Mark Patton

1 week ago | noozhawk.com | Mark Patton |Barry Punzal

Overview: UCSB makes its pitch for a strong stretch run with a staff that ranks second nationally in WHIP (1.14), eighth in earned run average (3.41) and 21st in strikeouts (10.5 per nine innings). The baseball field can turn into a minefield. UC Santa Barbara’s troops have taken so many casualties this season that their field general found himself with few reinforcements for Tuesday’s game against Pepperdine.

2 weeks ago | noozhawk.com | Mark Patton |Barry Punzal

Overview: UCSB coach Jo Evans hopes Grace Luderer’s return from a rib injury will give her team a boost toward its first Big West Conference softball title My favorite bedtime stories crackled through the transistor radio I smuggled under the covers whenever the Los Angeles Dodgers played a night game. But UC Santa Barbara softball pitcher Grace Luderer needed no battery-charged Walkman to get the same childhood experience.

3 weeks ago | noozhawk.com | Mark Patton |Barry Punzal

Overview: Michael McGreevy, who went 3-0 with an earned run average of 1.96 in four appearances last season, allowed just two runs in 16 2/3 innings during the recently completed Spring Training Football folk don’t mince words about the urgency to achieve success. “Just win, baby,” was a motto that Oakland Raiders’ owner Al Davis took to the grave.

1 month ago | noozhawk.com | Mark Patton |Barry Punzal

Overview: Coach Joe Pasternack looks to build a team around returning starters Jason Fontenet II and Colin Smith as the NCAA Transfer Portal opens Monday Monday once was more than just a square on UC Santa Barbara’s calendar. “Big Monday” was an ESPN venture that put a national spotlight on the Big West Conference and Gaucho basketball during the 1990s. But current UCSB coach Joe Pasternack seeks a different kind of enlightenment from this week’s Big Monday.

1 month ago | noozhawk.com | Mark Patton |Barry Punzal

Overview: UCSB graduate Cori Close has coached the Bruins to a 30-2 record and the No. 1 seed for this year’s NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Two things stood out when the local newspaper assigned me to cover my first UC Santa Barbara women’s basketball game in January 1990:There were about as many people sitting on the team’s benches as in the stands …… And one of them was a teenager in a wheelchair placed next to coach Mark French.