Ch-Omaha! UCSB Knocks Miami Out Of CWS

OMAHA—As the ball popped into first baseman Austin Bush’s glove, completing a 1-6-3 double play to end UC Santa Barbara’s 5-3 victory Monday against Miami, the cheers rained down from the stands of TD Ameritrade Park.

“Ole, Ole, Ole. Gauchos, Gauchos.”

UCSB stayed on the field well after the final out was recorded to celebrate its first-ever win at the College World Series. It was a moment the Gauchos will not soon forget, and they did everything they could to take it in.

“(I’m) happy for our guys, our fans and everybody is celebrating like we just won the whole thing,” coach Andrew Checketts said. “But it’s hard to act like you’ve done it before when you’ve never done it before. First program World Series win, and it sure looked like it.”

Second baseman J.J. Muno said that is no accident. Throughout UCSB’s Cinderella run this postseason, they have not been shy to celebrate, and he said they are enjoying the moments.

“Every step of our journey, we’ve acted like children,” he said. “We’ve kind of adopted that we’re a young group of guys and we’re going to act like kids because this is fun, man, and you’ve got to enjoy this. We want to savor this and enjoy every moment of this. We’re not going to pretend like we’ve been here before or we’re too cool to celebrate.”

Monday’s victory was one worth celebrating, as the Gauchos survived their first elimination game at the CWS. They sent Miami home after just two games, the first 0-2 showing in Omaha for the ‘Canes since 1979. In the last 10 days, UCSB has eliminated Louisville and Miami, the Nos. 2 and 3 national seeds and the best two teams in the ACC.

The Gauchos were determined not to go back to Santa Barbara without a win in the CWS.

GAME AT A GLANCE

Turning Point: In the sixth inning, after a 62-minute rain delay, the Gauchos broke a 1-1 tie, scoring four runs to establish a lead they’d never relinquish. Ryan Cumberland hit a pinch-hit two-run single with the bases loaded to take the lead, and then the Gauchos laid down back-to-back successful squeeze bunts to pad it. The Hero: Cumberland was “violently ill all morning,” UCSB head coach Andrew Checketts said. But Cumberland battled through his flu symptoms to come up big in the game-changing sixth inning, lining a single just fair down the first-base line to break a tie and give the Gauchos a lead. You Might Have Missed: Second baseman J.J. Muno played a large offensive role for the Gauchos, hitting the game-tying single in the bottom of the first inning to drive in UCSB’s first run of the College World Series. He also hit a double down the right-field line to help set the table for Cumberland’s two-run single in the sixth. Box Score

“This group’s just resilient,” closer Kyle Nelson said. “We just won’t let ourselves accept defeat.”

The Gauchos won Monday’s game by playing West Coast baseball, piecing together their offense to go with solid pitching and defense. After sitting through a 62-minute rain delay in the sixth inning with the game tied at 1, UCSB pushed ahead with four runs when the game resumed.

The Gauchos loaded the bases with one out, and Checketts called on Ryan Cumberland to pinch-hit. Cumberland, who had battled the flu all day, came through with a two-run base hit. Checketts then called for back-to-back safety squeezes from Billy Fredrick and Ryan Clark to bring in two more runs.

Checketts said after stranding four runners in the first two innings—including two when Clay Fisher hit into an inning-ending double play in the second—he didn’t want to let the opportunity slip past in the sixth.

“We had the opportunity there and didn’t really want to let another one go,” he said. “And going into it, I was hoping we scored in Omaha after (Oklahoma State ace Thomas) Hatch took care of us (Saturday).”

UCSB turned the four-run lead over to Nelson, who had known since the start of the rain delay that he would be on the mound when the seventh inning started. Miami scored twice against the lefthander in the eighth, but was unable to complete the comeback.

With the victory, UCSB’s Cinderella run continues in Omaha. The Gauchos needed a few upsets to reach the CWS, batting the Nashville Regional and then knocking off Louisville in super regionals. But even before the season, few saw UCSB as this sort of team. The Gauchos were picked to finish fourth in the Big West Conference by the league’s coaches, anticipating they would take a step back after seeing a program-record 10 players drafted off a team that hosted the Lake Elsinore Regional.

But Muno said the Gauchos have not been surprised by what they have been able to accomplish this season.

“I know everyone said we were going to be a .500 team, rebuilding year,” he said. “You lose (No. 4 overall pick) Dillon Tate, Justin Jacome, seven starters on the position side, and we all knew we had been working hard and we were all ready for our opportunities. We’ve got guys that have grinded out years where they’ve just sat the bench.”

Those players have been instrumental to UCSB’s run this month, a run it has no intention of ending. The Gauchos are playing their best baseball of the season and doing it on the biggest stage. They have brought their fans along for the ride with them, and converted a few more in Omaha.

UCSB’s largest home crowd this season was 600 on May 13 against Cal State Fullerton. Monday, the Gauchos played in front of 15,748 fans, many of who were wearing blue and yellow. Omaha has, in some respects, truly become Cho-maha, a development that has delighted the ‘Chos. Monday, they explicitly showed their appreciation after the game, but, as Checketts explained, also with their play on the field.

“We talk about making sure we say thank you by playing hard, make sure we say thank you by taking care of our stuff,” Checketts said. “Maybe we don’t have the fanciest stuff, but we’re going to take care of the stuff we do have.

“I think it’s special to see that those people continue to follow us and have come out here. And a lot of people have been waiting a long time to go to Omaha. For this group to be able to take us there, it’s been really special.”