UPCOMING GAMES

Game Notes

Bakersfield Roadrunners 6-9 UC Irvine Anteaters

Tuesday, March 8 - 6:30 PM
RHP Alonzo Garcia vs. RHP Max Carter
Live Stats | Radio (Internet)

UC Irvine Anteaters 1-12 Tennessee Volunteers

Friday, March 11 - 2:00 PM
LHP Elliot Surrey vs. LHP Zach Warren
Live Stats | Radio | SEC Network

Saturday, March 12 - 10:00 AM
Game 1
RHP Shaun Vetrovec vs. RHP Hunter Martin
Live Stats | Radio

Saturday, March 12 - approx. 1:45 PM
Game 2
LHP Cameron Bishop vs. TBD
Live Stats | Radio (Internet)  

GAINING STEAM

+ The 'Eaters sidestepped the weather mixing in a doubleheader over the weekend to finish a 3-1 week.

+ UCI had all systems clicking Tuesday night in a 5-1 win over LMU giving Head Coach Mike Gillespie his 313th win at UC Irvine making him the program's winningest coach surpassing Mike Gerakos' mark of 312 from 1981-92.

+ The win saw a 2-HR game from Keston Hiura, 6.2 no-hit innings from the pitching staff, and three RBIs from Cameron Bishop who also earned the win following two spotless innings.

+ Friday's win came in part from a five-run seventh inning to down UTSA in the opener. The teams traded leads early on, but the return of John Brontsema provided the offense's spark.

+ Saturday's doubleheader started out rough as UTSA scored four runs in the first and built a 10-0 lead before winning by 10.

+ Bishop returned to the mound Saturday afternoon with a quality start and his second win of the week to take the series.

TONGUE TWISTERS

Head Coach Mike Gillespie became UCI's all-time winningest coach with a 5-1 LMU win Tuesday. He currently has 315 career wins at UC Irvine.

The Anteater pitching staff still has yet to allow a run on Sundays. After scoring two shutouts all of 2015, UCI already has two in each of their Sunday matchups.

Prior to their trip to Knoxville, the 'Eaters have played 178 games outside of California. Under coach Gillespie, the team is 51-30 with the Anteaters making their first trip to the state of Tennessee.

Entering the week, UCI has 4 home runs, all from Keston Hiura. Their opponents, Bakersfield and Tennessee, each have four homers as a team as well.

FIRST RESPONDERS

+ Anteater debuts came in the form of Edgar Ruvalcaba and Michael Martin. Martin finished off the opener of the doubleheader getting the only batter he faced. Ruvalcaba walked in his first career plate appearance in the eighth inning of that game.

+ Bishop earned his first two wins on the mound along with the season's first RBIs. The other win went to Alonzo Garcia, his first this year and fourth of his career.

+ Griffin Mazur got his first career hit Tuesday and added a 2-run single Saturday afternoon to spark the win with his first RBIs. He completed the weekend with pickoff No. 1 of his career.

+ Andrew Martinez knocked his first hit of the season as did John Brontsema who signaled his return to the lineup with a three-hit performance.

FIRE ANTS

+ Five Anteaters have on-base streaks of 10 or more at the moment headed by Keston Hiura's 28-game streak.

+ Cole Kreuter and Jonathan Muñoz are up to 14 games each while Parker Coss (11) and Mitchell Holland (10) have entered the conversation.

+ Hiura's nine-game RBI streak was snapped over the weekend. Mitchell Holland and Adam Alcantara each have three-game streaks that are active. Cole Kreuter also has scored a run in three straight games.

+ Shaun Vetrovec hit a bump in the road giving up his first runs of the season in his last start. It snapped a string of 14.2 scoreless innings which is the team high in 2016.

+ The current shutout streak leader is Miles Glazier at 5.2 innings followed closely by Calvin Faucher (5) and Mitchell Miller (4.2).

+ On the season, UCI relievers have stranded 17 of 23 inherited runners. Mitchell Miller stranded all four runners he inherited last week and leads the team with four this season. Sean Sparling and Jordan Bocko have impressed each stranding all three inherited runners on the season.

HIURA WE GO AGAIN

+ Keston Hiura had streaks snapped over the weekend finishing at 11 games with a hit, nine with an RBI, and five with a run and extra-base hit. He continues to reach base now at 28 games in a row.

+ He reached base in all five plate appearances in Saturday night's series-clincher with two singles, a walk, and two hit by pitch. This is right on the heels of his performance the previous Saturday when he reached on all seven plate appearances: single, double, triple, two-out bunt single in the ninth, and three walks. He also scored three times and drove home a run in the club's only 4-hit and 3-BB games on the season.

+ Hiura added a little history Tuesday at LMU homering in the first and sixth innings for his first career 2-HR game. It was the 26th 2-HR game in program history and gave him four HRs in four games.

