Overview:
The Gauchos will open their baseball season this weekend with a three-game series at 20th-ranked Southern Mississippi, with games Friday at 2 p.m., Saturday at 10 a.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m.
The loud roar of a crowd echoed mysteriously as a Gaucho baseball player gloved a lazy fly ball at UC Santa Barbara’s Caesar Uyesaka Stadium last week.
It wasn’t a crucial out … or a real game … or even a real crowd.
It was a crafty, midmajor coach thinking on the fly in a college baseball world where the deck is stacked against him.
Andrew Checketts had the crowd noise piped in.
His Gauchos open their season Friday with a three-game series at 20th-ranked Southern Mississippi.
It’s a place where the advantages of expanded scholarship limits, NIL (name, image and likeness) payouts and, yes, the crowd at 4,300-seat Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field will work against them.
“It’s going to be a challenge, for sure,” Checketts told Noozhawk last week. “We’ve been pumping in crowd noise and sirens through our P.A. system when we do a lot of our team defense stuff because it’s going to be a different environment than we typically have here.
“We’ve been trying to get the guys mentally prepared for that.”
Nobody in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, will feel sorry for a Gaucho team that’s been ranked 21st nationally by Perfect Game and receiving votes in the USA Today coaches’ preseason poll.
The Gauchos were also picked as the Big West Conference favorite last week by the league’s coaches with five first-place votes and 95 points.
They edged out two NCAA tournament teams from last year, with Cal Poly receiving five votes and 89 points and UC Irvine getting one vote and 86 points.
UCSB’s record during Checketts’ 14 seasons as head coach is a stellar 489-267-5, setting school records for both victories and winning percentage (.647).
He’s taken the Gauchos to seven NCAA regionals and served as the top-seeded hosts for two of them (2015 and 2024).
And then there was UCSB’s College World Series team of 2016.
Checketts has conjured up his own way of motivating the 2026 Gauchos to aspire for such greatness.
“I don’t do a whole lot of talking about that season,” he said, “but we do have a College World Series sign.
“When they screw up something, they have to run and touch it.”
Sam Cohen, the backup catcher who put UCSB into the 2016 College World Series with a dramatic, grand-slam home run, threw the first pitch for last month’s Gaucho Alumni Game to former teammate Shane Bieber, the pitching ace of that team who now plays for the American League champion Toronto Blue Jays. Credit: UCSB Athletics photo
Checketts also introduced his current team to the 2016 Gauchos during last month’s Alumni Weekend celebrating the 10th anniversary of that magical season.
He admits that his players are usually more preoccupied with “what’s on social media” than college baseball history.
“But they did know who Shane Bieber was,” Checketts said.
Bieber, the ace of UCSB’s 2016 team, won the American League Cy Young Award for Cleveland in 2020 and pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays in last fall’s World Series.
He also caught the first pitch at last month’s UCSB Alumni Game.
It was thrown, ironically enough, by Sam Cohen, the catcher who advanced the Gauchos to Omaha by hitting the walk-off, grand-slam home run that beat Louisville 4-3 in the 2016 NCAA super regionals.
“Noah Davis started against us in the alumni game,” Checketts said. “Our guys faced a guy who pitched in the big leagues last year … and he pitched like it.”
Davis, who won seven games as a freshman starter on UCSB’s 2016 team, worked with the current Gaucho pitching staff last fall as an undergraduate assistant coach while finishing work on his UCSB degree. He will report to spring training with the Pittsburgh Pirates next week.
“We didn’t hit the ball a whole lot for the first two innings against him,” Checketts said. “I thought this was the year they were going to get us.”
Call to Arms
The Gauchos appear to have the right staff this year, too.
They return 10 pitchers from a group that ranked 11th nationally last season with an earned -un average of 3.92.
Junior Jackson Flora, a whip-armed, 6-foot-5 righthander, is the Friday front man for this veteran band.
He was picked by both Baseball America and Perfect Game to their Preseason All-America First Teams. He was also placed onto the Golden Spikes Player of the Year Watchlist by USA Baseball.
Jackson Flora, a first-team All-Big West Conference pitcher for last year’s UCSB team, trained last summer with the U.S. National Collegiate Team. Credit: Jeff Liang / UCSB Athletics photo
Scouts from Baseball America ranked him at No. 14 on their list of top prospects for this summer’s Major League Baseball draft.
Flora threw 86 strikeouts with just 17 walks in 75 innings while occasionally reaching 100 mph on the radar gun to earn first-team All-Big West honors last season. His fastball-slider combination was responsible for 94% of his strikeouts.
But Checketts expects that a new, slower pitch will improve his 6-3 record and 3.60 ERA of last year.
