Jackson Flora is far from the first. He's yet another notch in the belt of one of the most successful pitching factories college baseball has ever seen.
Tyler Bremner went second overall in the 2025 draft. Flora is tracking as a top-10 selection in 2026. That's two consecutive years of UC Santa Barbara putting an arm at the very top of the board. It's a run no other West Coast program outside of the bluebloods can claim. There's a name behind the engine.
It's Andrew Checketts.
When Checketts took over the Gauchos following the 2011 season, the program was respectable but unremarkable. They were a Big West outfit with the occasional draft pick and a long history of being overshadowed by the bigger names down the freeway. Fifteen years later, UC Santa Barbara is something else entirely. Three first-rounders. A Cy Young Award winner. Seven pitchers in the big …