UC Santa Barbara pitcher Jackson Flora had a big-time 2026 college baseball season. On Thursday, May 14, Flora pitched a complete game in a 1-0 win for the Gauchos over UC Riverside. It was his final start of the 2026 regular season. This moved the ace’s record to 10-0 this season.
Flora finished the season with a ridiculous stat line. In 87 1/3 innings of work, he had a 1.03 ERA and 115 strikeouts. Flora also allowed an opposing batting average of .163 and walked only 28 batters.
The right-hander allowed 10 earned runs all season.
Flora is a Golden Spikes candidate, 2026 MLB Draft stock
Flora put together a season worthy of giving him a chance at the 2026 Golden Spikes Award, which goes to the best player in college baseball. A pitcher has not won the award since 2021, when Arkansas’ Kevin Kopps won it.
On May 14, Flora was one of 25 players to make the 2026 Golden Spikes Award semi-finalist list. Other notable players that made the list include UCLA’s Roch Cholowsky, Louisville’s Tague Davis, Arizona State’s Landon Hairston, and Georgia’s Daniel Jackson.
Flora also helped himself as far as his MLB Draft stock goes. According to MLB Pipeline, Flora sits firmly as the fourth-best prospect for the 2026 Draft. After the season he had, he rightfully is the top pitching prospect in the 2026 MLB Draft.
This year, the MLB Draft is in Philadelphia and will take place during MLB’s All-Star weekend on July 11-13.
Up next for UC Santa Barbara
After sweeping UC Riverside, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos finish the 2026 regular season 37-16 overall and 22-8 in Big West Conference play.
The Gauchos won the 2026 Big West regular season title.
Their next game will be in the Big West Championship, which is May 20-24. The conference tournament is at Anteater Park in Irvine, Calif.
WBN NCAA: https://worldbaseball.com/league/ncaa/
PHOTO: Via Jackson Flora on Instagram (@jacksonflora_)
