UC Santa Barbara, former district standouts, look to make history in Louisville
As UC Santa Barbara’s baseball team looks to make history, it has been simultaneously surrounded by history this week in Louisville, Ky.
The Gauchos, among them former Stanislaus District standouts Austin Bush and Ryan Cumberland of Turlock High, Beyer’s Dempsey Grover and Downey’s Devon Gradford, advanced to their first NCAA Super Regional where they’ll take on Louisville.
UC Santa Barbara just happened to be in the Bluegrass State the same time boxing immortal Muhammad Ali will be laid to rest Friday in his hometown. The former heavyweight champion and global icon died June 3.
The local players, to a man, said during interviews Tuesday they were hoping to attend the open-to-the-public services, but tickets to the event were gone in less than an hour.
Unable to witness a piece of world history, they’ll now turn their attention to making history, as they take on the Cardinals in a best-of-three series and try to qualify for their first trip to the College World Series.
“We feel like we’re playing really good right now and we’re really confident,” said Gradford, who graduated from Downey in 2012 and is hitting .342 in 54 games for the Gauchos this season. “Our bats have started heating up and it seems like it’s happening at just the right time.”
Indeed, the timing couldn’t be better.
In the regional against Washington on June 3, the Huskies broke a 1-1 tie with a run in the 12th inning. Gradford homered – his first of the season – to tie the score in the bottom of the frame and Bush homered to lead off the 14th to send the Gauchos to the next round against Xavier, where UCSB eliminated the Musketeers in two games.
“It was pretty surreal,” said Bush, a 2014 Turlock graduate who led the Big West with 10 homers this season and was second with 48 RBIs. “I was not up there trying to hit a home run; I wasn’t trying to be that guy.”
Nevertheless, he became that guy.
“I can’t really remember too many moments as exciting as that,” said Cumberland, whose younger brother, Brett, plays for Cal and was named the Pacific-12 Conference Player of the Year last week. “Devon’s hit completely turned it around for us and put us in a really good spot to win the regional, and I think after the two home runs, we’ve kind of caught fire. Hopefully, we can carry it into Louisville.”
Much of the Gauchos’ hopes rest on the right arm of pitcher Shane Bieber, a junior who was 8-4 with a 2.24 ERAthis season.
“Shane is our Friday guy, he’s our ace,” said 2013 Beyer graduate Grover, UCSB’s catcher. “Catching is really pretty nice. I call him a command guy. I’ll put a finger down, set up in a location and throws it into my glove.”
The Cardinals (50-12) and Gauchos (40-18-1) will play Saturday, Sunday and, if necessary, Monday. Saturday’s game will be televised on ESPN2 at 9 a.m. Sunday’s game will be televised at 9 a.m. on either ESPN2 or ESPNU. The potential start time for Monday’s game has yet to be determined.
The winner advances to the CWS in Omaha, Neb.
Joe Cortez: 209-578-2380, @ModBeePreps
This story was originally published June 9, 2016 at 6:33 PM with the headline "UC Santa Barbara, former district standouts, look to make history in Louisville."