UCSB Baseball’s offense came alive and Jackson Flora was his dominant self as the Gauchos rolled to a 15-1 rout of Holy Cross on Saturday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin.
The Gauchos, who dropped game one of the Austin Regional to Tarleton State, will now take on the loser of a matchup between Texas and Tarleton State on Sunday at 12 p.m. Texas and Tarleton State will face off on Saturday at 6 p.m.
Flora, who is projected to be a top-five pick and the first college pitcher selected in the upcoming MLB Draft, was in cruise control from the top of the first.
The junior righthander fired 7 ⅔ stellar innings, striking out nine and allowing just one run on two hits, with the one run coming on a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth. He set a new single-season record for strikeouts with 129.
Meanwhile, UCSB’s 15 runs marked the highest total in program history for an NCAA Tournament game.
After the game went scoreless through two innings, UCSB jumped out in front in the third as Nate Vargas and Corey Nunez each walked with the bases loaded and Xavier Esquer roped an RBI single to go up 3-0.
That score held until the Holy Cross homer in the fifth made it 3-1, but that was as close as Flora and the Gauchos would let them get.
The UCSB offense erupted in the top of the seventh, pouring on nine runs to pull away for a 12-1 lead and put the game away for good.
Vargas supplied the biggest swing of the frame with a grand slam over the right-field wall, while Rowan Kelly totaled three RBI in the inning with two run-scoring singles. Liam Barrett and Cole Kosciusko also roped RBI singles.
The Gauchos tacked on two runs in the eighth on a two-run single by Esquer and one run in the ninth on a Holy Cross error to bring the lead to 15-1.
Meanwhile, Raymond Olivas took over for Flora in the eighth and struck out three across the final 1 ⅓ innings of play.
While Vargas drove in a team-high five RBI, Esquer filled up the box score by going 4-for-5 with three RBI and a run scored. Kelly also turned in a 3-for-5 performance with three RBI and two runs scored.