SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Missouri State dropped its second-straight contest to No. 28 UC Santa Barbara Saturday, as Gaucho left-hander Jack Dashwood struck out 10 Bears en route to a 5-3 victory at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.

Dashwood (4-0) faced the minimum number of hitters in seven of the eight innings he started, allowing just a pair of two-out runs in the fifth inning and five total MSU hits in his 7 2/3 innings to keep his perfect 2019 record intact.

Armani Smith's one-out single drove home the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth, capping a 2-for-4 day that saw the UCSB outfielder homer for the second time in as many days against the Bears to stake his club to an early lead. Winners of 14 of their last 15 contests, the Gauchos (16-3) jumped out to a 2-0 advantage, benefiting from back-to-back solo shots by Thomas Rowan and Smith in the bottom of the second.

UCSB, which recorded 16 strikeouts of MSU hitters in Friday's series-opening 7-3 win, got another strong start Saturday, as Dashwood retired the first 13 batters of the game. The sophomore hurler fanned a pair of Bears in each of the first two innings and would not allow a baserunner until Dakota Kotowski's one-out single in the fifth ignited a Missouri State scoring threat.

Sam Faith moved Kotowski into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt, and Collin Clayton delivered the first of three-straight two-out hits for the Bears with a run-scoring double to left. Ben Whetstone followed Clayton's lead, ripping an RBI single to right to knot the score at 2-2.

Bears starter Jake Lochner turned in a solid effort in his first start since March 2016, holding UCSB to the two second-inning runs on five hits in his 5.0 innings of work.

But leadoff walks in both the sixth and seventh frames would come back to haunt the Bears. Sophomore closer Connor Sechler allowed just one hit in his 3.0 innings of relief, but his free pass to Tommy Jew opened the door in the sixth, before another leadoff walk to Andrew Martinez sparked a two-run rally in the seventh.

Jew's steal of second preceded Smith's go-ahead single that put the Gauchos on top to stay. The following frame saw Martinez move all the way to third on McClain O'Connor's sac bunt,  then beat the throw to the plate on a Tevin Mitchell bouncer to the right side, doubling the UCSB lead to 4-2. A throwing error allowed Mitchell to advance to second, before the senior outfielder swiped third for his second steal of the day.

Mitchell's 10th stolen base of the season proved to be pivotal, as Eric Yang followed with a fly ball to center that allowed the baserunner to score easily from third, extending the UCSB lead to three runs.

MSU (5-15) mounted a last-gasp rally in the ninth, using a rare Gaucho error to ultimately bring the tying run to the plate. Logan Geha's sharp grounder to third was misplayed to give the Bears a baserunner, and Drew Millas sliced the deficit to two runs with a run-scoring double to right-center off UCSB closer Chris Lincoln.

But Lincoln responded by retiring the next three MSU hitters in succession to wrap up his fifth save of the year, getting Joey Polak to fly out before retiring Kotowski as the 11th MSU strikeout victim of the day and inducing a game-ending pop foul that was hauled in by third baseman Jason Willow with an acrobatic over-the-shoulder catch.

Sechler (1-2) was tagged with the loss after surrendering three runs (two earned) and striking out three Gauchos in the Bears' fourth-straight defeat. Lochner fanned five hitters and handed out just one walk in the longest effort by a Bears starter since March 1.

The Bears and Gauchos will wrap up their weekend series with a 1:30 p.m. game Sunday.