The UCSB baseball team scored eight quick runs in the first five innings on Sunday, however UC Davis rallied, scoring all of its runs in the final five innings for a 9-8 victory in 10 innings to complete a three-game sweep over the Gauchos.
UCSB falls to 21-29 overall and 7-14 in the Big West after suffering its first weekend sweep of the season. UC Davis improves to 25-27 overall and 8-13 in the Big West.
The Gauchos struck early and often against UCD starter Scott Lyman, scoring four runs in the first inning on Trevor Whyte’s two-run home run and Doug Hansen’stwo-run single. UCSB added a run in the third on Ryan Palermo’s RBI double and then twice more in the fourth on consecutive doubles by Whyte and Matt Valaika. UCSB added its eighth run in the fifth on Steve Moon’s sacrifice fly.
However, the Aggies got to UCSB’s Jesse Meaux in the sixth, scoring twice on David Popkins’ two-run home run. Popkins added another two-run blast in the eighth inning to cut it to 8-4.
Then in the ninth UCD scored four times on a single, an error a sacrifice fly and another single to tie the game at 8-8. The Aggies scored the winning run in the 10th when Connor Whalen walked two batters and hit two others to force in a run.
The Gauchos had two on in the 10th when Beck Wheeler had a pinch-hit single and pinch-hitter Brett Fick was hit by a pitch, but Gunnar Terhune grounded into a double play to end the game.
UCSB will host Cal State Bakersfield on Tuesday at 2 p.m. in its final home game of the season before finishing the year on the road next weekend at Pacific. All three weekend games will be broadcast live on AM 1490 and streaming online at UCSBgauchos.com. Tickets are available by calling (805) 893-UCSB
