No. 22 UC Santa Barbara won both games of its doubleheader against Hartford on Saturday, taking the opener by a score of 7-4 before securing a walk-off 2-1 win in the nightcap.
UCSB improved to 11-3 on the season after the pair of wins, while Hartford dropped to 6-3.
The Gauchos and Hawks were scheduled to begin their three-game set on Friday afternoon, but the series opener was postponed due to inclement weather.
Strong starting pitching was the theme for UCSB in its double-win, with Shane Bieber tossing seven scoreless in the morning game and Noah Davis notching his second straight one-hit outing in the afternoon contest. Sophomore lefty Kyle Nelson tossed two innings of scoreless relief to finish off the nightcap, extending his NCAA-best streak of not allowing an earned run to 45 1/3 innings.
The winning pitchers, Bieber and Nelson, each earned their third victory of the season.
“Noah Davis was absolutely spectacular and Nelson was typically great in the second game,” said UCSB head coach Andrew Checketts. “Bieber was excellent in the morning game as well. It’s always hard to sweep a doubleheader so it’s great that we were able to do that today.”
On offense, Dempsey Grover and JJ Muno did the most damage overall with the bats. Grover was a team-best 3-6 and notched three sacrifice flies over the two games. Muno powered the Gauchos to victory in the morning game with a grand slam in the second inning, the first of his career. He ended the day 3-9 overall.