Mark Patton: Andrew Checketts Has Plenty On His Plate as UCSB Baseball Opens Season

Andrew Checketts, still busy with the remodel of Caesar Uyesaka Baseball Stadium, has another diamond in the rough to refurbish at UC Santa Barbara:

His Gaucho team.

The UCSB coach has labored for a dozen years to get his ballpark up to NCAA Regional snuff, with new lights and an ongoing fundraising drive to add field turf, restrooms and a video board.

But a major turnover of his roster has Checketts wondering just how NCAA-worthy his team will be, too.

“We have work to do on turning it into a polished product,” he began, “but I really do like the young talent.

“We have a few older, experienced guys sprinkled in there, but we’re still working on the polish and figuring out some baseball things.”

Opening Day looms just a few days away. The Gauchos will begin their season against Minnesota at 4 p.m. Friday at the Sanderson Ford College Baseball Classic in Surprise, Arizona.

Checketts wonders how many surprises await him in the four-day event. The Gauchos will also be tested by New Mexico on Saturday, Minnesota again on Sunday, and nationally ranked Oregon State on Monday.

Their home-opening series is a four-game set against Oregon that begins Feb. 24.

UCSB was picked to repeat as Big West Conference champion in this week’s coaches’ survey, receiving eight of the 11 first-place votes.

Collegiate Baseball News ranked the Gauchos No. 14 in its preseason national poll.

But Checketts still shrugged when Noozhawk asked about their chances of advancing to an unprecedented fourth consecutive NCAA Regional.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t even know who to play.”

There are logjams of deserving players everywhere, many of whom have little or no experience at the Division I level. His challenge the next month will be to find enough playing time to develop and evaluate them all.

“We were talking about it as a staff the other day — ‘Will they let us hit 11 guys?’ — because you want to give them reps and at-bats,” Checketts said. “We’ve had years here when the lineup discussions that Ferg (assistant coach Donegal Fergus) and I were having were real easy.

“Maybe there was one decision to make, like, ‘Who are we going to catch?’ This year it’s going to be a little bit more difficult, trying to get guys opportunities.”

He has been excited to come to the ballpark with “the tools” in his Gaucho kit. But a fall scrimmage at Pepperdine showed just how much work will be required.

“We won all the carnival games,” he said. “We threw it the hardest. We hit the most home runs in BP. We won the strongman competition. We won the uniform model competition …

“… And they beat the crap out of us in baseball.”

He’s undaunted, though.

“It’s going to take a little bit of time,” he said. “We’re going to have some young guys who will look amazing at times and look horrible at other times. We’ve got to figure out how to put them in the right spots.”

Broc of Ages

UCSB did get a break from the extra year of player eligibility that the NCAA is allowing because of the coronavirus-shortened season of 2020.

Power-hitting outfielders Broc Mortensen and Christian Kirtley, who blasted 27 home runs between them last season, have both returned for a do-over of their senior season.

“They were looking at their options when they didn’t get drafted, and independent ball wasn’t that sexy,” Checketts said.

“Both of them still had some academic work to do, so they were going to come back to campus during the fall anyway.”

Mortensen, a Ventura High School grad who has hit 31 homers the last two years after having played football for Cal Poly as a freshman, has a lock on right field. He has a good shot at the school record of 42 career homers that Matt Wilkerson slugged from 2002 to 2005.

“He’s led the conference in home runs for two years in a row,” Checketts pointed out. “He’s improving, too. He’s becoming more of a complete hitter.”

Kirtley batted .300 with 11 homers as last year’s starting leftfielder. But with a “stuffed outfield,” as Checketts calls it, he’s also working him out at catcher and first base.

Newcomers in the outfield include Arizona State transfer Ivan Brethowr, a 6-foot-6 and 240-pound tower of power who runs the 40-yard dash in 6.2 seconds.

Junior college transfers Jonah Sebring from Golden West in Huntington Beach (.411, 22 steals) and Jared Sundstrom from Santa Rosa (.400, 16 steals) have made strong bids for the centerfield position.

Redshirt freshman Josh Williams has also asserted himself there during the most recent workouts.

Jesse Brown, a fleet-footed catcher who spent most of his freshman season as a pinch runner, is also getting a long look in centerfield.

“You’ll probably see more platooning than we’ve done in the past,” Checketts said.

First Things First

Checketts did thin the crowd in center by one player when he moved sophomore LeTrey McCollum to first base.

Leo Mosby, a sophomore who was expected to play the position, will most likely serve as a designated hitter as he continues to rehabilitate an injured shoulder that sidelined him after last season’s 7-for-19 start.

“We put Trey over at first and he’s picked it up fast,” Checketts said. “He looked like he’s been doing it since he was 5 years old, and he’s a big (6-foot-4) target over there.

“He’s physical, he put on weight, and he’s got really good bat-to-ball skills. He handles the strike zone and is one of our better runners. He’s starting to turn it loose offensively.”

Brown and Kirtley are insurance policies at catcher. Junior John Newman Jr., who hit .337 in 101 at-bats last year, and sophomore Aaron Parker, who batted .375 in a mostly pinch-hitting role, figure to see most of the time behind the plate.

Checketts’ depth all over the field gives him time to develop such imposing freshmen as 6-foot-6 catcher Nick Putnam and 6-foot-5 first baseman Jake Dodge.

Sophomore Zander Darby, who hit seven home runs in 108 at-bats last year while manning several infield positions, has settled in as the permanent third baseman.

