UC Irvine Drops Fifth Straight With Loss To USC
May 21, 2013 | Baseball
IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine's losing streak extended to five games following a 6-4 loss to USC Tuesday at Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark. It was the first time the Anteaters have lost five straight since 2004 when the team posted an 0-5 mark to end a season that included the program's first Division I regional appearance at Notre Dame.
The Anteaters (31-21) built an early 3-0 lead after scoring twice in the first and a run in the second. Chris Rabago and Dominique Taylor led off the bottom of the first with consecutive singles and Connor Spencer drove in Rabago with a hit to right to put the Anteaters on the board. Taylor Sparks followed with a run-scoring sacrifice to drive in Taylor, who was 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored.
USC starter Brooks Kriske handed the ball to Kyle Davis in the second and Grant Palmer greeted Davis with a leadoff single up the middle. Taylor delivered a two-out hit, giving UCI the three run lead.
Evan Brock gave the Anteaters a strong start, pitching four scoreless innings of three-hit baseball. The right-hander gave up a double in three of the four innings rallied to keep USC off the scoreboard and leaving three Trojans stranded at third.
Brock gave way to Kyle Hooper to start the fifth and the right-hander was tagged with back-to-back singles before giving up a walk to load the bases with no outs. A wild pitch allowed Timmy Robinson to score USC's first run. Mitch Merten entered in relief and secured the first out, popping up Adam Landecker. However, the junior walked James Roberts and then gave up a two-run double to Greg Zebrack that tied the score at 3-3. Jimmy Litchfield, the third pitcher of the inning entered for UCI and Kevin Swick hit a sacrifice fly, to drive in the go-ahead run before Litchfield handled a grounder off the bat of Dante Flores to end the inning.
USC struck again in the seventh. Phillip Ferragamo started the inning by issuing a leadoff walk to Garrett Stubbs. Landecker's hit-and-run single went under the glove of Jeff Stephens, allowing Stubbs to score on the error and Landecker to reach third. James Roberts followed and put the game out of reach with a single to right. Race Parmenter took over and retired three of the next four Trojan batters to end the inning and Elliot Surrey retired six straight, striking out one.
UCI was quieted by reliever Kyle Davis, who held the Anteaters to a run on three hits in three innings. James Guillen entered in the fifth and pitched five innings, striking out three and yielding a run on one hit to earn his first win (1-0) of the year.
The Anteaters picked up a lone run off Guillen, getting a leadoff triple from Ryan Cooper and scoring on a grounder to second by Rabago in the seventh.
Merten fell to 4-3 after giving up the go-ahead run in the fifth.
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