UPCOMING SERIES
Game Notes
San Diego State Aztecs at UC Irvine Anteaters
Tuesday, February 23 - 6:30 PM
RHP Sean Sparling vs. RHP Harrison Pyatt
Live Stats | Radio (KUCI)
NC Dinos (Korea Republic) at UC Irvine Anteaters
Exhibition
Thursday, February 25 - 6:30 PM
Nevada Wolfpack at UC Irvine Anteaters
Friday, February 26 - 6:30 PM
TBD vs. TBD
Live Stats | Radio (KUCI)
Saturday, February 27 - 2:00 PM
TBD vs. TBD
Live Stats | Radio (Internet)
Sunday, February 28 - 1:00 PM
TBD vs. TBD
Live Stats | Radio (Internet)
SAN JOSE SPLIT
+ UC Irvine opened its 38th season of baseball last weekend in San Jose winning the opener and finishing 2-2 overall
+ The 'Eaters outscored the Spartans 22-19 helped along by an 11-0 victory to close out the series
+ SJSU swept UC Irvine in a Saturday doubleheader winning the opener, 9-3, and the nightcap, 8-5
FIRE ANTS
+ Keston Hiura has reached base in 20 consecutive games and holds a 6-game hitting streak, both longest on the team
+ He also leads the squad with RBIs in three straight games
+ Parker Coss and Evan Cassolato each have scored runs in three straight games
+ Hiura's 19-game hitting streak last season tied Ollie Linton (07-08) and Adam Ging (1985) for the fifth-longest in program history
+ Shaun Vetrovec impressed with a quality start on Sunday shutting out the Spartans in seven innings
+ Vetrovec needed just 69 pitches, 52 of which were strikes. He went 10 consecutive batters without throwing a pitch outside the strike zone before issuing a four-pitch walk with two outs in the sixth inning
FIRST RESPONDERS
+ Sean Sparling recorded his first career win in three scoreless innings of relief on Friday night in his 31st career appearance
+ Freshman Jordan Bocko dispatched of his only batter Friday night to clean up his first career save
+ Other first-time relievers in Friday's win were juniors Ben Ritchey and Calvin Faucher along with freshman Miles Glazier
+ Ben Ritchey threw two scoreless innings to start his Anteater career finding the strike zone 18 times out of his 23 pitches
+ Junior catcher Alex Guenette made a serious impact in his first start snagging his first hit, RBI, and stolen base in the process
HOME COOKIN'
+ The 'Eaters are now 23-14-1 all-time on opening day breaking a streak of two straight losses, and 10-9-1 in road openers
+ In the program's home opener all-time, UCI has a 24-13 record
+ Last season, the Anteaters won its first home game, 5-2, over Tennessee, and took two of the three games in the series
+ The 'Eaters are 5-3 in home openers under Coach Gillespie
GREATEST AMERICAN HIURA
+ Keston Hiura was named to the Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List amongst 60 collegiate players nationwide
+ Hiura was named a Preseason All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), D1Baseball.com, and Perfect Game publications
+ The sophomore landed on four freshman All-American lists including NCBWA, D1Baseball.com, Baseball America, and Collegiate Baseball
+ Hiura was named Big West Freshman Field Player of the Year, a first for the program
+ UCI has claimed the Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year twice in Scott Gorgen (2006) and Blair Erickson (2004)
+ Hiura populated the All-West Region team, the third straight season an Anteater has made it
+ UCI has earned 14 All-West Region nods from 11 different players
+ Hiura is one of five position players to make the team joining Jonathan Muñoz, Taylor Sparks, Drew Hillman, and Ben Orloff
+ He was one of five all-conference members from UC Irvine, the eighth consecutive season earning five or more
+ Hiura landed near the top of many Anteater records including second in doubles (18), hits (75), and at-bats (227) while setting new marks with seven home runs and 52 RBIs
2015 SWINGS
+ Over the 37 years of Anteater baseball, the program holds a record of 1,154-884-19.
