UCSB Baseball held the USC offense in check en route to a 5-1 midweek victory on Tuesday at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
The Trojans are ranked No. 14 in the nation, which makes Tuesday’s the Gauchos’ third victory over a ranked opponent this season, having previously defeated Southern Miss and Oregon.
Junior right-handed pitcher Calvin Proskey made his season debut, returning from injury to pitch the first inning. Proskey tossed a scoreless frame and picked up a strikeout.
“The real highlight for today is Proskey being back and having an inning,” UCSB head coach Andrew Checketts said. “Throwing a clean inning and looking like himself, healthy and looking solid.
“Hopefully we can continue to extend him an inning each time he goes out, or two innings, and he can turn into a legitimate extra starter for us, whether that’s on Tuesday or (the) end of the weekend, but it’s a luxury to have that fourth starter.”
After two scoreless frames, Senior Nate Vargas opened the scoring in the bottom of the third with a home run to right field to give the Gauchos a 1-0 lead. Vargas was playing in his first game in two weeks.
Freshman second baseman Ryan Severns reached on an error following Vargas’ homer, and a bunt by sophomore Rowan Kelly sent Severns to second. A wild pitch got him to third, and graduate first baseman Nick Husovsky drove him in with a groundout to double the lead to 2-0.
After USC cut the deficit in half with a sacrifice fly in the fourth, the Gauchos got that run right back in the bottom half. Corey Nunez followed Vargas’ lead, as the senior shortstop homered to left field for his first big fly of the season to make it 3-1.
The Gauchos extended their lead to 4-1 in the sixth inning when Kelly drove in Noah Karliner, who singled earlier in the inning, on an RBI sacrifice fly.
UCSB rounded out the scoring in the eighth to bring the game to its final score of 5-1 when sophomore left fielder Liam Barrett drove in Vargas with a single.
Junior left-handed pitcher Cole Tryba finished off the win with 1 ⅔ scoreless innings to secure his first save of the season.
“To be able to give the ball to somebody with a lead at the end of the game and feel pretty comfortable that it’s over (is huge),” said Checketts. “His last three outings have been like that. We’ve gotten him a lead, and it’s been over.”
While Proskey and Tyrba bookended the strong UCSB pitching performance, AJ Krodel, Van Froling and Raymond Olivas filled the gaps along the way. The lone run came on Krodel’s watch, but it was unearned.
Offensively, Vargas went 3-for-4 with two runs scored while both Barrett and Husovsky tallied a pair of hits.
The Gauchos are back at the Caesar Uyesaka Stadium on Friday at 4:35 p.m. to kick off their weekend series against Big West leaders UC San Diego.