“We’ve had a pretty good run of physical, left-handed-hitting third basemen with (Cole) Cummings and (Bryce) Willits, and Zander is in the same mode,” Checketts said. “He’s got more power and is a little bit more of a dynamic athlete than those guys were, with a super-high ceiling.

“He’s not yet as refined at the plate as those guys in using all of the field and with some plate-discipline stuff, but he makes up for it with the ability to hit the ball into the gap and out of the ballpark.”

Planting Oakley at Shortstop

Replacing All-American Jordan Sprinkle at shortstop was one of Checketts’ biggest tasks during the fall.

He threw several infielders into a competition for the spot, including Torrance High recruit Corey Nunez. The elite defensive skills of the lanky-tall freshman remind him of Clay Fisher, the shortstop on his College World Series team of 2016.

But steady junior Nick Oakley, a Santa Barbara High graduate who batted .260 as a second baseman last year, stood out during the fall tryout.

“His instincts are all really good,” Checketts said. “He’s really competitive. He’s got a level of toughness and some confidence out there.

“He’s also got some leadership skills that he’s really grown into, and so we trust him. When the ball is hit at him, we feel good about it.”

If Oakley sticks at short, Sebring would most likely move in from the outfield to take his place on the right side of the infield. Other candidates at second are sophomore Justin Trimble out of Arroyo Grande High, Bakersfield College recruit Jose Ruiz and freshman Skyler Chang.

The pitching staff, like the field positions, is young but talented. The Gauchos do have a veteran ace in Mike Gutierrez, who went 9-1 with a team-best 3.19 ERA as last year’s No. 2 starter.

Checketts said the junior lefthander is even better this year. Gutierrez was voted as the Big West Preseason Pitcher of the Year and Collegiate Baseball News tabbed  him as a Preseason Second-Team All-American.

“Last year it felt like he was a one-and-a-half pitch guy,” Checketts said. “The changeup was the one pitch and the fastball was the half-a-pitch. The breaking ball wasn’t really a pitch at all.

“But this year it feels like he’s got three legitimate pitches. He’s changed the profile on his fastball — his command is better and the velocity is up. The changeup is still the changeup, and he’s really developed the breaking ball, too, to throw it for a strike and put people away.”

A Mound of Success

UCSB’s pitching depth has helped ease the pain of the season-ending elbow injury suffered last fall by Ryan Gallagher. The freshman All-American posted a win-loss record of 8-0 with 3.25 ERA as last year’s No. 3 starter.

Four of this year’s freshmen — Reed Moring, Tyler Bremner, Frank Camarillo and Hudson Barrett — are all willing and able to take his place.

“All four of those guys have a chance to be Friday aces at some point in their careers,” Checketts said.

“The Moring kid really came on,” he added. “He’s really polished. He was pretty much 91-to-93 (mph) with a really good breaking ball, and he developed a change and added a slider.

“He has four legitimate pitches that are all above average. He’s got really good fastball command and throws a lot of strikes. He’s really thrown well.”

Bremner isn’t quite as polished, Checketts said, “but his fastball is electric … He’s got serious upside, as does Camarillo.”

He’s tempted to use the left-handed Barrett in the role of “fireman,” the old-school nickname for a long reliever who will finish a game.

“Out of that group, he’s got some mentality that we think makes him most ready to close a game,” Checketts said. “His stuff plays up in short outings. He’s been kind of 90-to-94 (mph), but it wouldn’t surprise me to see him in an amped-up, save situation go from 92 to 95.

“He’s got a real changeup and a solid breaking ball.”

He’s got a trio of veterans — juniors Carter Benbrook and J.D. Callahan, along with sophomore Matt Ager — to pitch important innings as either a starter or reliever.

Ager (2-0, five saves, 3.55 ERA) has the inside track on a weekend starters’ role based on his performance during fall workouts.

“His stuff has improved,” Checketts said. “His fastball velocity has improved. His secondary stuff has improved.

“I think he did spend a lot of time in the fall trying to make his stuff better and his command got a little bit loose. He was in the middle of the plate too much with his heater. And so we’ve really tried these last couple of weeks to tie it all together.”

Bullish About the Bullpen

Benbrook, a lefthander who sat out last season after undergoing elbow surgery, was picked to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association’s Preseason All-America Third Team. He had a team-high five saves and a 3.02 ERA in 2021.

“We talked about starting him but it looks we have other guys who can do it,” Checketts said. “One of the good things you can say about he and Barrett is that they’re not scared. They want the ball in those moments.”

Junior Sam Whiting has emerged of late as the short-inning closer.

“He’s really been consistent with his velocity at 94-95 (mph), and last year it was 88-to-90,” Checketts said. “It was a big jump, and the slider’s good.

“He’s had a really dominant back end of the fall and in the beginning of the year here.”

Hard-throwing senior Clayton Hall could become a key to the bullpen if he recovers from some health issues.

Other returning relievers in the mix are juniors Nick Welch, Alex Schrier and Elliot Gallegos, as well as sophomores Brady Huddlestun, Michael Rice and Michael Splaine.

Sorting it all out has made Checketts even busier than usual.

“I was in the bullpen for five hours yesterday — just in the bullpen,” he said.

But ready or not, the season begins this weekend.

“We have the potential to be a very good team,” Checketts said. “There’s enough talent. It’s young talent.”

And the aging process is about to begin.