Overview:
UCSB coach Andrew Checketts will return 10 pitchers from a staff that ranked 11th nationally with last year’s earned run average of 3.92
Andrew Checketts employed some gallows humor to brush off the tint of gray that came with turning 50 this autumn.
A mixed color scheme, both festive and funereal, was at play when he and teenage daughter Amelia celebrated the milestone birthdays they reached within a few days of each other.
“We did a 50 and Sweet 16 party,” Checketts told Noozhawk, “and you had to wear either pink … or black.”
But the more things change with time, the more they stay the same for the coach who’s won the most games (489-267-5 record) at the best rate (.647 winning percentage) in UC Santa Barbara baseball history.
Checketts will enter his 15th Gaucho season in two months with another one of college baseball’s top pitchers heading a deep and talented staff.
Junior Jackson Flora was listed as the No. 1 college pitching prospect for Major League Baseball in several mock drafts released this month.
“He’s had a really good fall,” Checketts said. “The last two (UCSB aces), Tyler Bremner and Matt Ager, both had some bumps in the fall, physically, which slowed them down a little bit.
“Jackson’s fall has been smoother than that, which has been nice.
“It looks like he’s been able to accomplish more in continuing his development.”
First and Foremost
Three first-round picks were among the 70 Gauchos who’ve been drafted during Checketts’ tenure at UCSB.
Dillon Tate was taken by the Texas Rangers with the No. 4 pick in 2015. The St. Louis Cardinals made Michael McGreevey the No. 18 overall selection in 2021.
Bremner became the highest draft pick in Gaucho history last summer when the Los Angeles Angels selected him No. 2 overall and signed him to a bonus of $7,689,525.
That trio doesn’t even include Shane Bieber, the recruited walk-on whom Checketts transformed into a pitcher worthy of the 2020 American League Cy Young Award.
Bieber, the now-Cleveland Guardians’ fourth-round draft selection in 2016, bounced back from the reconstructive elbow surgery he underwent during the spring of 2024 to win Game 4 at this year’s World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Bieber and two Gaucho teammates who’ve also pitched in the majors — Kyle Nelson and Noah Davis — plan to attend next month’s Alumni Weekend when UCSB celebrates the 10th anniversary of its 2016 College World Series season.
That club will be honored during the alumni game at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 16. A brunch and golf tournament at Glen Annie Golf Club will follow beginning at 10:15 a.m. Jan. 17.
“We’ve had about 26 guys respond with RSVPs so far,” Checketts said of the 2016 alumni. “We’re going to present them with rings because we didn’t have money for it back then.”
Caesar Uyesaka Stadium’s new video board will also be unveiled during the weekend festivities. The California Coastal Commission gave approval for its construction on Friday.
“Unless we get some crazy weather, or some other issue, we’ll have it operating for the alumni,” Checketts said.
UCSB will ring in the season at Southern Mississippi on the weekend of Feb. 13-15. The three-game series will pit two of college baseball’s best pitching staffs.
The Golden Eagles, who’ve earned bids to the last nine NCAA tournaments, ranked 13th nationally with last year’s team earned-run average of 4.03. The Gauchos were 11th with an ERA of 3.92.
Flora Arrangement
Flora, a first-round All-Big West Conference selection last year, stands tallest on a Gaucho mound that returns 10 pitchers.
USA Today projects that the Baltimore Orioles will take him with the No. 7 overall pick in July’s MLB draft.
Bleacher Report predicts that Flora will be reunited with Bremner and go to the Angels at No. 12.
MLB Pipeline has Flora following Tate’s path by going to the Rangers with the No. 16 pick.
Pipeline’s scouting report said his 6-foot-5 frame and arm strength “should intrigue most teams.”
Flora’s fastball averaged 97 mph last season and occasionally touched 100.
“He’ll employ two different sliders, both of which can flash plus,” MLB Pipeline scout Jim Callis said. “He has plus feel to spin and just needs to gain a little bit more consistency with shape.
“His hard changeup is coming along, a kick change with downer splitter depth.
“A solid strike-thrower who maintains his velocity, Flora might not have the same feel to pitch Bremner had, but he’s more physical than his predecessor.”
Three of Flora’s best games — highlighted by a one-hit, complete-game shutout of Cal Poly — were his last three of the regular season.
