UCSB lefty Justin Jacome
UC Santa Barbara left-hander Justin Jacome turned in arguably his best start as a Gaucho on Sunday afternoon, tossing eight-plus scoreless innings in a 1-0 blanking of twelfth-ranked Oregon and salvaging a win in the three-game series.
A fourth-inning solo home run off the bat of senior left fielder Cameron Newell ended up as the game-winner in the otherwise scoreless contest. No. 14 UCSB improved to 8-3 with the win while Oregon picked up just their second loss of the season at 10-2.
With all due respect to Newell’s charge, Jacome was clearly the star for the Gauchos in the final game of the much-anticipated series. The Redlands, Calif. native finished with a line of eight-plus innings pitched, five hits, no runs, three walks, and 10 strikeouts. He received the win on the day to move his personal record to 2-1.
His 10 punchouts were the most of his career, and he becomes the first Gaucho this season to reach double-digit “K’s.” This was the third time his career – and first time this season – that the southpaw pitched at least eight innings, and his final line was even more impressive considering three of the five hits he surrendered were poorly hit pop-ups that landed in shallow left field.
It was evident early on that Jacome was on top of his game. After struggling in his first two starts of the year (he entered the game with a 4.22 ERA), the junior outright dominated the Ducks right from the word “go,” breezing through their lineup the first time through.
After an error to open the game, Jacome retired the next 9 straight batters he faced. He had his breaking ball working early, using the pitch to strike out five batters over the first three innings, including three on pitches in the dirt.
The second time through the order, things didn’t go as smoothly, but Jacome remained in control throughout.
The Ducks mounted their first threat of the game in the fourth, with Mitchell Tolman recording the team’s first hit with a one-out single into left-center. Brandon Cuddy, who provided the game-winning hits for Oregon on both Friday and Saturday, followed that up by fisting an inside fastball just over leaping UCSB shortstop Clay Fisher.
The next batter, Phil Craig-St. Louis, couldn’t hold up his swing on a Jacome curve in the dirt for out number two, but a walk later and the Ducks had the bags full. After working himself into a hitter’s count at 2-1, Oregon left fielder J.B. Bryant meekly flew out to center field to end the inning.
Jacome faced the minimum over the next three innings, inducing three more strikeouts, before running into a spot of trouble again in the eighth, with a two-out single and a pair of walks loading the bases again for UO. Cuddy came up to the plate again in a big spot, but his soundly-hit line drive into left-center tailed into the glove of a sprinting Newell for the inning-ending catch.
After allowing a Carter-St. Louis leadoff single in the ninth, Jacome and UCSB head coach Andrew Checketts looked to closer James Carter to seal the shutout. UO sacrificed the leadoff man to second on the next play, and then he found his way to third when Carter uncorked a wild pitch under the glove of catcher Campbell Wear.
In that pivotal spot, Carter battled with Bryant, as the batter found himself in a 1-2 count after fouling off a pair of Carter offerings. The Chabot College transfer then whipped in a diving backdoor slider, getting the left-hitting Bryant to swing over the top for the second out.
Shaun Chase, who served as Oregon’s cleanup hitter on Friday and Saturday but didn’t start in the finale, also battled Carter, working the count full and spoiling a pair of would-be strike threes. But on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Chase hit a major league pop-up, and after what seemed like five minutes, the ball tumbled into the glove of a camped-out JJ Muno to end the game.
It was the fourth save of the young season for Carter in his first appearance of the week.
Newell’s homer, his second of the season, came on one of the few mistakes of the day by the Oregon pitching staff.
Ducks starter Jack Karraker got behind Newell to lead off the fourth inning, giving the reigning Big West Field Player of the Week a 2-1 count. He then left an 89 mile-per-hour fastball over the plate, and Newell slapped a streaking line drive into the branches of the tree straddling the right field foul pole.
Otherwise, Karraker and relievers Stephen Nogosek and Garrett Cleavinger were all outstanding. Karraker was a hard-luck loser after allowing just three hits and striking out four in six innings of work, falling to 1-1 on the year. Nogosek (1 1/3 innings pitched, one hit) and Cleavinger (2/3 innings pitched, no hits) both turned in scoreless outings.
Elsewhere for the Gauchos, senior right fielder Luke Swenson continued his hot-hitting ways with a 2-4 performance. He now has hits in all nine of his starts. With two walks, Calica reached base for the 11th consecutive game to open the season.
UCSB wraps up its 11-in-12 homestand this Tuesday afternoon, as they host the undefeated USC Trojans (12-0) at 2:00 p.m. They will then travel to Sacramento State this weekend for their first road series of the year.
