The UCSB baseball team will play Texas State at 6 p.m. Friday during the Stanford Regional.
Here’s the tournament’s schedule.
FRIDAY
— 1 p.m. Game 1: Stanford vs. Binghamton.
— 6 p.m. Game 2: Texas State vs. UCSB.
SATURDAY
— 1 p.m. Game 3: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2.
— 7 p.m. Game 4: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2.
SUNDAY
— 1 p.m. Game 5: Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4.
— 6 p.m. Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5.
MONDAY
— 7 p.m. Game 7 (if necessary).
THE FIELD
1. No. 2 Stanford (41-14, 21-9).
2. No. 11 Texas State (45-12, 26-4).
3. No. 17 UCSB (43-12, 27-3).
4. Binghamton (22-28, 15-15).
The Gauchos hold the three seed in the regional and matchup with the second-seeded Bobcats, who come into the postseason with a 45-12 overall record and a 26-4 Sun Belt Conference mark.
They won their first-round matchup in the conference tournament, topping Louisiana Monroe 8-2 before bowing out to the Ragin Cajuns of Louisiana in the second round 3-2. UCSB is 0-2-1 all time vs the Bobcats, and it will be the two teams’ first meeting since 2018.
The Cardinal from Sunken Diamond come into the postseason as the No. 2 team in the nation, having won the Pac-12 regular season championship and the Pac-12 Tournament this past weekend. They currently ride a 16-game win streak. The Gauchos are 20-30 all time against Stanford with their last game coming in 2010.
The Binghamton Bearcats will make the trip across the country from New York to face Stanford in game one and come into the regional with a 22-28 overall record with a 15-15 conference mark. They are the automatic bid from the American East Conference, having won the conference tournament this past weekend. Should the Gauchos see the Bearcats this weekend, it would be the first ever matchup between the two teams.
All games will be played at Stanford’s Klein Field at Sunken Diamond. The four-team regional is a double elimination style tournament with the winner advancing to a best two-out-of-three Super Regional next weekend, facing the winner of the College Park Regional.
The eight Super Regional winners then make their way to Omaha for the College World Series.
On May 21, the Gauchos sealed their second Big West Championship in last three seasons with a 6-0 win over UC Riverside. It is the fourth title in program history, and Head Coach Andrew Checketts becomes the first Gaucho skipper to ever win it twice. UCSB finished the regular season with an impeccable 27-3 conference record and for the fifth time since 2015 has posted a 40-win season holding an overall record of 43-12.
NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Big West Champs have now made the postseason three seasons in a row, five times in the last seven seasons, six times in the Checketts era, and 13 times in the program’s history. It will be their second time in three seasons competing in the Stanford Regional and their fifth all-time.
The team’s last regional win came back in 2016 when the Gauchos went 3-0 at Vanderbilt’s Nashville Regional on their way to a Super Regional sweeping of Louisville and their first ever College World Series.
CURRENT RANKING
The Gauchos are ranked No. 4 by Collegiate Baseball, No. 17 by DI Baseball and No. 23 by Baseball America.
Daniel Moebus-Bowles writes about sports for UCSB.
email: sports@newspress.com
