UCSB Baseball Completes Blue-Green Rivalry Sweep with 12-4 Win Over Cal Poly

Riding high after securing the Blue-Green Rivalry Series win on Friday night, the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (18-10, 8-4 Big West) finished off a sweep of arch rivals Cal Poly (17-13, 10-5 Big West) with a 12-4 victory Saturday afternoon.

Another steady start from Kellan Montgomery kept the Gauchos in control after two big early swings from Xavier Esquer and Ryan Severns, and the offense erupted late to put the game away, capping things off with a five-run ninth inning.

Esquer and Severns both finished with a team-high three RBIs, with Severns one of three Gauchos with three hits on the day. For both him and Liam Barrett, the three-hit days are career bests. Corey Nunez also had three hits and scored three times.

The Santa Barbara offense had gone through the order once before they scored their first runs in both Thursday and Friday’s games, but not on Saturday. Four batters into the game, Esquer led off the top of the second by blasting his first home run of the season to deep left field, ending a six-game homer drought for the Gauchos.

Nunez kept the inning alive with a two-out bloop single, and Severns came through with his second career double and RBI, smacking one down the right field line to allow Nunez to score from first.
 
Montgomery made that 2-0 lead stick by retiring the side in order in the bottom of the second, worked around a two-out walk in the third, then got some help from his defense to get through the fourth unscathed.

First, it was Severns making a nifty play up the middle, diving to his right to snare a grounder and flip it to Nunez for an out at second base. Then, with two outs and runners on the corners, Rowan Kelly hawked down a fly ball in the left-center gap, making an over-the-shoulder catch to end the inning.
 
As is seemingly the law of baseball, Severns and Kelly both came to the plate the inning after their defensive heroics, and both came through with the bat as well. Severns was hit by a pitch and stole second, taking third on an errant throw.

Kelly drove him home with a chopper to first base, beating the Mustangs to the bag for an infield single. Barrett placed a double just fair down the left field line to get Kelly to third, and Nick Husovsky punched a single under the third baseman’s glove to make it 4-0, Gauchos.
 
Montgomery left a lead-off double stranded on second for another shutdown inning in the bottom of the fifth, and the offense kept right on chugging in their half of the sixth. Noah Karliner walked and Nunez was hit by a pitch to get ducks on the pond for Severns, who continued his breakout weekend with an RBI single up the middle.

Nunez stole third, Kelly was hit by a pitch and then Nunez came home when Husovsky became the third Gaucho plunked in the inning. A 4-6-3 double play took care of a one-out single as Montgomery faced the minimum in the sixth, and Santa Barbara headed into the seventh with a 6-0 lead.
 
A solo home run cut that lead to five runs and ended Montgomery’s day, and an error and sacrifice fly brought home another, unearned Cal Poly run to make it 6-2.

The Gauchos got one of those runs back with some situational baseball, a sacrifice bunt and a fielder’s choice play helping bring Kelly around after he was hit by another pitch, but back-to-back Mustang homers in the bottom of the eighth set up a grandstand finish as the ninth inning began with Santa Barbara up just three runs, 7-4.
 
Nine batters later, the game was as good as over, no grandstands needed. The Gauchos hung five runs on their arch rivals in the ninth, with Severns and Esquer at the heart of the offensive outburst.

Nunez scored on Severns’ second double of the day, and Kelly’s RBI single brought home Severns. Barrett’s third hit of the day brought home Kelly, and after Max Stagg drew a walk as a pinch-hitter, Esquer’s triple to right center — his second this week — plated both Barrett and Stagg to run Santa Barbara’s total up to 12. 

AJ Krodel set the Mustangs down in order, including a pair of strikeouts, in the ninth to wrap up the Gauchos’ first sweep of a Blue-Green Rivalry Series since 2022.

Santa Barbara returns home to Caesar Uyesaka Stadium on Tuesday, April 7, when they will host No. 12 USC at 4:35 p.m.

Tuesday evening promises much better weather than the Gauchos’ damp meeting with the Trojans last Tuesday in Los Angeles, as Santa Barbara will look to avenge that 7-6 loss. Tickets are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets.