The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (36-16, 21-8 Big West) ran riot at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium Friday evening, hitting four home runs and scoring 15 times to secure the series win against UC Riverside (15-36, 10-19 Big West). 

Xavier Esquer hit two of those homers, one of them a grand slam, and drove in seven of his team’s runs in the Gauchos’ 15-5 victory. Liam Barrett and Nate Vargas also homered, and Nick Husovsky tallied four RBIs.

“You’ve got to show up every day, so I know as long as I do the right things, little things for the team, I know our pitching staff is going to come out,” Esquer said. “Calvin (Proskey) did a great job today, came out for us and made it easy for us to take the pressure off, like (Jackson Flora) yesterday.

“Even though we wanted to score more runs than one, he made it easy for us to keep going, keep going, keep going. We have big trust in our pitching staff, so it’s a big team game.”

Santa Barbara starter Calvin Proskey did his job to set the tone on the mound, working a dominant first inning despite an error behind him, striking out the final two Highlanders. And the offense wasted no time doing their job at the plate.

Barrett tattooed the very first pitch he saw down the right field line for a leadoff home run. Three walks loaded the bases with two outs, then it was Esquer’s turn to crush a first pitch, launching a grand slam to left field to put the home team up, 5-0.
 
Proskey was perfect through the second and third, and Nick Husovsky’s first of three RBI singles gave the Gauchos another run to work with in the bottom of the third.

Proskey was perfect again in the fourth but ran into trouble in the fifth, allowing a run on a hit batter and a pair of singles before walking the bases loaded. Cole Tryba was called to put out the fire and did, ending the inning with a strikeout.
 
Meanwhile, the Santa Barbara offense continued to be unquenchable, putting three more runs on the board in response in their half of the fifth. Vargas hit a home run to the deepest part of the ballpark, right center field, then Esquer came to the plate with two runners on base and left the yard again, another towering shot to left field.

That big blast brought up double digits for the Gauchos, leading 10-1. Santa Barbara extended its lead further in the sixth, this time with no long balls needed. Barrett walked and scored on a wild pitch, and Vargas was hit by a pitch and later scored on William Vasseur’s RBI single. Husovsky then drove Vasseur home in turn with another RBI hit up the middle.
 
A three-run seventh inning reduced the Highlanders’ arrears to 13-4, but the visitors never truly threatened the Gauchos’ lead. Both teams scored in their final turns to hit, with Husovsky’s single scoring two runs for Santa Barbara in the eighth and a solo home run one for the Highlanders in the ninth. 

AJ Krodel picked up a pair of strikeouts and a groundout after that to put the game to bed, a 15-5 win for the Gauchos.

Santa Barbara has just one game left in the regular season, and winning it will guarantee them the no. 1 seed in next week’s Big West Championship. The Gauchos will host the Highlanders for the final time on Saturday, May 16 at 1:05 p.m.

The game is Senior Day for Santa Barbara, who will honor eight graduating student-athletes in a pregame ceremony to start at 12:40 p.m. at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.