UCSB Takes Series Opener at Tulane, 7-4

Ben Brecht (Photo by Tony Mastres)

NEW ORLEANS, La. - Ben Brecht tossed seven-plus solid innings and Tommy Jew had another strong game at the plate to lead the UC Santa Barbara baseball team to a 7-4 victory over Tulane on Friday night in New Orleans.

Brecht, a 6-foot-7 junior left-hander, allowed two runs on just three hits with 11 strikeouts and two walks in 7 1/3 innings to earn his second win of the early season.

"This is clearly the best seven-inning performance he's had as a Gaucho," UCSB coach Andrew Checketts said. "He was giving up some hits on some off-speed pitches early in the game … so he went to more fastballs and was able to establish that and speed them up a little more. Later in the game, he was able to land more of his off-speed pitches to keep them honest, and then went after them with a good fastball."

Jew upped his average to .313 by going 3-for-6. He also had two runs batted in, with his first coming
in the fourth on a squeeze bunt that made it 4-0 UCSB.

The Gauchos opened the scoring with three runs in the third on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Martinez and a two-run single by Armani Smith. Jew also made the defensive play of the game, according to Checketts, in the eighth inning when he scaled the center-field wall to make a catch that ended the inning after the Green Wave had scored four in the frame.

"He made an unbelievable play up against the wall," Checketts said. "I couldn't tell if the ball was going out of the ball park or if it was going to be off the top of the wall, but he ran into the wall and made a tremendous catch in the eighth to stop their rally."

UCSB's hottest hitter so far this season, junior catcher Eric Yang, was 2-for-3 with a run batted in and two walks. Yang improved his average to .463 (19-for-41).

Yang made it 5-0 with an RBI single in the fourth. Jew followed with a run-scoring single in the fifth and Jason Willow made it 7-0 in the sixth when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

UCSB improved to 9-2, while dropping Tulane to 10-4.

"To come in here and get a win on Friday is big," Checketts said. "(Tulane) has been playing well. They're hitting .330 with 16 home runs coming into the series. So to have our guys be able to fly across the country and come out and play well tonight … it was a quality win."

March 10th Recap

NEW ORLEANS, La. – The UC Santa Barbara baseball team scored four runs before recording a hit, and there would be plenty of hits to come later, capping off an impressive sweep over Tulane with a wild 16-6 rout over the Green Wave on Sunday afternoon at Turchin Stadium.

UCSB (11-2) has now won nine consecutive games, and is off to its best start in five years since the 2014 Gauchos also opened the season 11-2.

Tevin Mitchell hit a grand slam and Tommy Jew hit his fifth home run of the year as the Gauchos returned to their home run hitting ways after being kept inside the ball park in the first two games at Tulane. UCSB is 9-0 when hitting at least one home run in a game this season.

The real story of the game, however, at least early on, was the wild pitching from the Tulane staff that walked eight Gauchos and hit six batters.

Five walks and four hit batsmen occurred in the first two innings alone, helping UCSB take an early 4-0 lead before registering a base hit. The hits would surely come as Mitchell and Andrew Martinez added RBI doubles to highlight a four-run third inning, and the Gauchos were out to an 8-0 lead after three.

Jew hit a solo homer in the fifth and the Green Wave did its best to mount a comeback, scoring a pair of runs in the fourth and fifth to cut the deficit to five, 9-4.

The Gauchos quickly erased all hope for Tulane and sealed the sweep with a six-run seventh inning highlighted by Mitchell's grand slam. After three singles from Jew, Eric Yang and Thomas Rowan loaded the bases again later in the inning, Christian Kirtley drew a walk to bring another run in and Jason Willow came through with a sacrifice fly.

Chris Troye (2-0) picked up the win after tossing four innings and allowing two runs on two hits while striking out five and walking four. Alex Patterson struck out three and gave up two runs in his two innings of relief while Conner Dand (1.2 IP), Jorge Arellano Jr. (0.1 IP) and Shea Barry (1.0 IP) also saw action out of the pen.

Mitchell finished 2-for-3 with six RBIs and three runs on the day while Jew went 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs. Armani Smith and Willow also went 2-for-4 and Smith along with Martinez tied Mitchell with a game-high three runs scored.