-back doubles by the Tritons in the ninth left UCSB down 10-7 heading into the ninth, setting up the late-game heroics.
While Jannicelli put the finishing touches on the win for UCSB, Nathan Aveces turned in a strong start with three shutout innings and just two baserunners allowed via walks.
Offensively, the Gauchos collected a whopping 17 hits as Kelly, Barrett, Vargas, Mendez, Vasseur and Nunez all tallied multi-hit performances.
The Gauchos and Tritons will clash for the rubber match on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.