+ 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, and made the All-West Region team, the third straight season an Anteater has made it

+ 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

DIRTY DEEDS

+ Anteater hitters have been hit by a pitch 29 times. That leads the Big West and is 2nd in the nation (Arkansas State - 32). Adam Alcantara's seven lead the team, and he ranks second nationally behind conference rival Andrew Calica of UCSB. Wyatt Castro, Keston Hiura, and Matt Reitano each have four HBP, 42nd in the nation.

+ UCI hitters have hit 10 sacrifice flies. That leads the conference and is fourth in the nation (Ball State - 14), and Hiura is fifth in the nation with three.

+ Hiura also lands in the top 20 nationally in total bases (12th), slugging (16th), hits (16th), and triples (19th). He leads the conference in all those categories as well as home runs (24th nationally) and batting average (35th nationally).

+ Cameron Bishop's four starts and Elliot Surrey's 0.00 ERA tie them with a handful of others atop the nation. Ben Ritchey has appeared in seven games to lead the conference and ranks 22nd nationally.

The 'Eaters finished February with a 5-3 record making the program 46-22 in under Coach Gillespie all-time in the month. The team has finished February with a winning record eight times in nine tries under Gillespie. This season is the fifth in which they've won at least five games in the month of February.

The 'Eaters split their impromptu doubleheader over the weekend, the first doubleheader split since the second series of the year in 2013 vs. Cal. The last seven doubleheaders had been sweeps with UCI taking four of them.

UCI has not allowed a run on Sunday yet pitching two shutouts so far. UCI only had two shutouts over the entire 2015 season. Reaching back to the last Sunday game of 2015, the 'Eaters have a scoreless string of 21 innings in Sunday baseball built up, and did not play last Sunday after moving the game up to Saturday for the doubleheader to avoid incoming weather.

After batting .290 the week prior, UCI hitters went .264. Last week's run totals were 19-19 between the 'Eaters and their opponents.

The staff ERA inflated slight from 1.95 vs. SDSU and Nevada to 4.50 against LMU and UTSA. UCI pitchers also gave up 12 doubles, doubling the number of total extra-base hits (6) the offense delivered.

UCI has been successful with two outs this year driving home 38 of its 60 RBIs with two down including six RBIs each from Alex Guenette and Cole Kreuter.

The defense struggled through the first two weeks committing 14 errors in eight games. In the four games last week, there was just one error. In addition, only one stolen base was attempted and unsuccessful, and Griffin Mazur scored the first pickoff by a catcher.

UCI leaves the state for the first time this season. In 2015, it was 5-1 after visits to UTSA and Minnesota. All-time outside of California, UCI is 93-84-1. The program is 51-30 outside the state of California under Coach Gillespie. Tennessee will be the 16th state the Anteaters have visited. Its most wins have come in Nevada (28) and Texas (17). Indiana is the only state its visited without a win (0-2).

A visit from CSU Bakersfield Tuesday night will complete UCI's stretch of four straight games vs. Roadrunners.

The Runners have two wins each on the road at CSUN and home vs. St. John's. They are on a five-game losing streak that included Fresno State, Saint Mary's, Arizona, and NW State.

CSUB's offense is led by Dustin Frailey who ranks in the top 50 nationally in batting average (.465), hits (34), triples (9), and on-base percentage (.549).

Starting 1B Max Carter will toe the mound to start Tuesday night. He is hitting .350 with 9 RBIs at the plate. He started the other CSUB Tuesday game allowing four ER in three IP.

Bakersfield ranks near the bottom in walks allowed per game (5.2), K-to-BB ratio (1.14), and even fall in the bottom half of ERA (5.47).

VETTING THE VOLS

Tennessee is 7-3 with one home game under their belt so far, a 7-1 win over Cincinnati. They take on Western Kentucky at home and are on the road at ETSU before the 'Eaters visit.

The common opponent appears in the form of Maryland who sent UT to one of its losses, 10-9, in North Carolina.

The Volunteers average nearly 10 runs a game. They've scored 20 runs in a game twice this season including a 25-8 win over Grand Canyon. In its three losses, they even average 7 runs.

The Vols are coached by Dave Serrano who got his head coaching start at UC Irvine in 2005 culminating in a College World Series trip in 2007.

UCI and Tennessee met for a series in 2015, UCI's first regular season series with an SEC opponent. UCI and Texas A&M matched up when the Aggies were still in the Big 12. The 'Eaters and SEC have met seven other times prior and all within the NCAA Tournament. Two different tournaments featured a matchup with LSU, the 2006 'Eaters were eliminated in the first round by Missouri who have since joined the SEC, and the last trip to the CWS saw UCI and Vanderbilt battle it out. All-time, the Anteaters are 4-7 against SEC schools.

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