SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - With three games left in the Big West regular season rivals UCSB and Cal Poly are tied for first place at 19-8.
The Gauchos swept the Mustangs in a 3-game series at Cal Poly in early April so they hold the tiebreaker.
Both teams have already clinched spots in next week's Big West Championships in Irvine.
UCSB hosts UC Riverside in a 3-game series starting Thursday while Cal Poly is home to Long Beach State.
Both teams play a nonleague game this week with UCSB hosting Cal Baptist today at 4:35 p.m. while the Mustangs are at Fresno State on Tuesday at 5:05 p.m.
Both UCSB and Cal Poly won key road games on Sunday.
UCSB 4, Cal State Northridge 2: The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team (34-15, 19-8 Big West) jumped out to a big first-inning lead and made it stick on Sunday afternoon, completing a three-game sweep of CSUN (24-26, 11-16 Big West) with a 4-2 win. With the victory, the Gauchos punched their ticket to The Big West Championship in Irvine, where they are guaranteed one of the top two seeds. That front-row positioning means that Santa Barbara will skip over the single-elimination play-in game that begins the weekend, which is where their season ended in 2025.
HOW IT HAPPENED
After playing from behind in each of this weekend's first two games, the Gauchos got off to one of their fastest starts of the season on Sunday, hanging four runs on the board and going through three different Matador pitchers in the top of the first inning. Liam Barrett and Corey Nunez each worked full-count walks, then a fielding error allowed Nate Vargas to reach safely and load the bases. Rowan Kelly's chip-shot single into shallow center moved everybody up 90 feet and put the first run on the board. After a pitching change, William Vasseur punched a two-run single back up the middle, and Nick Husovsky continued his hot weekend at the plate with another RBI base hit into center field.
After the offense's big inning, Kellan Montgomery went about defending his team's four-run lead. He retired the first seven batters he faced before a one-out double in the third, but a strikeout and a groundout ended that threat. The veteran righty worked around a one-out single with two more groundouts in the fourth, then stranded a pair of Matadors on the bases in the bottom of the fifth.
The home team finally got to Montgomery in the sixth, a leadoff triple ending his afternoon. Cole Tryba entered in relief and got off to a rocky start, allowing that run and one more to score and cut the Gauchos' lead to just 4-2, but the electric lefty settled in and went on to finish the game. He struck out a pair of Matadors to strand a one-out single in the seventh, then picked up two more strikeouts in the eighth, with only a hit batter against him. The tying run did come to the plate for CSUN in the ninth, but Tryba's sixth strikeout of the day, then a groundout to third base put the game to rest.
UP NEXT
The Gauchos return to Caesar Uyesaka Stadium for their final regular-season non-conference action of the year on Monday, May 11, when they host California Baptist at 4:35 p.m. for Faculty and Staff Appreciation Night.