RIVERSIDE – It was too little too late for the second consecutive day for No. 8 UC Santa Barbara, as the Gauchos fell behind early and then couldn’t produce enough offense to overcome the deficit in a 3-2 loss to UC Riverside at The Plex in Saturday’s regular season finale for both teams.
Besides the distribution of UCR’s (15-40, 4-20 Big West) runs, the result was eerily similar to Friday night’s contest, also a 3-2 loss. In both, UCSB’s (40-15-1, 16-8) starting pitcher hurled a complete game and the offense was only able to manufacture single runs in the seventh and eighth innings while a Riverside senior starter turned in a career performance in their final collegiate outing.
It was sophomore Shane Bieber (8-4) who was the hard-luck loser in today’s game, as the righty allowed just two earned runs, tied a career high with 10 strikeouts, and went without walking a batter for the eighth time in 15 starts.
His counterpart, senior lefty Kevin Sprague, kept the Gauchos off balance all afternoon, needing just 64 pitches to get through 6 2/3 innings, scattering six hits along the way. He only punched out a pair of batters, but he did well for himself by not allowing any free passes.
Ryan Lillie finished off the final 2 1/3 innings for the Highlanders to earn his second save in 24 hours.
Lillie did give up a run to UCSB in his outing, on an RBI single from Robby Nesovic to score Andrew Calica in the eighth, but he recovered after that base hit to strike out Cameron Newell before going 1-2-3 in the ninth to clinch UCR’s first conference series win of 2015.
For the second consecutive day, it was lefty-hitting cleanup hitter Vince Fernandez who provided the big blow for UC Riverside, smashing a Bieber fastball in the first inning well over the right field fence for a go-ahead solo home run.
The Highlanders added runs in the fourth and seventh on an RBI groundout and a sacrifice fly, respectively. The former was unearned for Bieber, as the scoring runner advanced to third on a three-base UCSB error.
Calica, the reigning Big West Field Player of the Week, had another game to remember after recording a career-high six RBIs on Thursday, as he went 3-3 and reached base four times out of the leadoff spot.
However, the rest of the UCSB offense combined for just five hits, with Peter Maris’s seventh inning sac fly account for the Gauchos’ other run.
With the regular season now in their rear view mirror, the Gauchos will look forward to learning their postseason fate, which will be announced at 9 a.m. on Monday, May 25 on the NCAA Selection Show. The selections will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
