SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - For the second time in three seasons, the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team has seen 14 of its players named to All-Big West teams, with Head Coach Andrew Checketts and pitcher Ryan Gallagher earning major conference awards. Checketts was named Big West Coach of the Year for a third time in 2024, all corresponding with his team's conference championships. Gallagher was named Big West Pitcher of the Year.
Gallagher is one of six Gauchos on the all-conference First Team, alongside Aaron Parker, Nick Oakley, Ivan Brethowr, Brendan Durfee and Tyler Bremner. Justin Trimble, Jessada Brown and Matt Ager all earned Second Team selections, while Zander Darby, Jonah Sebring, Mike Gutierrez, Jackson Flora and Cole Tryba all received Honorable Mention.
Andrew Checketts skippered this talented Gaucho roster to one of the program's most remarkable seasons ever, leading the squad through a great deal of adversity in the progress. After practicing on turf soccer fields and local high school diamonds in the fall and starting the spring with 11 straight games on the road due to delays in field installation and maintenance at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium, Checketts' Gauchos have not lost on their new surface, going a perfect 25-0 at home for the first time in program history. They will host an NCAA Regional at their home ballpark for the first time ever this weekend. When last year's All-American closer Hudson Barrett went down with injury and the All-American starter Ager was not himself, Checketts navigated the precarious pitching position by having the latter take the place of the former, to the tune of a 10-save season.
Ryan Gallagher had to overcome some adversity himself, missing the entire 2023 campaign due to injury after being the conference's Freshman Pitcher of the Year in 2022. He came back with a bang, finishing the regular season as one of the nation's top 10 pitchers in ERA and walks and hits per inning pitched (WHIP). He hurled three scoreless outings on the year, including a complete game shutout against UC Davis on April 19. He only allowed four or more earned runs twice all season, finishing the year with the country's sixth-best ERA, 2.27. He fired double-digit strikeouts three times, peaking with a 13-K outing over eight shutout innings at Cal State Bakersfield. Nearly impossible to hit, the righty held opponents to a .159 batting average against, allowing the fifth-fewest hits per nine innings in the country (4.97), a big piece of his 0.82 WHIP, the second-lowest mark in Division I.
Tyler Bremner, who moved from the bullpen to the role of Sunday starter in April, was similarly elite, finishing the regular season with a 0.84 WHIP, right behind Gallagher at third in the country. The flamethrowing sophom*ore collected a team-high 96 strikeouts, second-most in The Big West, with a 5.05 strikeout-to-walk ratio, one of the top 25 figures in the nation. His 2.63 ERA ranks 15th in Division I for the regular season. His 11 total victories rank fourth among all qualified pitchers; he has not lost this year. In the seven starts he made since re-joining the rotation in April, he worked seven innings four times, including a complete game at Cal State Bakersfield.
Aaron Parker made a case for Big West Player of the Year honors at the plate, despite missing 10 games with an injury. The Gauchos' catcher had the best slugging percentage of all Big West hitters (.632) and finished among the top five in both batting average (.374) and on-base-plus-slugging (1.091). With 50 RBI in 44 games, he finished the regular season as one of the nation's top run producers on a per-game basis. He is the only Gaucho with three five-RBI games on the season and one of only two with a five-hit game to their name. Defensively, he was flawless in the 25 games he played behind the plate, throwing out 12 base stealers while allowing only nine steals. In six of the 12 games a team tried to steal against him, he threw out every attempted thief.
Brendan Durfee handled the catching when Parker wasn't, and the transfer from Division III Cal Lutheran was an ever-present piece of the Gaucho lineup in his first year of Division I ball. The only thing that derailed his ironman streak was a wrist injury that kept him out of the final three weeks of the regular season, though he will be back for postseason action. His return is great news for the Gauchos, as the lefty finished third on the team in batting average (.351) and slugging (.569), while placing second in on-base percentage (.454). He is the only Gaucho other than Parker with a five-hit game on the year, and his nine home runs on the season are a career high. He began his Gaucho career with a 10-game hitting streak that included a home run on debut at Campbell, and he has reached base safely in each of his last 11 games.
Nick Oakley earned his first All-Big West honor with a resurgent senior season, batting .314/.392/.473 with 49 RBI. The Santa Barbara native was Mr. Clutch for the Gauchos, batting .312 with runners in scoring position and posting a 71.4% success rate at driving in runners from third with less than two outs. He missed just one game all year and stepped into a leadership role in the clubhouse as well. His two-run homer against CSUN on May 18 broke a 2-2 tie in the ninth inning to give Santa Barbara 4-2 win, and his RBI single sparked a Senior Day rally against UC Riverside to secure a perfect home record for the Gauchos. His five home runs and conference-best four triples are both career highs, as are his 49 RBI. His 19 multi-hit games lead the squad.
