SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Austin Reyes and Mike Bowes each homered and drove in a total of five runs in Santa Clara baseball's 8-4 season opening win over No. 8-ranked UC Santa Barbara on Friday afternoon.

The Broncos (1-0) did their damage in the middle innings scoring all eight runs, kick started by Reyes' two-run home run in the fourth inning and ended with Bowes' three-run round tripper in the sixth.  The home runs sandwich a fifth frame where Santa Clara took advantage of four walks issued by the Gauchos touted pitching staff to push three runs across.

Santa Clara collected six hits off of UC Santa Barbara (0-1) starter Zachary Torra, a preseason All-American selection, before he was pulled in the fourth in favor of Connor Dand.

Meanwhile, three SCU pitchers combined to strike out 15 Gauchos and allowed three earned runs.  Cole Kitchen came in relief of starter Russell Grant II in the bottom of the third with the Gauchos already up 2-0.  Inheriting two runners with no outs, the sophomore right-hander threw a wild pitch and walked Marcos Castanon to load the bases before settling down to retire the 3-4-5 hitters to keep it a two run deficit.

Kitchen tossed 3.2 innings allowing just an earned run and struck out six to pick up the win.  Travis Howard dominated by fanning six Gauchos over 3.1 scoreless innings to close out the game and earn a save.

Dand took the loss for the Gauchos. 

Coleman Brigman collected two hits and has now safely reached base in 16 straight games dating to last season. 

McClain O'Connor had two doubles and drove in a team-high three runs for UCSB.