No. 26 UCSB Baseball dropped its series opener at Oregon 3-2 Friday night at PK Park. Second-basemen Zander Darby collected two solo-home runs to account for both of the Gauchos’ runs.
Cory Lewis earned his third-straight Friday start going six full innings and allowing just one run on five hits.
Darby finished 2-for-3 with a walk collecting his first multi-homerun game of his career.
Nick Vogt collected UCSB’s other hit making his return to the lineup for the first time since opening week.
A walk by Willow extends his on-base streak to 15 games, but the senior’s hitting streak came to an end.
Darby broke the scoreless tie in the top of the fourth as the second baseman stepped to the plate with two outs and took the first ball he saw over the wall in left center to put his team up 1-0.
Darby made it 2-0 in the top of the seventh as the lead-off hitter, this time taking a 3-0 ball over the center field wall.
The Ducks were quick to answer with a RBI groundout in the bottom half of the inning and added another in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game 2-2.
The top of the ninth saw Christian Kirtley draw a walk and pinch-hitter Bryce Willits reach first after a fielder’s choice on a sac bunt. Pinch running for Kirtley was John Newman Jr., who made his way to third on a wild pitch, but never traveled the final 90 feet as the Ducks got out of the jam.
The first pitch of the bottom of the 9th was taken deep by Oregon’s Gavin Grant for the walk off victory.
UCSB returns to PK Park tomorrow for a doubleheader with the Ducks. Game one is set to start at 2:00 PM.
Daniel Moebus-Bowles writes about sports for UCSB.
email: sports@newspress.com
