Two weeks ago, the UCSB baseball team saw its chances to sweep a Big West foe dashed by a three-run ninth inning.
This time around, the Gauchos were hurt once again with another three-run ninth inning, ultimately leading to their 13-9 loss in 13 innings against Big West rival Hawai’i.
It was the first extra-innings game for UCSB this season, which now falls to 18-7 overall with a 7-2 Big West record, while Hawai’i improves to 9-16 overall and 3-6 in the Big West.
Just like two weeks ago, the Gauchos held a two-run lead heading into the final frame Sunday, 6-4, and their closer, Ryan Harvey was on the mound to try to seal the deal.
The sophomore cruised through the first two batters of the ninth, striking both out. But, the final out needed to secure the win never came.
“We had two outs and nobody on the ninth and you got your closer in the game, you feel pretty good about that,” Head Coach Andrew Checketts said after the game.
After the second strikeout of the frame, Harvey gave up back-to-back singles, prompting a quick visit from Checketts, who said there was no intention of taking him out at that point.
“There’s two outs and the guy’s throwing 95,” he said. “We were a good pitch away from the game being over.
“I was just trying to settle down there a little bit.”
Hawai’i would score the first run of the inning on a wild pitch, and then a timely hit from senior Dallas Duarte cleared the bases, giving the Rainbow Warriors a 7-6 lead.
Harvey would finish out the inning, with Duarte getting caught trying to steal second. He finished with a statline of three hits allowed, three earned runs, two strikeouts with one walk in two innings of work.
“I felt pretty good going into it, but it was a six-out save. He hasn’t had to do that yet,” Checketts said.
“We felt like he was ready to go but it looked like he faded a little bit there.”
Despite the tough inning, the Gauchos had their chances to win, in the ninth and beyond, as a double by junior first baseman Kyle Johnson and then another double by junior Christian Kirtley tied the game at 7-7 with just one out.
Kirtley had a great game from the plate Sunday, going 3-for-7, including a big home run in the seventh to deep center field to give the Gauchos that 6-4 lead.
Unfortunately, no one could bring home Kirtley, sending the game to extras.
In the 10th and 11th innings, both teams had runners in scoring position at some point, but neither was able to bring a run across to take a lead.
It wasn’t until the 13th inning, when the Gauchos were down to subbing in their eighth and ninth pitcher of the game that the Rainbow Warriors took advantage.
In the 13th, Hawai’i worked four hits and two walks to score six runs to take a 13-7 lead.
“We lost the strike zone as the game went on,” Checketts said. “We had six walks in the last four innings, so it’s hard to win when you do that.
“We got a little caught up on the results and tried not to get beat and we beat ourselves.”
The Gauchos would score two in the bottom half of the frame, but not enough to try to take the game further into extras or even win it outright.
“You still have to try to make them sweat. I was counting — we had the 13th run on the bench and in the hole, and we were trying to get him to the plate,” Checketts said.
“They didn’t roll over and they had some good at bats. We just gotta figure out how we are going to finish that one and concentrate on all nine innings.”
Though the Gauchos threw nine pitchers on Sunday, none particularly threw a lot of pitchers, so they should be ready for the midweek game and the next Big West series starting Friday, Checketts said.
UCSB will face Pepperdine on the road Tuesday with first pitch at 3 p.m.