“He’s added a changeup, and it’s a really good pitch,” he said. “If he can throw that — add it to what he’s already been able to do — I think he has the chance to be pretty special.
“The challenge for him last year was getting lefthanders out, and it blew up his numbers.
“But since we’ve gotten back to practice, his strikeout rate is up 40% against lefthanders and his batting average against them is way down.
“I hope that’s him and not our hitters.”
Calvin Proskey, a 6-3 righthander, figures to pitch on Saturdays in UCSB’s weekend rotation. He went 5-4 with a 3.78 ERA, 71 strikeouts and just 17 walks in 66⅔ innings last year.
“His breaking ball has improved,” Checketts said. “Last year it wasn’t in the zone very much and he’s been able to land it.
“It’s given him another dimension, having that fourth pitch that he can throw in the strike zone.”
Kellan Montgomery, left, a former Dos Pueblos High School star, changed uniforms this fall after transferring to UCSB from Long Beach State. He won nine games last year as the Beach’s No. 1 starting pitcher. Credit: Jeff Liang / UCSB Athletics photo
Former Dos Pueblos High star Kellan Montgomery, a senior transfer who won 16 games for Long Beach State the last three years, and sophomore Nathan Aceves are the top candidates for the other two spots in the starting rotation.
Checketts, who has developed six Gaucho pitchers who made the Major Leagues, tinkered with Montgomery’s fastball during the fall workouts.
“It’s a little inconsistent, but the velocity has been up,” he said. “He brought back a curveball we like which he had previously but didn’t use last year.
“He throws a lot of strikes … He’s competitive. He’s a pretty solid, consistent option for us.”
Aceves won Freshman All-America Second Team honors last year from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association after going 3-1 with a 1.65 ERA.
An injury limited him to 27⅓ innings.
“His velo is up over last year — his first outing this fall was really hot, up to 98,” Checketts said. “We haven’t seen that since that first outing, but he’s been from 94 to 96.
“He just added a kick change, the same one that Flora picked up, and it was really good in the games, so I’m hoping it’ll be a difference-maker.”
Juniors A.J. Krodel and Cole Tryba, last year’s top reliever, are other possible starters.
“Krodel was a little nicked up when we got back in January, but he’s gotten back out there,” Checketts said. “He’s a little behind but he’s throwing the ball really well.
“I hope he can continue that because he looks like a new man out there. He’s been pretty good.”
Tryba, a lefthander who earned six saves last year, was selected to pitch the Cape Cod League All-Star Game last summer while posting an ERA of 1.07 for the Orleans Firebirds.
“We’re still working him up for a possible starter’s role,” Checketts said.
In the meantime, Tryba and sophomore righthander Ray Olivas will be UCSB’s high-leverage relievers in late innings.
“We tend to go with more of a stopper than a traditional closer,” Checketts said.
Checketts has four other lefthanded veterans to summon from the bullpen: senior Donovann Jackson (4-0, two saves, 2.06 ERA), juniors Chase Hoover (2-0, two saves, 5.28 ERA) and Nic Peterson (1-0, 5.63 ERA), and sophomore Van Froling (1-0, 6.87 ERA).
Hoover, a 2022 graduate of San Marcos High School, posted a career ERA of 0.99 in three seasons with the Royals.
Josh Janicelli, a 6-5 righthander, headlines the freshman class of pitchers.
Glove Story
The pitching staff should benefit from a veteran infield that’s loaded with slick-fielding shortstops at nearly every position.
Senior Cory Nunez is back for his fourth season at short.
“He dove and popped his shoulder out last week, which is a bummer,” Checketts noted. “He’d been playing really well, so we’re hoping he’s available next week.
“If he’s not, we’ll have Jonathan Mendez move over there from second and slide freshman Cade Goldstein into second.”
Mendez earned first-team All-Big West honors last year as a sophomore after batting .314 with a team-high 11 home runs and 40 runs batted in.
D1 Baseball recently ranked him as the Big West’s No. 3 MLB draft prospect behind Flora and UC Irvine pitcher Ricky Ojeda.
Junior infielder Jonathan Mendez acknowledges the cheers from UCSB’s dugout after hitting one of his team-high 11 home runs last season. Credit: Jeff Liang / UCSB Athletics photo
“He’s a left-side defender who can really play defense and handle the bat,” Checketts said. “He’s pretty physical, and there’s not a lot of those guys who can play short and third on the left side.
“I think he might end up at third base in pro ball, but they’ll probably give him a shot at short, initially.”
Xavier Esquer, another converted shortstop, hit .281 with eight homers and 38 RBI last year.
