Jackson Flora was everything he was advertised to be in his 2026 debut. He pitched six innings, allowing just three hits with no runs and no walks.
“Got to give credit where credit is due,” Southern Miss head coach Christian Ostrander said. “Their guy pitched really well, as advertised. That’s a really good arm. We kept it close for the most part until that two-run home run there in the ninth inning.”
Flora’s outing led UC Santa Barbara to a 5-1 win over Southern Miss on opening day. The loss was the first season-opening defeat for the Golden Eagles since 2014 and their worst opening-day loss since a 20-1 setback to Florida State in 1985.
“You want to win this game for the fans and crowd,” Ostrander said. “But as much as we would like to go 56-0, that’s hard to do. You’ve got to stay in the middle and you can’t get too up or too down, regardless of what happens.”
Flora commanded all five of his pitches during his outing. He sat 96-98 mph with his fastball, threw one slider at 88 mph and another at 84 mph. He also mixed in a changeup and a splitter.
“He had so many tricks,” Ostrander said. “When you get a guy like that, you just have got to bear down. You can’t try to do too much and just put good swings on it the best you can and hope for a mistake or a leverage count. He did a great job of not really ever letting us get comfortable when you can throw that many quality pitches with different action and different speeds. He had so much separation.”
Kyle Morrison led off the season with a standup double on the first pitch from Flora. After that, Flora retired 14 of the next 15 Golden Eagle batters he faced through the fifth inning.
“He’s a really good pitcher,” Morrison said. “I think he pitched extremely well. We thought he was going to be more fastball, but he really wasn’t. He commanded everything he threw. So it was just a tough battle.”
Flora ran into his first jam in the bottom of the fifth inning when Caleb Stelly and Ty Long delivered back-to-back, two-out singles. He responded by getting Morrison to pop out to third base to end the threat.
His next jam came in the sixth. Joey Urban and Matthew Russo were both hit by pitches to open the inning. Flora ended his outing by striking out Davis Gillespie, inducing a popout from Tucker Stockman and getting Ben Higdon to ground out to escape the inning.
His final line was 6 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 5 Ks on 80 pitches. Ostrander, who has seen plenty of baseball at Pete Taylor Park, said Flora might be one of the best arms he has seen on that mound.
“I would say he’s up there, no doubt about it,” Ostrander said. “That’s a special young man that’s got a gift. We had to keep it as close as we possibly could and we almost did that.”
After Flora exited, Southern Miss saw Raymond Olivas out of the bullpen. In the eighth inning, Morrison belted a 390-foot home run to right field to trim the deficit to 3-1.
Urban later singled and the Gauchos went to the bullpen, bringing in left-hander Chase Hoover. He got Russo to hit into a backbreaking double play to end Southern Miss’ final threat.
Colby Allen got the start on the mound for the Golden Eagles and endured a shaky first inning. Rowan Kelly doubled to open the game, Allen hit Cade Goldstein and Cole Kosciusko singled to load the bases with no outs.
After UCSB took a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly by Nick Husovsky, Allen picked off Goldstein at second base and struck out Jonathan Mendez to end the inning.
Following the first, Allen retired seven of the next eight batters he faced. In the fourth, Mendez singled and Xavier Esquer doubled with two outs. On a 1-2 count, Noah Karliner singled to right-center field on a slider left up in the zone, driving in two runs to push the Gauchos’ lead to 3-0.
“I had all of them where I wanted them, but I left up a slider and he made a good swing,” Allen said. “That’s what happens in this game when you leave one up against a good team. It’s going to get hit.”
Allen became the first Southern Miss starter to allow an earned run in a season opener since Walker Powell gave up one in the third inning against Purdue on Feb. 15, 2019.
“To a man, the difference in the game tonight was really two swings,” Ostrander said. “I think Colby will tell you he’d like to have that slider back and bury that thing a little bit more.”
Since 2010, Southern Miss starters have combined for 120 strikeouts and 13 walks over 95 1/3 innings in season openers, posting a 0.94 ERA.
Allen exited after five innings. His final line was 5 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 3 Ks on 71 pitches, taking the loss.
Kros Sivley finished the game for Southern Miss, covering four innings and striking out seven Gauchos. He left a fastball inside in the ninth that Kelly drove to right-center field for a two-run home run, extending the lead to 5-1.
Southern Miss finished 3-for-12 with two outs. UCSB went 5-for-14 with two outs and scored four runs in those situations.
“I really look forward to watching these guys come out tomorrow,” Ostrander said. “I know they’re going to. I know where their heart’s going to be and their desire. We just got to go execute in a few more areas and give ourselves a chance to win tomorrow.”
Southern Miss fell to 0-1 and will play the second game of the series Saturday at noon.
