Final Road Trip Begins in Cal Poly, USC Comes to Anteater Ballpark
May 12, 2016 | Baseball
UPCOMING OPPONENTS
UC Irvine Anteaters at Cal Poly Mustangs (26-21, 7-8)
Baggett Stadium (2,800) - San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Friday, May 13 - 6:00 PM
LHP Elliot Surrey (3-4, 3.18) vs. RHP Spencer Howard (2-1, 2.42)
Live Stats | Radio | Video
Saturday, May 14 - 6:00 PM
RHP Alonzo Garcia (4-4, 4.33) vs. RHP Craig Colen (0-0, 2.79)
Live Stats | Radio | Video
Sunday, May 15 - 1:00 PM
LHP Cameron Bishop (5-4, 4.47) vs. RHP Justin Calomeni (3-2, 2.31)
Live Stats | Radio | Video
USC Trojans (23-25) at UC Irvine Anteaters
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3,200) - Irvine, Calif.
Tuesday, May 17 - 6:30 PM
RHP Ben Ritchey (2-2, 3.71) vs. RHP Marrick Crouse (1-0, 7.20)
Live Stats | Radio | Tickets | Game Program
Broadcast Information
Radio
KUCI 88.9 FM with Mark Roberts and Tim Becwar. Radio will be available for Saturday and Sunday matchups at Cal Poly as well as Tuesday's home game vs. USC. All games also available live on the internet at kuci.org. Friday at Cal Poly will be internet only.
Video
The series at Cal Poly will be streamed over the internet via Cal Poly and the Big West. Links to the game can be found on ucirvinesports.com.
Live Stats
Live stats are available for every Anteater baseball game through ucirvinesports.com and the UCI Sports Front Row app.
Social Media
Keep up with all things Anteater Baseball by following along on social media. Be sure to 'follow' the baseball-specific accounts on Twitter and Facebook for game previews, in-game updates, recaps, and other original content.
Head Coach Mike Gillespie became UCI's all-time winningest coach with a 5-1 LMU win on March 1. He currently has 334 career wins at UC Irvine.
SETTING THE TONE
+ The 'Eaters split the week of non-conference games starting with a 10-inning win at UCLA on Friday
+ The offense vanished over the weekend scoring twice in the final two games of the weekend to drop the series despite a 1.75 ERA from its starters.
+ The Anteater offense reemerged Tuesday in a 9-3 performance ripe with a five-run third inning after they fell behind 3-0 early.
GETTING RECOGNIZED
+ Elliot Surrey was branded as Big West Pitcher of the Week following his complete game shutout of Cal State Fullerton in late April. The honor was his first, and the first for a UCI pitcher since 2013 when Andrew Morales, Andrew Thurman, and Matt Whitehouse each took one home a total of four times.
+ Surrey's next start will be his 47th and tie him with Brett Smith for eighth all-time. He's searching for win 19 that would tie him for 16th all-time alongside Evan Brock and Ken Whitworth. He's reached the 300-inning plateau that only 11 Anteaters before him had done. With 5.1 innings in his next start, he will surpass Brett Smith, Russ Johnson, and Bo Kent to move into ninth all-time in program history.
+ At 221 career strikeouts, he's approaching some rather large company as he's just tied Chris Nicoll, and next up are Andrew Thurman at 224 and Andrew Morales at 226. Passing them would vault him into eighth place in Anteater lore.
+ The other player of the week recognition came earlier in the year on March 21 to Keston Hiura when he batted .467 with a double, four RBIs, four stolen bases, and five runs scored in a four-win week over Maryland and Seattle giving the sophomore three awards to date.
+ Hiura has also been named to the Golden Spikes Award Midseason and Preseason Watch List named as one of the top 60 players in the country. Additionally, Hiura was named a Preseason All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), D1Baseball.com, and Perfect Game.
+ Off the field, senior Jonathan Muñoz was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District team for District VIII. The criminology, law, and society major was one of 12 named to the regional list with national honors to be named later in the month. He and fellow senior Matt LoCoco of Hawai'i were the only Big West members.
FIRE ANTS
+ Keston Hiura snapped his on-base streak Saturday, April 30, finishing at 52 consecutive games, longest in the nation in 2016. He started a new one Tuesday with 15 games left in the season. His 52-game streak began with 16 games left in 2015.
+ John Brontsema had his hit streak halted at 14 games, tying Hiura for the team's longest on the year. He does still have an 18-game on-base streak alive.
+ Adam Alcantara holds team highs with a six-game hitting streak and seven-game on-base streak at the moment.
+ Mitchell Holland remains one of the toughest to hitters to strikeout with a one every 11.1 at-bats, sixth-best in the Big West. He currently has a 10-game road hitting streak intact.
+ The offense loaded the bases seven times vs. USD. It's previous high in a game was five back on Feb. 27. Their three hits with the bases loaded matched a high done twice already this year.
