The UCSB baseball team found its offense in the ninth inning against USC, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a poor outing from the bullpen as the Gauchos suffered a 5-4 loss on Tuesday night at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
With the loss in its final midweek game of the season, Santa Barbara falls to 37-12 overall and finishes 2-6 against Pac-12 opponents, including dropping both contests against USC and UCLA.
USC improves to 25-25 overall. The Trojans are in last place in the Pac-12.
UCSB got a quality start from starting pitcher JD Callahan, who tossed 5.1 innings, allowing just four hits, one earned run and one walk while striking out two.
But the bullpen couldn’t back up his solid performance.
“JD did a good job,” said UCSB coach Andrew Checketts. “He was in the strike zone, he was competitive and gave us a shot there. And he made some big pitches there and pitched out some some some jams. I thought he gave us a quality start.”
Checketts was blunt about the bullpen’s performance.
“The other guys battled, hung in there and gave us a shot, but the bullpen sucked.”
The Gauchos used four relievers and they combined on allow just one hit. But the pitchers couldn’ stop issuing free bases as they allowed eight walks, including two in the top of the eighth inning with the bases loaded that gave the Trojans two runs.
In total, the Gauchos issued nine walks and struck out seven.
“We just have to throw more strikes. You can’t win games when you walk that many guys and are non-competitive in the bullpen,” Checketts said.
The Trojans took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth. But Zander Darby evened the score int the bottom of the fifth with a solo homer.
Over the next few frames, UCSB pitchers issued walks but were able to keep the Trojans from scoring.
But in the eight, USC scored two runs without the benefit of a hit. Michael Rice and Alex Schrier gave up bases-loaded walks to give the Trojans a 3-1 lead.
USC made it 5-1 in the ninth as Nick Lopez hit a two-out, two-run single following a hit a batter, a walk, and a sacrifice.
UCSB did not go away gently in bottom of the ninth, Nick Vogt worked a walk and then scored on a RBI double from Christian Kirtley.
After a ground ball moved Kirtley to third, catcher John Newman Jr. came up big with a two-run shot to left field to get the Gauchos to 5-4 with just one out.
After a Darby strikeout, Kyle Johnson lined a double to right field — just a few feet away from a game-tying home run — to give the Gauchos the tying run in scoring position. They could not capitalize, as USC reliever Kyle Wisch got Jordan Sprinkle to fly out to right field to end the contest.
UCSB left 13 runners on base Tuesday.
Checketts was asked how these losses could effect the team’s ability to secure a regional host bid.
“We would like to host, but this is a game that makes it more difficult. When you’re going to put your résumé up against other Pac-12 schools and you go 0-4 on Tuesdays against the Pac-12 schools, that makes it much more difficult to have an argument,” Checketts said.
He said the team is focused on the opportunity to secure the Big West title this weekend. The Gauchos host UC Riverside with a chance to clinch the conference title as early as Saturday.
“We still have a chance to win a conference championship and hopefully we will play well this weekend and have a chance to do that and just see what happens after that,” he said.
“The guys have done a good job on the weekends and played well. And we got a job to do and a good opportunity to finish it, and hopefully that’ll happen this weekend.”
UCSB hosts UC Riverside at 5:30 Friday at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.