D1 Baseball has ranked him at No. 27 among NCAA third basemen this season.
“He can really play defense,” Checketts said. “All those defensive metrics nowadays — like his ability to save runs — are really good.
“He gets on base and has sneaky power. He put a good year together.”
Goldstein, a versatile freshman from Harvard-Westlake School, is Checketts’ wild card. He batted .317 in summer collegiate ball while scoring a team-high 39 runs for the Marion Berries of Salem, Oregon, in the West Coast League.
“We’ve run him around in center, we’ve run him around at short and second,” he said. “He’s caught a little bit, too, and he’s been solid at all of them.
“He puts up a really competitive at bat and he’s a good runner.”
First base is up in the air … Way up.
“There are six bodies over there,” Checketts said. “It’s competitive over there.
“We’ve been looking at all those other infielders who aren’t going to get into one of those other three spots.
“You’re playing third yesterday and first today. They’re getting thrown over there to see who’s going to produce some offense for us.”
A couple of outfielders are also in the competition.
Senior Cole Kosciusko, who batted .249 with four homers last year, has been converted to first base full-time.
“He had a good fall and he came back and had a good January,” Checketts said.
Noah Karliner, a power-hitting transfer from Cal State Dominguez Hills, scoops a throw at first base during a UCSB scrimmage last fall. The Gauchos have been trying him out at both first and in the outfield. Credit: UCSB Athletics photo
Noah Karliner, a 6-4 and 235 transfer from Division II power Cal State Dominguez Hills, has been taking reps at both first base and the outfield.
So has graduate transfer Nick Husovsky, a first-team All-Mid American Conference second baseman for Ball State last year.
He batted .336 with 17 doubles, 10 homers and a team-best 59 RBI.
“He had a good career at Ball State and he’s hit since he’s been here,” Checketts said. “He’ll probably hit in one of those first five spots, but we’ve just got to figure out where we’re going to play him on defense.”
Another option at first is senior catcher Nate Vargas. He was selected to the All-Big West second team last year after hitting .306 with 10 homers and a team-high 50 RBI.
Joining him in the mix at catcher are power-hitting sophomore Ian Fernandez, who was limited by injuries to just 19 games last season, and junior transfer Nico Libed from the University of San Diego.
“Fernandez is our best thrower back there and I’d say Libed is probably our best receiver and blocker,” Checketts said. “Fernandez has the most projection, but he’s been dinged up and probably won’t be ready to start.
“Vargas has power and Libed is probably going to hit for average, so we’ll probably run those two guys out there and have them split time between catcher and DH.”
Outfield of Dreams
Checketts also has plenty of decisions to make in the outfield.
Rowan Kelly is the one mainstay, having batted .355 as a freshman last year to earn All-Big West honorable mention.
“He’s been good in center since we got back,” Checketts said.
He also returns sophomore Liam Barrett and freshman Jack Haferkamp, a top recruit from the high school Class of 2024. He redshirted last year after being diagnosed with a neck and back ailment known as thoracic outlet syndrome.
Lefthanded-hitting Rowan Kelly ranked second for UCSB in batting average last year, hitting .355 after winning a starting job as a freshman centerfielder. Credit: UCSB Athletics photo
Checketts has recruited several transfers to that mix. They include speedy junior Colin Beazizo, who won Northwest Athletic Conference Player of the Year honors for Everett Community College in Everett, Washington.
Senior Mitch Namie comes to UCSB after leading New Mexico State with a .340 batting average and 46 RBI last spring,
Checketts also has added a couple of power hitters in Karliner, who hit 34 homers in two seasons at Dominguez Hills, and Max Stagg, who belted 14 homers for Central Arizona College in Coolidge, Arizona, last year.
He used some of his typical improvisation to protect the newly erected video board from the expected power surge.
“We figured out that we wouldn’t reach the board if we used water-logged balls and hit from the turf behind home plate,” Checketts said.
And then Kosciusko proved him wrong by banging one off the board last week.
Checketts hopes the dented board is a sign that the Gauchos’ bats are back to form.
They hit .296 with a school-record 84 home runs when they won the Big West championship in 2024, but those numbers dropped to .284 and 58 homers last season.
UCSB also fell in the standings, finishing in a tie for fourth place with a Big West record of 16-14 (36-18 overall).
“We didn’t perform to our talent level on the offensive side of it, although I think we kind of performed to what we had healthy on the field,” said Checketts, referring to the injuries suffered by top hitters Jack Holman and Isaac Kim.
He expects hitting coach Matt Fonteno to have them back to form this year.
“I think we have a chance to put a competitive nine-player lineup out there,” Checketts said. “We just have to make sure we put everybody in the right spots.”