UC Irvine Edged By Long Beach State In Series Finale
May 25, 2013 | Baseball
IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine was held to single runs in the first and second innings, falling 3-2 to Long Beach State Saturday at Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark.
The Dirtbags took a 1-0 lead against starter Andrew Morales in the first on Juan Avila's solo home run but UCI responded quickly in the bottom of the inning as Connor Spencer doubled and scored on Taylor Sparks' single to left.
The Anteaters took a 2-1 edge in the second. Ronnie Shaeffer drew a leadoff walk against starter David Hill and took second when Jerry McClanahan was plunked by the pitch. Grant Palmer's infield single loaded the bases for Dominique Taylor, who was hit by the pitch with two outs to force across Shaeffer for the go-ahead run.
That would be all for UCI, which was shut out the rest of the way. Ryan Millison pitched 3.1 innings of no-hit relief while Jon Maciel picked up the win (3-5) after limiting the Anteaters to one hit in the final 1.2 innings.
After giving up the solo home run in the first, Morales blanked the Dirtbags until the seventh. Ino Patron doubled with one out and Eric Hutting delivered a two-out single up the middle to drive in the tying run.
Following a scoreless eighth, Morales handed the ball off to Evan Brock. The right-hander retired the first two batters before giving up a single to Zack Belanger. First baseman Jeff Yamaguchi hit a triple to right to drive in the eventual game-winning run and handed Brock the loss (2-2).
Spencer belted two doubles to post his 18th and 19th of the year and move into a tie for sixth in the single-season annals.
Morales remains undefeated at 10-0 and finished third in the UCI single-season records with a 1.89 ERA. He became the first Anteater since Christian Bergman (2008) and fourth all-time to log an ERA below 2.00 in a single season.
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