Freshman Raymond Olivas held Fresno State hitless in is 2.1 innings of work. | Credit: Gary Kim
After grinding out two close wins to open a three-game slate with Fresno State, the UC Santa Barbara baseball team dropped the series finale to the Bulldogs, 2-1, on Sunday afternoon at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
The Gauchos struggled mightily at the plate with only three hits as a team and squandered a solid outing on the mound by starting pitcher Calvin Proskey as well as relievers Nic Peterson and Raymond Olivas.
"Fresno has a good team. They did a good job," said UC Santa Barbara coach Andrew Cheketts. "We've got some stuff to work on. We didn't do what we can do offensively the last 17 or 18 innings there."
Proskey struggled to find the strike zone in the early innings as he walked the leadoff batter in each of his first two innings. But the UC Santa Barbara defense was up for the challenge.
Catcher Ian Fernandez threw out a Fresno State base runner trying to steal third base in the first inning. In the second inning, the Gauchos turned a double play to erase the leadoff walk and another double play erased a one-out single by Fresno State in the top of the third.
The Bulldogs finally put a run on the board in the top of the fourth inning when Bobby Blandford drove in Eddie Saldivar from third with a sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 lead. That was the lone earned run that Proskey surrendered in his 5.1 inning on the mound.
It appeared that UC Santa Barbara would take control of the game in the bottom of the fourth as a Jack Holman walk and Nate Vargas single put runners on first and third with no outs.
However, the next batter, Cole Kosciusko grounded into a double play, which scored Holman to tie the game, but erased the potential for a big inning.
The Bulldogs took the lead for good in the top of the sixth inning with an unearned run. Blandford singled through to left field to bring home Lee Trevino with two outs in the inning.
UC Santa Barbara had its chances to get back into the game with Xavier Esquer reaching base on a hit by pitch to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning and LeTrey McCollum leading off the bottom of the seventh with a double to right field. But the clutch hits to drive them in never came.
Kosciusko nearly tied the game with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning but his high fly ball was caught on the warning track in right field.
With the loss the Gauchos, who are currently ranked No. 20 or No. 21 in the country depending on the poll, dropped to 9-2 overall this season and will hit the road for a non-conference game at USC on Tuesday, beginning at 6 p.m.