UC Irvine
Hawai''i
UC Irvine Wins Series Opener Behind Morales, Opportunistic Offense
April 04, 2014 | Baseball
HONOLULU, Hawaii --- Andrew Morales out-dueled Hawaii starter Matt Cooper in the series opener, pitching 7.1 shutout innings to extend his shutout streak 25.1 frames and lead UC Irvine to a 7-1 win Friday at Les Murakami Stadium.
The right-hander walked one and struck out four to improve to 6-0 while the Anteater offense capitalized on a pair of UH errors to extend a one-run lead to four and never looked back.
Morales, who had not given up a hit in the first inning since Mar. 8 against Gonzaga, gave up a lead-off single to Stephen Ventimilia in the bottom of the first. However, he helped his cause by stretching on the turf to field the ball on a 3-6-1 grounder and complete the double-play. The biggest threat Morales would face was in the bottom of the third. Juliene Jones singled up the middle to lead off the frame and Ventimilia drove a 2-2 pitch off the glove of Chris Rabago for an error to put runners on first and third with one out. However, Kaeo Aliviado popped up to Rabago in foul territory and Morales struck out Trevor Podratz to get out of the inning.
John Brontsema broke the scoreless tie in the in the fourth, belting a two-out triple off the right-field wall to drive in Kris Paulino, who had been hit by the pitch.
The Anteaters added to their lead in the fifth. With one out, Connor Spencer was hit by the pitch and singled to second by Taylor Sparks. Aliviado fielded the hit by Sparks cleanly but dropped the ball out of his glove on the transfer, allowing Spencer and Sparks to each advance a base on the error. Jonathan Munoz squeezed home Spencer and Cooper, in an effort to get Spencer at home, flicked the ball over the head of Podratz, allowing Sparks to score and Munoz to take second. Munoz would take third on a wild pitch and plate the fourth run of the game on a sacrifice fly by Jerry McClanahan.
Sparks kicked off a UCI rally in the seventh by blasting a one-out double off the wall and Munoz followed with a clean hit to left to put runners on first and third. Cooper was lifted for Gorden Cardenas and McClanahan drove in his second run of the night with a sacrifice to center, scoring Sparks. The Anteaters then broke the game open as Kris Paulino blasted a two-run home run over the right-field wall to extend UCI's lead to 7-0.
Hawaii avoided the shutout in the ninth, getting a two-out, RBI double from Austin Wobrock against reliever Matt Fielding. However, Fielding ended the game with a grounder to second as Mikey Duarte connected with Spencer to take care of Ventimilia for the final out.
McClanahan and Paulino each had two RBI and Brontsema drove in a run on two hits.
Cooper fell to 3-2 after giving up six runs (three earned) on eight hits in 6.1 innings. Marcus Doi and Wobrock had two hits apiece to lead the Rainbow Warriors.
The series continues Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
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