O’Brien gets scholarship to UCSB

SBCC catcher Patrick O'Brien will continue his baseball career at UCSB after accepting a scholarship from the Gauchos earlier this month.

"I chose UCSB for a lot of reasons but the biggest one is I like Santa Barbara a lot and their program is on the rise," said O'Brien, who plans to major in Sociology.

O'Brien is a 6-5, 230-pound freshman from Miramonte High in Orinda, Calif. He's helped the Vaqueros make their most successful playoff run in history and it's still going. SBCC, the WSC North runner-up, won two best-of-3 playoff series to advance to the Southern Cal Sectionals, which start Friday at Oxnard.

The Vaqueros (27-13) are seeded third while Oxnard (31-10) is No. 2. The winner gets a spot in the State Final 4 at Fresno City College.

SBCC has won four straight in the playoffs and O'Brien is batting .462 with two runners thrown out on steal attempts. He leads the Vaqueros in batting (.321) and runs (27) while ranking second in hits (35) and on-base percentage (.472).

"Paddy's had a great season and he's more than deserving to continue his career," said coach Jeff Walker. "He's done a great job in the postseason. Everyone's picked up their game a notch in the playoffs."