UC Santa Barbara pitchers Matt Ager and Hudson Barrett have accepted invitations to USA Baseball’s 2023 Collegiate National Team Training Camp, held in Cary, North Carolina, June 25-28.
They are the sixth and seventh Gauchos to ever participate and the first since 2021, when Jordan Sprinkle made the trip to Cary. Other Collegiate National Team members from UC Santa Barbara include Dillon Tate (2014), Chris Valaika (2004), and Erik Johnson (1985). Randy Robinson was the first Gaucho to make it, doing so in 1976.
Ager and Barrett earned their invitations after tremendous seasons on the mound, capped by All-Big West First Team selections for both. Barrett was also named Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year and is in contention for national Pitcher and Reliever of the Year honors. The lefty from Bakersfield posted the fifth-best regular-season ERA of all qualified Division-I pitchers, 1.92, and was especially sharp out of the bullpen. Making 17 of his 21 appearances in relief, he allowed just three runs across 40 innings, giving him a sparkling 0.68 bullpen ERA. His 82 strikeouts were the third-most by any freshman in Division I this year.
Ager proved himself to be just as elite of a strike-thrower, if not more so in his first season as a starter, racking up the tenth-most regular-season Ks in Division I with 115. The sophomore righty from Pleasanton took up the mantle of Friday starter and ace for the Gauchos, working 92 1/3 innings across 15 starts with a 3.12 ERA. Eleven of his outings were quality starts — at least six innings pitched with three or fewer runs allowed — including eight of his first ten.
Ager and Barrett are two of the 56 players who will attend training camp at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, where they will play in a four-game Stars vs. Stripes intrasquad series. At the end of the week, 26 of those players will be selected to represent the United States as the Collegiate National Team in friendship series against Chinese Taipei and Japan from June 30-July 12.