Anteaters, No. 20 UCSB Tussle on ESPNU, Prime Ticket
May 19, 2016 | Baseball
UPCOMING OPPONENTS
No. 20 UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (33-15-1, 10-8) at UC Irvine Anteaters
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3,200) - Irvine, Calif.
Friday, May 20 - 6:30 PM
LHP Elliot Surrey (3-5, 3.32) vs. (9-3, 3.14) RHP Shane Bieber
Live Stats | Radio | Tickets | Game Program
Saturday, May 21 - 7:00 PM
RHP Alonzo Garcia (5-4, 4.08) vs. (4-2, 3.97) RHP Trevor Bettencourt
Live Stats | Radio | Fox Sports Prime Ticket | Tickets | Game Program
Sunday, May 22 - 6:00 PM
LHP Cameron Bishop (5-5, 4.55) vs. (5-4, 3.86) RHP Joe Record
Live Stats | Radio | ESPNU | Tickets | Game Program
Broadcast Information
Radio
KUCI 88.9 FM with Mark Roberts and Tim Becwar
Radio will be available for all three weekend matchups with UC Santa Barbara. All games also available live on the internet at kuci.org.
Television
Two games against UC Santa Barbara will be televised:
Saturday night's contest will be featured regionally on Fox Sports Prime Ticket
Sunday night's game will be featured nationally on ESPNU
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 335 career wins at UC Irvine.
Keston Hiura on-base streak ended Saturday in the 6-4 loss to CSF at 52 games standing as the longest in the nation in 2016
UCI allowed 17 runs Sunday at Cal Poly, the most in a regular season game since 2002. The most recent outing was in the finale of the 2009 Super Regional in Baton Rouge when LSU won 21-7.
The Anteater defense has turned 45 double plays to lead the conference and rank 47th nationally.
UCI's win Saturday at Cal Poly was No. 1,098 for Head Coach Mike Gillespie. The 'Eaters' 30th win this season would be the 1,100th of his career.
CRUNCH TIME
+ The Anteaters have six games remaining in their regular season with a 28-22 record. At the moment, they are tied for seventh in the Big West at 8-10. They stand two games out of third place and three games out of second.
+ The weekend series at Cal Poly featured the winning team putting up a minimum of eight runs each game and a margin of victory of at least eight runs in each game as well.
+ UCI completed its non-conference schedule Tuesday night with an 8-3 loss to USC snapping a five-game win streak against them. On the season, UCI finishes 20-12 in non-conference contests and 8-5 in midweek games.
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 were honored a total of four times.
+ Surrey's next start will be his 48th and tie him with Justin Cassel for seventh 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. He stands nine inning from the next Anteater on the list in Dave Bladow in eighth place.
+ At 221 career strikeouts, he's approaching some rather large company as he's just tied Andrew Morales for eighth in team history. Again, he's chasing Bladow for seventh place where he stands at 234 strikeouts.
+ 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.
+ Grant Palmer is the only other Anteater peeking into the record books having played in 186 games as an Anteater. He's 12th in the records at the moment, and with five appearances in the final six games would jump into 11th passing Paul Hammond.
FIRE ANTS
+ Keston Hiura snapped his on-base streak Saturday, April 30, finishing at 52 consecutive games, longest in the nation in 2016.
+ 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 has the team lead at the moment with a 10-game hit streak and 11-game on-base streak. He has split up his hit streak in five straight at home and on the road.
+ Grant Palmer leads the team with a seven-game home hit streak entering the weekend.
+ Alcantara's double-digit hit streak is the sixth of note from UCI hitters this season from the likes of Hiura (14, 11), John Brontsema (14), Mitchell Holland (10), and Cole Kreuter (10). Kreuter also ends the year with a 10-game hitting streak on the road.
+ Alcantara's on-base streak is his second of 10 or more games this season. Seven Anteaters in total have put together on-base streaks of more than 10 games.
+ Daniel Alvarez has thrown scoreless baseball in his last eight outings over 12 innings including 7.2 innings in the last four home appearances.
