UCSB baseball kicks off spring break with series against CSUN

By ERIC BOOSE UCSB SPORTS WRITER

UCSB baseball (15-3, 3-0 Big West) will look to keep their perfect start to conference play rolling this weekend, as they welcome the upstart CSUN Matadors (12-4, 2-1 Big West) to Caesar Uyesaka Stadium for a three-game series. After sweeping their opening series last weekend, the Gauchos come into this weekend atop The Big West standings, with the Matadors in third, as CSUN has enjoyed a strong start to their season as well.

This weekend, the UCSB Athletic Department is offering a Spring Break Special with students of all ages receiving free admission to every game of this series. First pitch times are set for 5:05 p.m. today, 4:05 p.m. Saturday, and 1:05 p.m. Sunday. The games will be live on ESPN+ with an audio-only broadcast and live stats both available through ucsbgauchos.com.

Last Time Out

Playing their first Big West games of the season last weekend, the Gauchos got the start they wanted to conference play, sweeping a three-game series against CSU Bakersfield. Mike Gutierrez pitched seven excellent innings to help UCSB take a 5-0 victory in the Friday opener, Christian Kirtley drove in three runs to power Saturday’s 4-2 win, and Ivan Brethowr completed a Sunday comeback with a walk-off single as the Gauchos turned a 3-0 deficit into a 5-4 win.

Series History

The Matadors are one of UCSB’s most frequent opponents ever, with the two teams facing off a total of 158 times prior to this weekend. The Gauchos hold a 92-63-3 record

Rescue

Continued from Page A1 search dog teams participated in searching the debris flow after the 2018 Montecito Mudslides.

The dogs are trained at a large Santa Paula campus, where the foundation is based. There the dogs are taught search-and-rescue skills in an environment similar to a movie studio backlot, with damaged buildings, rubble, even a trainwreck. And that’s where the News-Press saw the enthusiastic canines in action during a recent visit.

The general public will get to see the site during an open house, set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 20.

(See the FYI box on A1.)

Although being hyper and wanting to play are great traits for being a search dog, those are not the only requirements — not to worry, dogs that choose to not continue with the program often find different careers, such as detecting drugs for the police.

Two very important traits are having a keen sense of smell and having a very intense toy drive.

Needing a keen sense of smell is crucial to finding people hidden in rubble.

And the dogs are trained through a reward-based system. Hence the toys.

A handler will hide in the rubble with a tug toy, which serves as the reward. If the dog can find the handler and bark loudly, then the “good boy” or “good girl” gets to play with the toy.

Not only does the toy need to serve as a sufficient reward, but SDF wants the dogs to enjoy what they are doing. One dog, named Hawthorne, even had what SDF calls “happy tail.” Hawthorne had been wagging his tail too much at the rubble sight, so they placed tape around the tip of his tail to protect it from hitting against the rubble.

Denise Sanders, the senior director of communications and search team operations, told the News-Press that the dogs don’t realize they’re doing search and rescue. They’re just playing.

And instead of treating the dogs as tools, pets or employees, SDF views each canine as a valued colleague.

Ms. Sanders said human handlers face the challenge of learning how to work with the dogs as colleagues, which requires a deep understanding between the two team members. This can be difficult because many of the recruits are from shelters, so they have not had the best experience with connecting to humans.

The dogs need to learn that they are “good dogs” (perhaps even the “best dogs”), which makes the relationship between dog and handler even more important.

Like humans, all dogs have different learning styles and learning curves, so they do not all graduate at the same time, Ms. Sanders said. But training usually lasts eight to 12 months.

Then each dog will get paired up with a handler and move with them to wherever the handler’s task force is located.

Watching the search-dogs-intraining race across the rubble is an amazing sight, as the News- against CSUN, and have won six of the last seven games, including a three-game series sweep in Northridge last April. UCSB has won each of the last three series (the 2020 series was cancelled due to COVID-19).

What To Know About The Gauchos

UCSB has one of the most electric offenses in The Big West and one of the best pitching staffs in the country. The Gauchos’ 2.64 team ERA is the fifth-best in all of Division I baseball, and the best of any mid-major program in the country. UCSB also ranks ninth nationally in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.39) and WHIP (1.10). Gaucho pitching also leads The Big West in total strikeouts (193), batting average against (.207) and home runs allowed (7).

When it comes to getting run support for their dominant pitchers, the UCSB offense relies on speed and power, leading The Big West in stolen bases (35) and home runs (27).

Eight different Gauchos have multiple steals on the season, and seven have multiple home runs. LeTrey McCollum’s team-high seven stolen bases are also the second-most in The Big West, and Ivan Brethowr’s six home runs lead the team and conference. Aaron Parker is right behind Brethowr with five long balls, and he leads the team in both slugging (.690) and on-base percentage (.439) at this point in the season. His .362 average is behind only Jonah Sebring’s .371 for the team lead.

