The start of senior weekend at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium went well as it was a pair of seniors who led the Gauchos to an 11-3 victory over Pacific in the outset of a three-game series.
Trevor Whyte had a career-high five runs batted in while Greg Davis pitched eight sterling innings as UCSB won for the fourth time in its past five games. The Gauchos improved to 25-25 overall and 9-13 in the Big West.
Davis, making his final start in a Gaucho uniform, went eight innings, allowing just three earned runs while striking out four to improve to 6-5.
Whyte, meanwhile, broke out of a month-long slump in a big way. The senior went 3-for-4 with a two-run home run and a two-run single to go along with a sacrifice fly. His previous high of four RBI came last season vs. New Mexico State on Mar. 20.
The senior from Mission Viejo is the first Gaucho to have five RBI in a game since Marty Mullins had that many at No. 24 Stanford on March 7, 2010.
UCSB continued to play well in the final weeks of the season as the Gauchos had 15 hits – including five with multi-hit efforts. In its last four wins Santa Barbara has outscored the competition 28-3.
Steven Moon had a two-run double for the Gauchos during a four-run fifth inning when UCSB turned a 3-1 lead into a 7-1 romp.
UCSB scored two more times in the sixth inning on Mark Haddow’s single and Whyte’s sac fly.
Senior Sean Williams hit a solo home run to open the eighth and UCSB tacked on another run on Ben Edelstein’s pinch-hit RBI double.
Believe it or not, the Gauchos actually trailed 1-0 early on Friday before Bryce Tafelski’s run-scoring double knotted things up. Then UCSB took a 3-1 lead in the fourth on Whyte’s home run, his second of the season.
Davis did allow 11 hits to Pacific, but constantly battled out of trouble as the senior from Huntington Beach limited Pacific to single runs in the second, sixth and seventh frames.
UCSB and Pacific meet again on Saturday at 1 p.m. and finish the season with a 1 p.m. game on Sunday.
UCSB 11 Pacific 3
Pacific 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0–3 11 1
UC Santa Barbara 0 1 0 2 4 2 0 2 0–11 15 1
Richardson, Mathews (5th) Haberman (6th) and Taasaas; Davis, Whalen(9th) and Tafelski
Win – Davis, G (6-5). Loss – Richardson (2-3). Save – None
2B – Riley, A(14); Johnston, D(14); Edelstein, B(3);Tafelski, B(1); Moon, S(8). HR – Williams, S(3); Whyte, T(2). HBP – Williams, S; Haddow, M. SH – Trinkwon, B(8); Moon, S(8). SF – Whyte, T(2). SB – Carvutto, M(7); Johnston, D(15). CS – Gomez, C(1).
