LOS ANGELES — The UC Santa Barbara Baseball team was stung by some uncharacteristic lack of control in the middle innings of Tuesday night's game at Loyola Marymount, surrendering eight runs over the third, fourth and fifth frames of what ended as a 9-4 defeat for the Gauchos. Brendan Durfee and Jessada Brown provided three of the four Santa Barbara runs with their homers.  
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The evening started just fine for the Gauchos, with Nick Oakley's first inning sacrifice fly putting a run up early and Reed Moring working around a lead-off walk to keep the Lions scoreless in the bottom of the first. LMU did tie the game back up with a solo home run in the bottom of the second, but Santa Barbara got the lead right back in the top of the third. After Aaron Parker led off the inning with a single up the middle, Durfee drilled the first pitch he saw out to right field for a two-run homer and a 3-1 Gaucho lead.
 
The issues started in the bottom of the third, when two one-out hit batters gave the Lions momentum after Moring had retired the lead-off batter. Cole Tryba replaced Moring on the mound but allowed a single to the first batter he faced, making it 3-2 Santa Barbara. Tryba responded by getting the next guy out, but then a risky, two-out double steal worked out for LMU and the Lions tied the game at three. The badness compounded as the next two Lions walked to load the bases, and another single gave LMU a 5-3 lead before the Gauchos could get out of the inning.
 
Brown led off the top of the fourth with a no-doubt home run over the 37-foot Blue Monster in left field to bring the Gauchos within one, but they were not able to stop the LMU rally in the bottom half of the inning. The Lions extended their lead to 7-4 in the bottom of the fourth on a triple and a sacrifice bunt, then made it 9-4 in a fifth inning that saw the Gauchos issue three wild pitches. Frank Camarillo combined with Matt Ager finally able to stop the Lion offense over the final 3 2/3 frames, but the Gaucho offense could not spark a rally of their own.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Jessada Brown's third-inning home run over LMU's Blue Monster was his sixth of the season, five of which have come away from home. Brown is the Gauchos' top road hitter, batting .371/.432/.629 in 21 games away from Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
• Frank Camarillo had a quietly strong game on the mound Tuesday night, facing just one batter over the minimum in 2 2/3 innings of work, allowing no hits and issuing no walks. It was both the longest outing and first hitless outing of his collegiate career, and brings the sophomore up to three straight appearences without surrendering a run.

 
UP NEXT
The Gauchos will return to the friendly confines of Caesar Uyesaka Stadium this weekend, hosting a three-game series against Cal State Fullerton, April 26-28. Saturday's game against the Titans will be nationally televised on ESPNU and will therefore begin at 7 p.m. Friday and Sunday's games will remain as originally scheduled, at 4:35 p.m. and 1:05 p.m. respectively. Fans can catch all three games live on ESPN+ or follow along with live stats and an audio broadcast available through ucsbgauchos.com.