Oregon baseball opened their postseason run in the Santa Barbara Regional with a win over San Diego, 5-4. The game was quite compelling even as it was at parts both marvelous and frustrating to watch at the same time.

RJ Gordon has been the leading starter for the first game of the weekend series this season and was again the starter for the first game against the Toreros. San Diego brought their big gun, Josh Randall, to the hill against the Ducks.

The game started as a pitcher’s duel with the offenses of both sides not being able to connect for runs in the first four innings. Scratch beneath the surface of the box score, however, and one pitcher was distinguishing himself better than the other – and it wasn’t Gordon.

In the first five innings in which the starters were on the mound, Randall fanned 6 batters, while Gordon only recorded 3 Ks. The Oregon bats were not able to get a solid bead on Randall, who walked none of the Ducks in his start. Even when he gifted Oregon base-runners by hitting batters with pitches, the Ducks could not capitalize.

That’s not to say that RJ Gordon’s outing was a bad start. It wasn’t, and even if he was being helped by a great Oregon defense, he wasn’t giving up home runs.

Something had to give, and that something happened in the fifth inning.

Carter Garate drew first blood in the fifth with a solo shot to lead off the top of the inning.

In the bottom of the fifth, Gordon picked up a pair of fly-up outs and could not close the inning. The Toreros pecked away at him with a single, a walk, and another single to tie the score 1-1.

Randall opened up the top of the sixth inning by giving up a single and hitting the third batter of the game, and with two on base and no outs his afternoon was done. San Diego could not quash Oregon’s offensive momentum, and after loading the bases the Ducks followed with a couple of sacrifice plays to take the score to 3-1.

The Ducks rolled the dice by keeping Gordon in the game, and were rewarded with San Diego flying or grounding out in the sixth and seventh innings.

In the top of the eighth inning, and with two outs, Carter Garate hit a double to extend Oregon’s lead to 4-1.

In the bottom of the eighth, Oregon pushed their luck too much by trotting Gordon back out on the hill. At best, Gordon’s game begins to fall off after his pitch count hits the mid-90’s, and with a pitch count at 110 the Ducks had no business keeping him in the game. It should not have been a surprise at all when he walked the first Torero batter, and San Diego followed up with a single to put two on base with no outs.

Brock Moore came in for relief. Unfortunately for both him and the Ducks, San Diego immediately clocked him for a three run homer.

Moore walked the next two batters and his miserable outing was over. It was up to Logan Mercado to come in and stop the arterial blood loss.

The game became a nail biter. Mercado can be brilliant at times and also give up home runs and the lead at times. Both sides could not score and with Mercado trying to help keep Oregon in this ball game, the tension was real with the foreboding that every one of his pitches could yield a leadoff home run and send the Ducks to the path of elimination.

It may not have been pretty, but pretty does not win ball games and Mercado did everything he had to do to send the game into extra innings.

In the top of the 11th inning, Bryce Boettcher connected with the second pitch throw at him – a solo shot to left field that would be all Oregon needed to come away with the win.

Mercado’s white-knuckle pitching in the 11th made the bottom of the inning seem like forever, but the lead stuck and Oregon escaped with a win.

Here is your final line:

And we recap with the game highlights:

UC Santa Barbara had their own not-very-pretty win against Fresno State, but came out on top 9-6 and will face Oregon on Saturday. The teams know each other and play nearly every season in the nonconference slate. The Gauchos took the series earlier in the season, and if there is a game that is must-see for Oregon baseball, this is the game.

Oregon vs. Santa Barbara is Saturday at 7:00 pm PT. The game is scheduled to be shown on ESPN+.

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Following its abrupt closures in El Dorado Hills and Folsom, 13 additional Rubio’s Coastal Grill locations in San Diego are closing by the end of the day on Friday.

“…The closings were brought about by the rising cost of doing business in California. While painful, the store closures are a necessary step in our strategic long-term plan to position Rubio’s for success for years to come,” a spokesperson with Rubio’s said in an email.

A spokesperson with Rubio’s confirmed the following locations were closing:

• Chula Vista Eastlake- 1480 Eastlake Pkwy Suite 901, Chula Vista, CA 91915
• El Cajon- 419 Parkway Plaza, El Cajon, CA 92020
• Escondido- 1485 E Valley Pkwy Suite A-6, Escondido, CA 92027
• Kearny Mesa- 9187 Clairemont Mesa Blvd Suite 7, San Diego, CA 92123
• La Jolla UCSD campus- 9500 Gillman Drive, Food Ct, La Jolla, CA 92093
• La Jolla- 8935 Towne Centre Dr., Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92122
• Sorrento Mesa- 9254 Scranton Rd, Ste 105, San Diego, CA 92121
• San Marcos- 1158 W San Marcos Blvd suite a, San Marcos, CA 92078
• Solana Beach- 437 Hwy 101 #117, Solana Beach, CA 92075
• Torrey Highlands- 7835 Highlands Village Pl Suite D101, San Diego, CA 92129
• Vista- 1711 University Drive, Suite 110. Vista, CA 92083
• Naval Base San Diego – 2260 Callagan Hwy Bldg. 3187, San Diego, CA 92136
• Pacific Beach- 910 Grand Avenue, San Diego, CA 92109

The spokesperson said the chain restaurant decided to close 48 underperforming locations in California as of May 31 while keeping 86 locations open throughout California, Arizona and Nevada.