He allowed just five hits and three earned runs while striking out 32 with only three walks over the course of 21⅓ innings.
Checketts said it took Flora a while to shake the “relief-pitcher profile” of his freshman season when he was “just trying to throw it by everybody.”
“Depending on the competition, he was able to get away with it,” he said. “But as the hitters started to catch up, he had to locate better.
“I think he showed that in the second half of the season, and that’s continued on in the fall.”
Flora finished his sophomore season with a 6-3 record, 3.60, ERA and 87 strikeouts in 77⅓ innings. It was enough to earn him an invitation to last summer’s Team USA collegiate training camp.
Game Changer
Checketts had Flora work on his changeup to make his elite fastball more effective.
“It just felt like he was fat with the fastball last year in the games that he got into trouble,” he said.
“If you don’t have that third pitch, that changeup that can keep guys off of you, then it’s even more important to be able to locate or have your fastball be a little bit more slippery.”
The changeup and curveball were Checketts’ two best pitches when he went 11-1 to earn second-team All-America honors at Oregon State during his senior season of 1998.
“I didn’t throw hard, so I had to be able to do that,” he said.
The competition for spots in UCSB’s starting rotation has been fierce this fall. Calvin Proskey, Nathan Aceves and A.J. Krodel all got their turns at starting last year.
Lefthander Cole Tryba, last year’s closer with six saves, is making his own bid after a summer in which he was selected to the all-star team of the prestigious Cape Cod League.
No one has more experience at starting, however, than senior transfer Kellan Montgomery.
The former Dos Pueblos High School star transferred to UCSB after posting a 9-4 record last season as Long Beach State’s No. 1 starter.
He’s won 16 games in his collegiate career, two of which came against the Gauchos.
“He’s had a good fall,” Checketts said. “Some of the things that we felt he needed to work on — bringing back a curveball and adding a little velocity — has been pretty good.
“He struck out six in a row during a two-inning outing this fall.
“He was up to 94 and was thinking, ‘That work was good … I’m going to do more.’”
But the competitiveness of fall can be a double-edge sword.
“He was trying to keep up with Flora in some long toss stuff,” Checketts said. “The next week, he looked done by the first pitch.
“But it was a good experience to have and learn from during the fall.
“He’s been awesome and is in the mix to start.
“He’s a strike thrower with a lot of experience, and I’m glad he’s in our dugout and not somebody else’s.”
TCU transfer Chase Hoover, Montgomery’s cross-town rival at San Marcos High four seasons ago, has recovered from a back injury that limited him to just 15⅓ innings last year.
“He had a productive fall,” Checketts said. “His changeup and breaking ball are improved.
“We just didn’t push him a lot in chasing the velocity because of the history with the back stuff.”
Ray of Hope
The pitcher making the biggest jump this fall has been Ray Olivas.
He went 1-1 with one save and a 4.01 ERA in 18 relief appearances last season as a freshman but has pitched his way this fall “into the mix to win a starting job,” Checketts said.
“He’s put on some weight and the velocity is starting to tick up,” he added. “He’s been up to 94, and last year he was kind of 88 to 92.
“He’s added some depth to his breaking ball, which has given him a fourth pitch, and he’s a strike thrower.”
Several other veterans — Donovann Jackson (4-0, 2.06 ERA, two saves), Nic Peterson (1-0, 5.63), Van Froling (1-0, 6.87) and Stunner Gonzales (1-0, 0.00) — give Checketts even more experience.
But a freshman newcomer — 6-5 righthander Josh Jannicelli from Santa Rosa’s Cardinal Newman High — threw his cap into the ring during last weekend’s final fall-ball game at Loyola Marymount.
“He’s had a pretty good fall, and it felt like everything came together when he went up against a team from the other dugout,” Checketts said. “You never know with the young guys how they’re going to react to that … Get nervous or step on the gas?
“He stepped on the gas. His velocity was up to 94, he had a really good feel for a changeup, and he landed a lot of breaking balls.
“He struck out two of three and was pretty dominant in that inning.”
Checketts also gave high marks to Proskey and Aceves. They were among a parade of Gaucho pitchers that allowed the Lions just five hits and no walks with 10 strikeouts.
UCSB lost 3-2, however, on a passed ball in the 10th inning.
“It was a pillow fight,” Checketts said.
But, once again, Gaucho fans can rest easy that they have a pitching staff to dream on.