+ Calvin Faucher has allowed one unearned run over his last 21 outings putting up shutout streaks of 15 and, currently, seven.
+ The Anteater bullpen has stranded 82 of 119 inherited runners on the season. Mitchell Miller leads the pack stranding 14 of 26. Miles Glazier has stranded 13 of his, and Ben Ritchey has stranded 12. The bullpen as a unit is 15-2 posting a 3.97 ERA over 208.2 innings.
CAN YOU HIURA ME NOW?
+ In 103 career games, Hiura has failed to reach base just seven times while producing 143 hits, 28 doubles, 89 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 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.
RPI REWIND
+ UCI's standing in the Big West suffered with the series loss at Cal Poly. UCI is now 8-10, tied for seventh in the conference, with wins in just two of six conference series.
+ Long Beach State sits firm in second place at 11-7 with UC Davis and conference-leader CSF on their slate. UCI would need to win four more games than LBSU to finish above them.
+ UCI can make up a lot of ground on UCSB with the series this weekend. The Gauchos currently sit two games ahead of UCI in third.
+ Since UC Irvine's first year in the Big West in 1985, the conference has gotten multiple teams into the NCAA Tournament 29 times in 32 season, and have gotten three or more teams 16 times.
+ The fifth place team in the conference made the tournament in 2007, and the sixth place team has made it twice, once in 2008 and again in 2004 when UCI made it with a 34-23-1 record.
+ 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 159 wins and .591 win percentage in non-conference play ranks fifth among conferences.
CENTER OF ATTENTION
+ UC Irvine was represented once again the World Baseball Classic with Dominique Taylor representing Germany in the March qualifiers. The Germans were eliminated with losses to Nicaragua, in 10 innings, and the Czech Republic as Taylor started in center field, batted second, and singled in eight at-bats.
+ Anteater assistant coach, Ben Orloff, represented Israel in the 2012 WBC Qualifiers. He appeared in one game, a 4-2 win over Spain, where he batted ninth and played second base.
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 at UCI of 335-189, and on Tuesday, March 1 surpassed Mike Gerakos as the program's all-time winningest coach who won 312 games from 1981 to 1992.
+ Over his career, Gillespie has won 1,098 games.
ANALYZING THE ANTEATERS
+ UCI gave up 17 runs in the series finale against Cal Poly. The last time the staff allowed 17 runs in a regular season game was 2002 at Anteater Ballpark when UC Santa Barbara defeated them, 17-6. Tuesday's game vs. USC featured the fourth inning this season UCII has allowed seven runs in an inning and second in as many games. Over the last four games, the Anteater staff's ERA has jumped from 3.95 to 4.26.
+ UCSB will be the second nationally-ranked opponent (LBSU) in 2016 for UCI. Each of the last two regular seasons, UCI encountered 5 on its slate including 4 during midweeks in 2015 and 2 conference foes in 2014.
+ The 'Eaters are guaranteed a non-losing season for the 13th year in a row, and are in search of a 13th consecutive 30-win season. UCI has kept a winning percentage above .550 in 14 of last 15 seasons.
Games 104-106 all-time
UCI leads 53-50
UCI is 31-18 at home
Home team has won the last 4 series
4 sweeps in last 5 years
Recent meetings: May 15-17, 2015 at Santa Barbara
Friday - UCSB won 10-5
Sat. - UCSB won 3-2 (11)
Sunday - UCSB won 6-5
This is the 29th consecutive year the programs have met in which UCI had a program, dating back to 1978. The Gauchos are 10-8 in the Big West including home sweeps vs. CSUN and Hawai'i. On the road, they've dropped series to UC Davis and Cal Poly. The Gauchos have been ranked as high as ninth this season defeating Kentucky, Oregon, and USC in non-conference.
The team ranks high in walks allowed (29th), WHIP (37th), fielding (52nd), stolen bases (58th), hits allowed (69th), and ERA (70th). In Big West games, the Gauchos are hitting a conference-low .239, averaging a conference-low 4.1 runs a game, have the 3rd-worst ERA of 4.56, and allowing a 78% success rate on SBs
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