Diamonds in the Rough on the Diamond

Local baseball lovers who whooped it up as the Los Angeles Dodgers became the first back-to-back world series winners in a quarter century, were thrilled to see the team enhance its reputation as this era’s Evil Empire – once again signing the top-rated free agent Kyle Tucker to a massive contract in a bid to match the 1998-2000 Yankees in achieving a three-peat. 

But you don’t have to brave traffic or pay the exorbitant parking and ticket prices to see topflight players do their thing on the diamond, at least in the “amateur” world. That’s because the UCSB Gauchos boast the No. 1 college pitching prospect in junior Jackson Flora for the second consecutive year, as Flora stands ready to succeed last year’s sensation Tyler Bremner in topping the list on just about every pre-season poll and mock draft out there. 

Flora joins two more ex-Gauchos in a chance to enter the first round of the 2026 MLB draft in June, following in the footsteps of Dillon Tate, who was taken by the Texas Rangers with the No. 4 pick in 2015, and Michael McGreevy, who the St. Louis Cardinals nabbed at No. 18 in 2021. Bremner for his part set a new record last summer when the Los Angeles Angels selected the star hurler at No. 2, signing him to a contract worth more than $7.5 million. And that’s not even counting Shane Bieber, who was drafted at No. 122 in 2016, and won the Cy Young Award four years later. 

What all those pitchers have in common is having been recruited and developed by Andrew Checketts, the UCSB coach who is just starting his 15th season at the helm. 

“We have a bit of a model, a system for the things that we look for in recruiting,” Checketts said when asked how he’s had such a string of success with starters. “We look for athletic projectable strike throwers that have some feel for pitch and room for growth within the recruiting world we’re in. We’re a mid-market major, so we have to turn over some rocks and find some guys that maybe don’t throw hard quite yet, but we think will get there. You can’t just take whoever you want at a showcase. You’re not the first pick. It’s about finding guys who are under the radar and giving them the coaching, and creating a competitive system to help them get better every day.”

It seems to be working for Flora.

Although UCSB dropped two out of three to the team ranked just ahead of the Gauchos in the national polls when the season opened last weekend at Southern Mississippi, the righty starter didn’t disappoint. Flora hurled six shutout innings in Hattiesburg, notching five strikeouts and giving up just three hits in handing the Golden Eagles their first loss on opening day in a dozen years. 

Checketts wasn’t surprised. 

“He’s just continually improved since he got here,” he said. “He’s super athletic, ultra competitive, and has continued to mature physically and improve through experience. He’s really a competitive, hardworking kid who’s been a lot of fun to coach.” 

While it seems like the opportunity to sign for life-changing money less than four months down the road might produce a lot of pressure for the player, the coach said that’s just one aspect of life as a potential pro Gaucho athlete. 

“They don’t have a lot of time to think about it,” he said. “UCSB is a challenging, competitive school so they put a lot of time in there as students. They have to have a ton of discipline here.” 

More pressure lands on Checketts and his staff, he said. 

“We want these high-profile prospects to stay healthy. We want them to reach their potential and achieve their goals. Injuries happen in athletics. The most stressful part from a coach’s perspective is trying to do everything we can to make sure that we don’t overuse them or put them in situations where the risk for injuries is great. You have to balance helping them continue to develop, but also stay healthy.”

The Gauchos boast several other well-regarded prospects in this year’s well-rounded team, including two former local high school standouts in pitcher Chase Hoover, a 2022 graduate of San Marcos High School – who closed out Flora’s victory last Friday with two almost hitless innings – and Kellan Montgomery, the former Dos Pueblos High School star who returned to town after serving as Long Beach State’s No. 1 starter last season (although he got off to a seasonal rough start last Sunday). The team was picked to finish on top of the Big West Conference and potentially earn another trip to the College World Series, besting teams with bigger budgets. That also brings high expectations, but it’s a good problem, Checketts said. 

“It is different for us. There’s more of a target on your chest. But it’s what you want as the program evolves, so we’ve seen those expectations get set higher externally. Just like with the players, you’ve got to block out the noise.”

The noise level will go up on Friday nights whenever the Gauchos play a game at home this season, beginning February 20 with the home opener against Portland, as that’s when Flora will be slated to start each week. The diehard fans that number around 200 get joined by others wanting to check out someone who might be playing in the major leagues in a few years, not to mention a slew of scouts checking out the highly regarded righty at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. 

The venue recently received an upgraded playing surface and is debuting its first video scoreboard this season, but still lags far behind the kind of facility of national powerhouses. But that only makes it extra fun for the fans, as people can sit or stand right behind the batting cage – only 10-15 feet from the batter’s box – where they’ll see in closeup exactly what a hitter experiences trying to whack Flora’s blazing fastball or figure out an off-speed pitch. 

“I wish we had more resources, but that intimacy is one of the cool things about our park,” Checketts said.  

Visit https://ucsbgauchos.com/sports/baseball for tickets.