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – A rolling strike by unionized academic workers upset about the University of California’s response to pro-Palestinian protests at various campuses will spread to three more campuses next week, including UC San Diego, union officials said Friday.

According to United Auto Workers Local 4811, workers will hit the picket lines Monday morning at UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara, with UC Irvine workers joining the lines Wednesday.

The wave of strikes began at UC Santa Cruz, then spread this week to UCLA and UC Davis.

According to the union, UAW represents 8,000 at UC San Diego and 5,000 workers at UC Irvine along with 3,000 at UC Santa Barbara. The union has a total of 31,500 members at all six of the universities now targeted by the strikes.

“For the last month, UC has used and condoned violence against workers and students peacefully protesting on campus for peace and freedom in Palestine,” Rafael Jaime, president of UAW Local 4811, said in a statement. “Rather than put their energies into resolution, UC is attempting to halt the strike through legal procedures. They have not been successful, and this strike will roll on. We are united in our demand that UC address these serious ULPs, beginning with dropping all criminal and conduct charges that have been thrown at our members because they spoke out against injustice.”

UAW Local 4811 is asking the UC schools to give amnesty to all academic employees and students who faced arrest or disciplinary actions for protesting at campuses. The union also wants the students to have guarantees of freedom of speech and political expression on campus and is asking for researchers to be able to opt out of funding sources tied to the Israeli Defense Force.

Students at UCSD established a “Gaza Solidarity” encampment on the campus’ Library Walk on May 1.

The UCSDivest Coalition, organizers of the encampment campaign, called on UCSD to “end their silence and publicly condemn the destruction of over 80% of schools and all 12 universities in Gaza in a systematic dismantling of infrastructure that UN experts have termed scholasticide,” a statement from the organization read.

On May 6, the California Highway Patrol encircled a group of protesters at the encampment, taking down tents and arresting 65 protesters, along with one injury.

Morgen Chalmiers, a UCSD student and one of the protest organizers, described the arrests as a violent action against peaceful students.

“Today, we saw UCSD administration willfully endanger communities of color, undocumented individuals, and other marginalized groups, whom we know are at a disproportionate risk of state violence,” Chalmiers said. “Today, we also witness the invasion of Rafah by the Israeli Occupation Forces, who train San Diego police, and we recognize the ties between militarism, police violence, and repression on our campus and the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”

Authorities declared the encampment an unlawful assembly at about 5:45 a.m. Monday. Officers ordered the protesters to leave.

Chancellor Pradeep Khosla released a statement Sunday calling the protest an “illegal encampment,” and that the tents on Library Walk pose “an unacceptable safety and security hazard on campus.”

On May 8, more than 1,000 protesters marched at UCSD as a continuation of the ongoing demonstrations in support of the people of Gaza, as well as condemnations of school administration following the arrests.

Again, on May 10, UCSD students and faculty staged a walkout which saw more than 100 members of the UCSD community chant and march to Chancellor Pradeep Khosla’s home off campus. Many wore keffiyehs or academic dress and carried signs calling on the university to sever financial ties with Israel.

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The UC system has blasted the union’s allegations and filed unfair labor practice complaints of its own, saying the union’s labor contract has a no-strike provision and that the union’s demands are outside the scope of union labor issues. The university has also rejected calls for amnesty.

“We are disheartened that UAW continues publicly escalating its unlawful strike in violation of its contracts’ no-strike clause and encouraging its members to disrupt and harm the ability of our students to navigate finals and other critical year-end activities successfully,” UC officials said in a statement Friday. “UAW’s goal to `maximize chaos and confusion’ has come to fruition, creating substantial and irreparable impacts on campuses and impacting our students at a crucial time of their education. We are hopeful PERB (Public Employment Relations Board) will intervene and ask the court to end this precedent-setting, unlawful action.”

The state’s Public Employment Relations Board previously declined the university’s request for an injunction that would have blocked the strike, but UC officials said the board issued a complaint against the union saying the walkout is “contrary to the no-strike clauses in their collective bargaining agreements.” Union officials said PERB has also called for both sides to meet and discuss the issues, forcing the university to the table rather than just seeking an injunction.

The union represents teaching assistants, readers, tutors, student researchers and academic researchers.