Ivan Brethowr slugged his way to an All-Big West First Team selection, hammering a team-best 14 home runs on the year, the second-most long balls in the conference. The big right-hander has an arm as powerful as his bat, and played plenty of right field for the Gauchos, but he goes on the all-conference team as a designated hitter. He has served in that position over the last three weeks, batting in the leadoff spot of Santa Barbara's order. While his power increased, bumping his slugging up from .571 in 2023 to .590 in 2024, so too did his plate discipline this year; he struck out 19 fewer times in five more plate appearances compared to last season, earning nine more free passes (walks and hit-by-pitches) to first.
Justin Trimble stepped up to become the Gauchos' left-handed power threat (complementing the right-handed Brethowr) in 2024, playing in every game after getting just 32 at-bats in 29 games over his first two seasons. He played nearly every infield position but settled as the Gauchos' everyday third baseman, thanks in large part to a breakout series at Sacramento State which netted him his first Big West Player of the Week nod. He finished the regular season with 12 home runs and 47 RBI, leading the team with 13 multi-RBI games on the year.
Jessada Brown, a breakout star like Trimble, joins him on the All-Big West Second Team. The Gauchos' left fielder had more extra-base hits (11 doubles and eight home runs) in 2024 than he had at-bats (17) over his first two seasons and more RBI (38) than he had games played (35) his freshman and sophom*ore campaigns. Like Trimble, he hit his way into the lineup in the Sacramento State series, going 5-for-9 in two games against the Hornets. He hit his first career home run the following Tuesday at Pepperdine and has featured in every game since. Against UC San Diego on May 4, he made one of the plays of the season, robbing what would have been a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning. The Gauchos would go on to win the game by three.
Matt Ager got the save in that May 4 win, one of 10 he collected after stepping into the role of Gaucho closer in mid-April. He makes the all-conference second team in that role, having turned in a remarkable season of relief after an underwhelming beginning as a starter. In 21 1/3 innings over 13 total relief appearances, he pitched to a 1.27 ERA, striking out 23 batters to just six walks and holding opposing hitters to just a .188 batting average. In nine conference relief appearances, he allowed just one earned run, making seven saves. He did not blow a save all season, and is now one away from tying UC Santa Barbara's career saves record, despite spending all of last season and half of this one as a starter. Against Cal State Fullerton, he became just the ninth man to record 200 career strikeouts in the Gauchos' Blue and Gold.
Mike Gutierrez is also closing in on a Gaucho pitching milestone, cementing his position as one of Santa Barbara's all-time winningest pitchers with a 9-0 campaign en route to an All-Big West Honorable Mention. He also joined the 200-K club against the Titans, doing so just five innings before Ager. The Gauchos' Saturday starter pitched all 15 weekends, finishing the regular season with a 3.19 ERA and .208 batting average against. His 22 career victories rank fourth in program history, and his 22-3 career record gives him the best winning percentage (.880) of all UC Santa Barbara pitchers ever.
Cole Tryba was one of the key pieces out of the bullpen for Santa Barbara this season and earns all-conference honorable mention in his rookie campaign. The lefty led the Gauchos with 25 appearances, 24 of them out of the bullpen, and finished with a 2.62 ERA in his 12 conference outings. His 60 strikeouts lead all Gaucho relievers (including Ager), and he only walked 12 batters all year.
Jackson Flora was just as crucial to the Gauchos' bullpen as Tryba and likewise earns all-conference honorable mention for his efforts. The rookie righty pitched to an impressive 0.68 ERA in conference play, picking up three saves in the process. He totaled five saves on the season and was a versatile arm, making four mid-week starts as well.
Jonah Sebring was the Gauchos' first-choice centerfielder thanks to his defense in the outfield, and his bat came alive down the stretch to secure All-Big West Honorable Mention for the second season in a row. The Gauchos' leader in doubles (13) hit .309 in conference games and is red-hot at home. Sebring is batting .369/.440/.738 with five home runs and seven of his doubles in just 18 starts at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium this season. That includes a nine-RBI outburst against UC Riverside last Saturday in which he smacked two doubles and a homer.
Zander Darby was red hot down the stretch for the Gauchos, snagging All-Big West Honorable Mention after hitting .472 over the final 10 games of the season. He raced out of the gates with home runs in each of his first three games, finishing with six long balls on the year. He was hampered by a leg injury, but his late-season surge brought his average up to .298 by the end of the regular season, and he drove in 32 runs for the Gauchos on the year. He also legged out a pair of triples.
(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)
