Finally given a chance to play after two rainouts, the UCSB baseball team exerted its pent-up energy in a doubleheader sweep of La Salle on Sunday at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
Matt Vedo and Greg Davis both had solid starts to the 2011 season, and the Gaucho offense combined for 20 runs and 27 hits in 7-3 and 13-1 victories over the Explorers.
“It was a good all-around deal,” UCSB head coach Bob Brontsema said. “We played hard and took advantage of things (that were) presented to us. That’s what good teams do. Hopefully that is something we can maintain throughout the year.”
Making his Gaucho debut, Vedo tossed 6.2 strong innings, allowing five hits and two runs with four strikeouts in the first game.
He was quickly upstaged by Davis, who threw seven shutout innings, striking out seven while allowing just four hits in the second game of the doubleheader.
“We needed a big game from Vedo obviously, because their guy was pretty good,” Brontsema said. “For him to come out in his first outing like that, was really important. Greg did a good job of keeping them from scoring in the second.”
Steven Moon led the team with five hits in the two games, scoring three runs and driving in two more, while Trevor Whyte went a combined 4-for-10 with three RBI.
Joey Wallace, in the first game, and Mark Haddow, in the second, each hit a pair of monstrous home runs, well over the protective netting in left field.
In the lid-lifter, some shoddy defense by the Explorers (0-2) and timely hitting by the Gauchos helped the team to its victory. After La Salle scored twice in the third inning – in the only frame that Vedo found himself in trouble – a two-base throwing error and another throwing error allowed UCSB to take a 3-2 lead.
Steven Moon’s RBI double drove in Joe Winterburn and then Wallace hit his first homer as a Gaucho, securing the first win.
In the second game, Davis was brilliant when he had plenty of margin for error. Five Gauchos had multi-hit games as Moon had three while Dan Camou, Ryan Palermo, Haddow and Whyte each had two.
UCSB scored five runs in the second and third innings and with the way Davis was pitching, the game was – for all intents and purposes – over.
Palermo’s double scored Haddow and Camou’s base hit brought in Palermo. UCSB then loaded the bases and a walk and a wild pitch forced in a pair of runs.
In the third, Haddow led off the inning with his homer, then the Gauchos loaded the bases again before an error scored another run, Ben Edelstein drove in another with a sacrifice fly and Whyte delivered a two-run single.
The Gauchos will host Westmont on Tuesday at 2 pm before traveling for a weekend series at Washington State.