+ Daniel Alvarez has pitched in five of the team's last six games throwing scoreless relief over the eight innings allowing four hits and walking one. He's built a 10-inning scoreless streak.
+ The Anteater bullpen has stranded 78 of 108 inherited runners on the season including 19 of the last 20. Miller leads the pack stranding 14 of 26. Glazier has stranded all 13 of his. The bullpen as a unit is 15-2 posting a 3.45 ERA over 190.1 innings.
HIURA-IC
+ In 99 career games, Hiura has failed to reach base just six times while producing 141 hits, 28 doubles, 88 RBIs, and 11 sac flies.
Hiura started off the UCLA series with a five-hit game, the first of his career and 22nd in program history. This came on the
UCI and Cal Poly meet up for the 16th series between them. The road team has won the series on eight occasions, but none since 2010 heels of a three-hit day at UNLV putting him 8 for his last 10 following Friday.
+ Hiura produced another statistical anomaly Sunday in Hawai'i. The Anteaters had 19 hits with eight starters going for multiple hits, however, Hiura was not one of them. He did score twice.
+ He reached base in all five plate appearances in a Saturday night win over UTSA with two singles, a walk, and two hit by pitch. This was right on the heels of his performance against Nevada 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 to help UCI erase a five-run deficit entering the eighth inning and win, 8-7, in 10 innings.
+ Hiura homered in the first and sixth innings at LMU on March 1 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.
+ The sophomore landed on four freshman All-American lists including the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association (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.
FREAKY FRIDAY
+ UCI begins its weekend with a rare Friday the 13th matchup. UCI is 7-4 in 11 previous games on that date including a 4-0 loss last season to San Jose State.
+ This will be the first road matchup on the date. UCI has played nine at home winning five. They played twice on a neutral site over 35 years ago winning each time.
+ This will be the third Big West matchup to fall on a Friday the 13th. UCI beat Pacific, 3-1, in 1990. The last such matchup came against Cal Poly which the Mustangs took, 5-4, in 2007.
+ It's the second occurrence in May, the first being an 11-4 loss to Long Beach State in 1983. The most recent was in 2005 with a 3-1 win over UC Davis.
+ Only once have the teams combined for 13 runs in a game, a 10-3 win over UCSB in 1981. UCI and its opponents average around 12 runs a game combined in the meetings with at least one team scoring double-digits in five of the games.
+ The added intrigue has come from the Big West standings. UCI and Cal Poly sit in a tie for fourth at 7-8 along with UC Riverside. UCSB has fallen back to the pack now at 9-6 with a big series against Cal State Fullerton this weekend.
+ Long Beach State sits firm in second place at 11-7 with a non-conference weekend ahead of them.
+ UC Riverside and Hawai'I battle it out on the islands this weekend in what looks like a win-or-go home situation for each of them.
+ The Big West Conference as a whole sits rated the eighth-strongest in the nation percentage points behind the American, Big Ten, and Conference USA. Its 152 wins and .589 win percentage in non-conference play ranks fifth among conferences.
UP AND AWAY
+ The 'Eaters head out on their final road trip of the season this weekend. They enter it with a 12-12 record in 24 games thus far.
+ Keston Hiura commands all the numbers leading UCI with a .437 average, 16 runs, 38 hits, four home runs, and 19 RBIs on the road.
+ Mitchell Holland has also scored 16 runs, and has powered both of his home runs in road games (at USD, at Long Beach State).
+ Cole Kreuter has team highs with seven doubles and 13 walks away from home.
+ The offense has grounded into just six doubles plays in road games.
+ UCI and its opponents mirror each other on offense both hitting .278 and scoring 126 runs.
+ Anteater pitchers have allowed 15 of 18 home runs on the year in road games.
+ Sean Sparling has earned both of his victories away from home allowing four runs and issuing two walks in five outings (7 IP).
+ All-time, the program is 502-501 away from home.
MUSTANG MATTERS
Cal Poly is 26-21 which includes series losses to SJSU and UCLA. In Big West play, they took five of six at home from CSF and UCSB, but were swept on the road in the last to series at LBSU and CSUN. The Mustangs have fared much better at home registering 19 of their 26 wins.
The Mustangs are going with a couple newcomers on Friday and Saturday in Spencer Howard and Craig Colen. The pair have appeared in 30 games between the two, but only one start. Sunday's starter is still unknown.
TROJAN TIME
The Trojans' last non-conference game was a 6-5 loss at home to UCI. Since, USC has gone 3-3 in Pac-12 games against Arizona and Washington
Despite being 1-hit in its last game, USC can hit ranking atop the conference in home runs and slugging while falling in the top 70 nationally in batting and on-base. However, they struggle at capitalizing with just 5.1 runs a game from that. The pitching has suffered near the bottom of the Pac-12 in ERA and walks.
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