It’s not just the quality of wins of late that should have Oregon baseball fans optimistic about their Ducks’ early-season surge. The quantity of Oregon (22-4) victories is impressive, too.

Led by Will Sanford and a dominant effort by the Ducks’ bullpen, Oregon held UC Santa Barbara (15-8) to just four hits in the Ducks’ 4-0 win over the Gauchos on Friday night in Southern California.

It wasn’t a perfect game for Oregon, with the Ducks held scoreless through six and a fourth-inning error from Maddox Molony opening up a potential two-out rally for UCSB, but neither element came back to bite the Ducks, who have now won three straight games against West Coast rivals.

Friday was Sanford’s day, and the right-hander delivered, punching out four, allowing just two hits and battling through not having his best stuff on an evening he walked five and hit two. The Gauchos had all types of traffic on the bases, but went just 2-15 with runners on and 1-11 with two outs.

That offensive apathy allowed Oregon to hang around until Jack Brooks’ solo shot in the seventh opened the scoring. Timely hitting from Jax Gimenez, aided by a balk and defensive woes from UCSB, allowed Oregon to score three insurance runs in the top of the ninth. With the way the Ducks’ pitchers performed, they wouldn’t need it.

Sanford battled through command issues and turned the ball over to Luke Morgan (two innings), Tanner Bradley and Devin Bell (one inning apiece), who shut the door on the win.

Jackson Flora — who is widely regarded as one of the top MLB Draft prospects this season — was electric for UCSB, striking out three and generating soft contact through his five innings of work. He did walk three, though, and, similar to Sanford, did not have his best stuff, allowing Oregon to get to the Gaucho bullpen.

The Ducks scored three runs off Chase Hoover, who was erratic in his 1+ innings of work. He entered in the eighth and retired both Oregon hitters he pitched to (one was intentionally walked), but was greeted by three hits in four batters in the ninth. Stunner Gonzalez entered in relief, balking in one run while Oregon’s baserunning manufactured the third run of the inning.​

Bell was Oregon’s most impressive reliever on the day, striking out two and throwing all but three of his 12 pitches for strikes.​

Oregon is now 22-4, comfortably among the elite four — UCLA, USC and Nebraska — in the Big Ten. ​Game two of the three-game series is set for 3:05 p.m. Saturday in Santa Barbara.