The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (22-10, 7-4 Big West) erased a 7-0 deficit and out-slugged UC Irvine (20-11, 6-8 Big West) Saturday evening, hitting five home runs en route to a 13-8, series-evening win.
Jared Sundstrom and Broc Mortensen each launched a pair of long balls in the game, and Jonah Sebring left the yard for the first time in his Gaucho career.
The comeback began in the fourth with Sundstrom leading off the inning with his 10th home run of the season, a laser down the left field line. Mortensen followed with a single, then LeTrey McCollum legged out an infield hit. After two strikeouts, Corey Nunez drove Mortensen home with an RBI double to make it 7-2.
Nick Welch pitched a quick, scoreless top of the fifth.
After Aaron Parker‘s one-out single, Sundstrom came to the plate again and deposited another ball over the fence, this time taking it out to right center for his conference-leading 11th homer of the season. Mortensen followed with a home run of his own, making it a 7-5 game.
After another infield single from McCollum and a hit batter, Jonah Sebring left no doubt about his first home run in Santa Barbara, driving the ball to left field and putting the home team ahead, 8-7.
In the sixth, the Anteaters loaded the bases with nobody out. Sam Whiting was tasked with getting the Gauchos out of the jam. He got a huge hand from Sebring. On a pop-up down the right field line, Sebring raced over from second, made the catch, then spun and fired home to Parker in plenty of time to nail the runner tagging from third. A two-out double netted the Anteaters one run to tie the game.
The second baseman continued his heroics in the bottom of the seventh. After a batter interference call wiped out a Gaucho baserunner and turned a strikeout into a double play, Sebring doubled. Nunez picked up his second RBI of the night, driving home his middle-infield partner with a single through the left side, putting Santa Barbara back in front, 9-8.
The Gauchos blew the game open in the eighth. Christian Kirtley led off the inning with a single, then Parker bunted him over. Irvine elected to intentionally walk Sundstrom, but Mortensen was waiting behind him. The redshirt senior mashed his second home run of the game to right, giving his side their largest lead of the night, 12-8. Sebring almost had a two-homer game of his own later in the inning, as his line drive to left hit maybe two feet from the top of the wall. It still drove in another run, making it 13-8.