Overview:
UCSB’s national computer power ranking rises to No. 10 with just one Big West Conference series remaining
UC Santa Barbara hopes to play out a fairy tale at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
The Cinderella story of this year’s Gaucho baseball team — undefeated in all 22 of its home games — includes the dressing up of that once raggedy ballpark into something worthy of the NCAA’s royal ball.
UCSB is working hard to win a bid to play host to one of college baseball’s 16 NCAA Regionals.
“We know what home-field advantage looks like,” coach Andrew Checketts told Noozhawk. “We’re experiencing that this year.
“Getting to the point where you can host things like that, and it’s turnkey, is still the goal.
“It’s not turnkey now, but at least it’s in range and we feel like we have the ability to piece it together and do it.”
The 16 regional hosts will be announced May 26. The entire 64-team bracket — 30 automatic qualifiers and 34 at-large teams — will be released at 9 a.m. May 27 on ESPN2 and ESPNU.
The Gauchos (39-12 overall) appear well on track for their 15th trip to the NCAA Tournament overall and the seventh in Checketts’ 13 season as their coach.
They won their 18th straight Big West Conference game on Sunday by turning a 4-0 deficit into a 6-4 victory at Cal State Northridge to improve their first-place record in league to 23-4.
UCSB, which holds a three-game lead over second place UC Irvine, will complete its regular season with a three-game home series against last-place UC Riverside beginning Thursday.
The Big West is the only league in NCAA Division I baseball that still selects its automatic qualifier by its regular-season standings instead of with a postseason tournament.
That will change next year when Cal State Fullerton plays host to a playoff between the league’s top five teams.
UC Irvine and Long Beach State will stage the Big West Tournament the following two seasons. UCSB’s stadium wasn’t ready for such an event when bids were due several years ago.
Ripping Up in the RPI
UCSB’s RPI (rating percentage index) — a national computer power ranking used by the NCAA Selection Committee — rose to No. 10 with this weekend’s three-game sweep at Northridge.
Although that rating will take a hit, win or lose, with the series against No. 274 Riverside, the Gauchos should remain in serious consideration to play host to a four-team regional.
But is the 30-year-old stadium finally up to the task?
It wasn’t even close nine years ago when a well-armed Gaucho team led by future Major League pitchers Dillon Tate, Shane Bieber and Kyle Nelson played host to a regional 170 miles away at a minor-league stadium in Lake Elsinore.
The lack of stadium lights — a situation rectified in 2020 with the completion of a $1.6 million project — prohibited the 2015 regional from being played at Uyesaka Stadium.
“Pepperdine did it without lights (in 2006) and they basically said you can’t do that anymore because of TV and weather and moving games,” Checketts said.
“The lights give us a chance.”
The 2015 regional at Lake Elsinore was over quickly for the Gauchos. They were eliminated after consecutive defeats to San Diego State and USC.
“I don’t want to negate the experience,” Checketts said. “The ballpark was beautiful and our administration did a great job with all that they could do to make it a good experience.
“But it wasn’t a home-field advantage. It was like a home regional for San Diego State because they were just down the road — they had more fans in the stands than Gaucho fans when we played them.
“You’re not sleeping in your own bed, either. So the idea was that we’re going to do everything we can to try and get a true home-field advantage if we ever again have a team that’s worthy enough.”
His Gauchos spent a month on the road the following year when they advanced to the 2016 College World Series. They won the Vanderbilt Regional and then stunned second-ranked Louisville in the Super Regionals.
The pinch-hit, walk-off, grand-slam home run that third-string catcher Sam Cohen hit to beat the Cardinals, 4-3, remains the stuff of college baseball lore.
One Piece at a Time
UCSB’s stadium has come a long way since then-coach Al Ferrer revived the Gauchos’ program by guiding them to four NCAA Tournaments — in 1983, 1986, 1987 and 1990.
He tapped into that success to ratchet up a fund drive to renovate their bare-bones baseball field.
Ferrer enlisted local businessman Caesar Uyesaka, a Gaucho donor since the 1930s, to lead the campaign to raise $500,000 for a new stadium. Uyesaka made the first donation of $25,000.
The stadium was dedicated on Jan. 29, 1994 — barely a year before Uyesaka died at age 79 — with festivities that included the annual alumni game.
The Graham Family Clubhouse, Bob Brontsema Player Development Facility and several other improvements — most of it donated by Joanne and Patrick Graham, the parents of former Gaucho pitchers Andy and Alex Graham — were added in the years that followed.
UCSB also renovated the restrooms that are located at the corner of the parking lot serving its baseball, softball and track and field programs.
“We removed all the portable bathrooms from the ballpark this year and just directed people that way,” Checketts said. “They moved out a parking stall and created a walkway from the entrance of the ballpark to those bathrooms.
“It’s not ideal, long term, but it is better than walking past smelly port-a-potties on your way to concessions. I haven’t heard a lot of complaints about it.”
The latest improvement was a $2.8 million project to install new turf and a state-of-the-art drainage system. The Gauchos had to play 11 road games to start this season until the field was ready.
“The playing surface now allows us to host high-level baseball,” Checketts said. “In the past, when we’ve gotten to the end of the season, the playing field was typically pretty embarrassing.”
Finishing Touches
Much more needs to be done — and in a hurry — before Uyesaka Stadium becomes regional-worthy. Deputy athletic director Tom Hastings has been tasked with the job.
“Tom’s been doing the heavy lifting on that — I’ve just tried to win the baseball game part of it,” Checketts said with a laugh. “But I have given my opinions on things like putting a tent for a food and beer garden on the rugby field behind the stadium and make that a nice, fun area for people.
“They could use that area to cut across to the bathrooms.”
UCSB plans to double the stadium’s capacity from 1,000 to nearly 2,000 with temporary, bleacher seating beyond the right-field fence. There is also a possible viewing area beyond the fence in left-center field.
“We’ve got the space, and we’re already set up for it with the way the outfield padding is open there,” Checketts said. “Between that and the concessions, we should be able to pull it off.
“It’ll be pieced together a little bit, but it sounds like there’s a plan and it’s viable.
“We just have to do our part of it and take care of the wins to make it a reality at this point … and force the committee to tell us no.”
There is still more to the evolving saga of Uyesaka Stadium. First on the to-do list is a video board.
“We’re hoping to repurpose some of the donor money from the turf project to that one,” Checketts said.
“We’re not yet ready to put shovel into the ground, but that’s the project that we should be able to work on.”
Future improvements include a joint-use area between the baseball and softball stadiums that will include new restrooms, concessions and a party deck.
“You could be in the concessions line and still watch our game as well as the softball game over their left-field wall,” Checketts said. “We got a donor to pay for some architectural drawings of that project.”
UCSB hopes to add a façade to the stadium that would, as Checketts puts it, “keep it from looking like an erector set with banners on it.”
Also on deck is a plan to turn the walkway that starts at the entryway and runs down the right side of the stadium into an “All-American Way.”
“We’ve already done some things with that, but we want to enhance it,” Checketts said. “We want to use those areas to show off some more history of the program.”
A new chapter of it, after all, could be now in the making.