Scouting The Matadors

CSUN has exceeded expectations to start the season. After being picked to finish seventh in The Big West Preseason Coaches’ Poll, the Matadors come into the weekend in third place in the conference standings and with the second-best overall record to this point in the season. The Matadors opened

Big West play against UC Davis last weekend, taking two of three games from the Aggies in Davis. That series was sandwiched between a pair of mid-week games against Pepperdine, both of which CSUN won, making them 4-1 in their last five games.

Lucas Braun worked eight innings in the Matadors’ Friday game in Davis; the All-Big West Preseason Team selection has been an absolute standout for CSUN so far this year, leading the conference and ranking 15th in the country in strikeouts with 41 in 30 1/3 innings of work this season.

At the plate, the Matadors are led by outfielder Jakob Simons and catcher Graysen Tarlow, who rank first and second in The Big West in on-base plus slugging percent (OPS) this season. Along with his 1.239 OPS, Simons is tied for second in the conference with five home runs and has the best outright slugging percentage (.719). He also leads the conference in stolen bases with nine, and will get on base any way he can, including a conference-high eight hit-by-pitches. Tarlow took home the first Big West Player of the Week award of the season and has not slowed down, leading the conference in on-base percentage (.538) and ranking second in batting average, hitting .420 through his first 15 games.

UP NEXT UCSB will hit the road next week, heading to Moraga for a game against St. Mary’s on Tuesday, then to Fresno for a weekend series against Fresno State. Tuesday’s game is set for a 2 p.m. start, with the games in Fresno set for 6 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday, and 1 p.m. Sunday.

Eric Boose is assistant director of athletic communications at UCSB. email: sports@newspress.com

LONG, Elaine Gilbertson

12/16/1937 - 3/10/2023 Elaine Long passed away peacefully on March 10. One of two children, born Elaine Constance Gilbertson in Richland Center, Wisconsin to George and Harriet Gilbertson. Elaine attended high school in Madison, Wisconsin where was elected Homecoming Queen her Senior year. Later she attended University of Wisconsin, Madison where she met her future husband, James. Elaine graduated college and worked for the County of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She married James on April 23, 1960 and later had two boys, James Jr and John. In 1966 Elaine and her family moved to Santa Barbara, then a few years later to Galveston, Texas for a couple of years, then back to Racine, Wisconsin. In 1972 Elaine, James and her two boys came back to Santa Barbara, calling it home for the rest of her life. Elaine enjoyed the Santa Barbara weather and being able to play tennis year round. She was very active in the tennis community and served on the board of directors for the Santa Barbara Tennis Patrons.

Elaine was preceded in death by her husband of 62 years, James. She is survived by her sister Edie, two sons, James Jr and John and 4 grandchildren, Stephen, Matthew, Emily and Christopher. The family would like to thank the wonderful caregivers, especially Aires for her loving attention, at the Casa Naomi where she spent the last three years of her life.

Press learned during its recent visit.

As soon as the dogs are brought out to the rubble, they are ready to go. You can see their bodies bouncing with excitement, and almost as soon as they are released, they go straight to the handler that is hiding in the rubble. And as they leave the rubble with their tug toys in their mouths, elation exudes from their faces.

Searching the rubble, however, is no easy task. Each dog undergoes a strict nutritional food plan and intensive strength and agility training.

Fun fact: When dogs jump, they only propel themselves from their front legs. Part of SDF’s training teaches dogs how to jump from both legs, making the search dogs even more agile and powerful, Ms. Sanders said.

For search and rescue training, SDF’s facilities are impressive. SDF has an underwater treadmill (it helps strengthen the hind legs) and various rubble piles of different disaster scenarios that the dogs can train on.

Some of the scenarios are a collapsed freeway, a trainwreck or a car park. These help the dogs get used to searching different environments while limiting the potential of new items distracting the dogs in a new environment.

The facility also allows SDF to practice wide area searches (up to around 145 acres).

However, training is not always oriented toward the dog but toward the human handler. Together they combine their superior traits. Dogs use their sense of smell. and the handlers must make sense of the situation. One way SDF tests this relationship is through a scenttubing system that carries human scent into different locations.

SDF is the only facility that has this system.

Dogs are trained to go to the densest source of human scent, but the handlers must make sense of the scent. The tubing system that carries scent, purposefully draws the dogs to a location where there is no human hiding. Now there are lots of scenarios where the human may not be visible, but this scenario tests how the handler will respond. Do they trust their dog and reward him? Or do they try to force the dog to look somewhere else?

One thing that is obvious about the SDF staff is their passion for dogs. Ms. Sanders has worked with the SDF for 15 years, and said “It hasn’t gotten old yet.” email: cbeeghly@newspress.com

This passion extends from the handlers — Mandy Tisdale, Julia Kopan, Abby Leland, and Hanna Irwin — to SDF’s donors.

SDF is a nonprofit that does not accept any funding from the government, so they rely on people believing in their mission.

And it is an easy mission to get behind because when a disaster occurs, you can count on SDFtrained rescue teams to reinforce response efforts.