+ UCI won 11 weekend series in 2015 and even rattled off a 15-game win streak which followed a seven-game losing streak to open the year
+ UCI's 302 runs scored were the most in a season since 2011
+ The 'Eaters hammered exactly 100 doubles, also the first time reaching that mark since 2011
+ 2015 was a power surge for UCI with 31 home runs falling one shy of the combined total from 2013 (20) and 2013 (12)
+ UC Irvine had three players homer in consecutive at-bats last season (Mitchell Holland, Cameron Bishop, Andrew Martinez) a feat that had only been done nine times in the previous 13 seasons and twice in any season just three times
+ Martinez and John Brontsema homered in the same inning against Fresno State on Feb. 15, the 19th time in program history that has happened
+ UCI laid down 65 sacrifice hits ranking it 11th nationally
+ The 2.72 walks per nine innings was 26th-best in the nation in 2015
+ UCI slugged .394 which led the Big West at regular season's end
+ The 302 runs scored tied them with UC Santa Barbara for the most at the end of the regular season
UPPER MANAGEMENT
+ Head Coach Mike Gillespie is entering his ninth season with the Anteaters and 29th overall at the collegiate level
+ Gillespie has a career record of 309-169 and stands three wins away from matching Mike Gerakos (1981-92) as the program's all-time winningest coach at 312
+ Over his career, Gillespie has won 1,072 games
+ Under coach Gillespie, the Anteaters are now 7-2 on opening day
ANALYZING THE ANTEATERS
Junior Sean Sparling sparkled in his only appearance of the weekend shutting down a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the fifth inning, and rolling through two more inning to preserve a shutout and earn his first career win on Friday.
The rest of the relief appearances were filled with newcomers to the bullpen in three juniors making their Anteater debuts and three freshmen.
The juniors, Chris Vargas, Ben Ritchey, and Calvin Faucher, put together 6.2 innings allowing just two earned runs and three walks while striking out six led by Vargas' three-inning stint with four strikeouts tainted by three unearned runs.
The freshmen commanded the ninth inning on Friday resulting in a save for Jordan Bocko. Along with Miles Glazier and Mitchell Miller, the crew went 3.1 innings over the weekend allowing three runs and three hits.
The catching position was up in the air over the weekend following a late injury to Griffin Mazur. His return is likely soon, but junior Alex Guenette and freshman Matt Reitano stepped in nicely over the four games. Guenette went 3-for-6 collected his first career hit, double, RBI, and stolen base. Reitano finished 0-for-6, but made solid contact on multiple occasions, and did contribute a walk, hit by pitch, and sac fly.
Each outfield position came through on the defensive end providing an assist on the weekend:
Wyatt Castro completed the double play from right field nailing a runner at the plate to end the second inning Saturday night.
In the bottom of the seventh of that same game, the Spartans rallied for a pair of runs, but Keston Hiura helped gun down a runner hitting his cutoff Mitchell Holland who redirected the play to third base for the second out.
The final instance came early Sunday during a scoreless game in the second inning. A two-out single was followed by a double down the left field line that Evan Cassolato chased down, fired to Parker Coss, who threw a dart to Reitano at home to end the inning and keep the score at zeroes.
AZTEC ANALYSIS
San Diego State was swept at home to open the season to No. 14 Oregon, 8-2, 10-5, and 4-3.
The team batted .250 with four hits from Jordan Verdon and Alan Trejo.
Spencer Thornton collected the lone HR along with a team-leading 3 RBIs. David Hensley added 2 doubles and 2 RBIs.
Marcus Reyes allowed 2 ER over 7 innings Sunday for the best Aztec performances on the mound. The bullpen was responsible for 14 runs over 11.2 innings during the weekend.
NEVADA NOTES
The Wolfpack busted 42 hits with 12 going for extra bases. Three were homeruns while four different players legged out triples.
TJ Friedl led the charge with seven hits and six runs to go with a triple, homer, and three RBIs.
The team was successful on nine of its 10 stolen base attempts paced by Miles Mastrobuoni and Justin Bridgman each going 3-for-3.
The staff put together a 4.24 ERA in the four games as Mark Nowaczewski and Christian Stolo each had quality starts.
Zach Wilkins punched out eight batters in 5.1 innings and did not surrender a walk.
The defense committed just two errors over the four games and turned one double play.
Nevada spread out its scoring throughout the weekend with seven runs in the first three innings, 10 in the middle innings, and seven more down the stretch.
UNR does not have another series against a Big West program, however it does play a home-and-home midweek series with UC Davis beginning March 29th on the road and returning home on April 26. They also travel to UC Santa Barbara on April 18.
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