University of California, Santa Barbara

UC Santa Barbara will make its 16th NCAA Tournament appearance in 2026, with the Gauchos earning an at-large bid to this year's field of 64. Santa Barbara will travel to No. 6 national seed Texas for the Austin Regional as the no. 2 seed, taking on Tarleton State in the opening round. Holy Cross rounds out the field and will face the hosting Longhorns.

Of all the days for everything to go wrong for UC Santa Barbara, Saturday was the worst possible. A calamitous first inning put the Gauchos in a hole they could never escape as a frustrating day ended in a 7-0 defeat to UC San Diego, ending Santa Barbara's run at The Big West Championship.

UC Santa Barbara will have to do things the hard way after dropping their winner's-bracket matchup with Cal Poly on Friday, 4-2. The Gauchos now must win three consecutive elimination games to claim The Big West Championship and its automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, with the first of those three tests set for Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.

UC Santa Barbara leaned on the power of its starting battery to win their opening game at The Big West Championship, with starting pitcher Jackson Flora striking out nine Cal State Fullerton batters over seven innings of one-run ball and starting catcher Nate Vargas driving in three runs, including a two-run homer to lead the way in the Gauchos' 7-4 victory. Rowan K...

It was hardly a straight path, but UC Santa Barbara is where they expected to be at the beginning of the season: top of the pile in The Big West and the no. 1 seed for the conference tournament. On Tuesday, the conference honored 11 of the men who helped them get there, with head coach Andrew Checketts named The Big West Co-Coach of the Year and ace right-hander Jackson ...