SAN JOSE, Calif. --- UC Irvine started off 2016 right with a 3-2 win over San Jose State on a damp Friday night in Municipal Stadium.
Things got hairy for UC Irvine (1-0) as it entered the ninth inning with a 3-0 lead. Calvin Faucher began the inning making his Anteater debut giving up a solo home run to Shane Timmons to lead things off. Faucher was able to get the next two batters on ground outs, but served a second homer to Ozzy Braff as San Jose State (0-1) chopped the lead down to 3-2.
Faucher walked a batter before departed in place of another debutant, Miles Glazier. The lefty drew pinch-hitter Tyler Olivet, but walked him while allowing Corey Olivet to go to third base from a pair of wild pitches making way for another freshman reliever, Jordan Bocko.
Bocko shut the door with a ground ball to Cole Kreuter who fed to Mitchell Holland to end the agonizing inning and secure the 3-2 win.
"No such thing as a bad win," emphasized Head Coach Mike Gillespie. "Some can be ugly, but in the end it's a win, and every win is a good one."
Pitching stole the show from beginning to end. Starter Elliot Surrey rolled through his first four innings allowing just one baserunner, but hit a wall to open the fifth hitting the leadoff batter and walking the next two to load the bases.
Up stepped junior Sean Sparling to try and stop the bleeding, and he did with a strikeout and double play to keep the 2-0 advantage on the time in a pivotal moment in the game.
"I felt pretty good the whole outing. Mentality going in was just trying to pick up Surrey and keep the least amount of people from scoring. None scored so I was pretty happy, and I went in and told him 'I got your back.'"
Sparling did and then some striking out four and giving up two hits over three shutout innings to earn his first career win in his 31st career appearance.
"Surrey was good until he wasn't, and that was very uncharacteristic of him. We had Sparling be the man of the hour. He was the explanation to the win really."
The explanation also included timely hitting starting in the fifth inning.
UCI had four hits against starter Josh Nashed who wove his way through four scoreless innings. Senior Ross Slaney relieved him and got into trouble early with a walk to Jonathan Munoz. Two batters later, Cole Kreuter pounded a triple into the left-center gap to open the scoring. Adam Alcantara slapped the very next pitch to the second baseman to extend the lead to 2-0
After the 'Eaters weathered the storm in the bottom half of the inning, the real storm began as a light rain began to fall. UCI got two runners on base followed by a double play to leave Parker Coss on second base with two outs for Alex Guenette. The junior looped a ball into the drizzle that landed just behind second base to bring home the much-needed third run for the 3-0 lead.
"I think we had a series of quality at-bats and hit into some hard outs," commended Gillespie. "We got a big at-bat by Cole, the important groundball that Alcantara gave us to score us a run, and we lucked out on the popup to give us our three runs."
Any way you slice it, it was a win; the first one the Anteaters have gotten on opening day since 2013.
Keston Hiura continued a streak reaching base for the 17th straight game with two hits including a double while Wyatt Castro doubled twice for the first time in his career.
Guenette's RBI single proved to be the deciding run. It also happened to be his first career RBI and second career hit coupled with his second-inning single.
The Anteaters will start Saturday with the first game of a doubleheader at 1:00 p.m. as sophomore Alonzo Garcia takes the mound. Fellow sophomore Cameron Bishop will follow him in the second game starting at 4:00 p.m.
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