Regular Season Baseball Wraps Up at Home vs. CSUN
May 25, 2016 | Baseball
UPCOMING OPPONENTS
CSUN Matadors (32-20, 10-11) at UC Irvine Anteaters
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3,200) - Irvine, Calif.
Thursday, May 26 - 6:30 PM
LHP Elliot Surrey (3-6, 3.94) vs. (1-1, 3.06) RHP Joe Ryan
Live Stats | Radio | ESPN3 | Tickets | Game Program
Friday May 27 - 6:30 PM
RHP Alonzo Garcia (5-4, 3.86) vs. (4-4, 3.12) RHP Angel Rodriguez
Live Stats | Radio | Tickets | Game Program
Saturday, May 28 - 2:00 PM
LHP Cameron Bishop (5-5, 4.48) vs. (6-1, 3.03) LHP Kenny Rosenberg
Live Stats | Radio | Tickets | Game Program
Broadcast Information
Radio
KUCI 88.9 FM with Mark Roberts and Tim Becwar
Radio will be available for Sunday's matchup with CSUN Thursday and Friday the game will be available on the internet only via ucirvinesports.com and kuci.org All games also available live on the internet at kuci.org.
Video
Thursday night's game will be broadcast via ESPN3 The game can be seen online via ucirvinesports.com, and on their respective sources via ESPN3.com and the WatchESPN app
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.
ANT-ALYTICS
UCI will celebrate its six graduating seniors over the entire weekend culminating in a pregame ceremony on Saturday. Outfielders Wyatt Castro and Grant Palmer, pitcher Elliot Surrey, and infielders Jonathan Muñoz, Mitchell Holland, and Andrew Martinez will be the seniors recognized.
Head Coach Mike Gillespie became UCI's all-time winningest coach with a 5-1 LMU win on March 1. He currently has 336 career wins at UC Irvine.
Keston Hiura is currently batting .370, that is the lowest his average has been at any point during the entire 2016 season.
The 'Eaters have walked off 3 times this season with Saturday's win. Two of the three have come in the ninth, two have now come on singles, and all three happened on Saturdays,
Mitchell Holland's .996 fielding percentage is the best mark of all Big West infielders.
UCI's win Saturday vs. UCSB was No. 1,099 for Head Coach Mike Gillespie. The 'Eaters' 30th win this season would be the 1,100th of his career.
FINISHING STRONG
+ The Anteaters reached the final weekend of the regular season with a 29-24 record. At the moment, they are in eighth in the Big West at 9-12. They stand one game behind three schools tied for fifth place. With a sweep coupled with multiple other factors, the 'Eaters could finish as high as a tie for fourth.
+ 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.
+ The Anteaters won one of three games vs. UCSB in a series filled with dramatics. After a lackluster 10-3 loss to open things, UCI won Saturday night in a game they trailed 3-0 at one point before taking a 4-3 lead and finally winning, 5-4, on a walk-off infield single with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth.
+ The finale saw the 'Eaters take a 5-0 lead after two innings. They entered the eighth inning with a 5-1 lead before surrendering four runs in each of the final two innings to lose 9-5.
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, and potentially final, start will be his 49th and tie him for sixth all-time with Daniel Bibona and Crosby Slaught. 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. Six innings on Thursday would surpass Justin Cassel's mark of 317.1 and put Surrey seventh on the all-time innings list.
+ At 229 career strikeouts, he would need five to tie Dave Bladow for seventh place where he stands at 234 strikeouts. Just beyond him is Justin Cassel at 241, 12 away from Surrey.
+ 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 peeking into the record books having played in 189 games as an Anteater. He's 12th in the records at the moment, and with two appearances in the final three 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.
+ Adam Alcantara has the team lead at the moment with a 13-game hit streak and 14-game on-base streak. He has split up his hit streak with eight straight at home and five on the road.
+ 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. Evan Cassolato is also approaching double digits with an eight-gamer currently active.
+ Daniel Alvarez has thrown scoreless baseball in his last nine outings over 12.1 innings including eight innings in the last five home appearances.
+ Calvin Faucher has allowed five unearned runs over his last 23 outings putting up shutout streaks of 15 and 7.2.
+ The Anteater bullpen as a unit is 16-3 posting a 4.04 ERA over 214 innings stranding 84 of 125 runners inherited.
+ The staff struck out a total of 14 Gauchos Sunday night behind Cameron Bishop's career high of 11. The 11 from an individual is a season high. Bishop becomes the 34th Anteater to strike out 11 or more in a game, first since Andrew Morales in March of 2014.
SUPER HIURA
+ Keston Hiura enters the final series hitting .370 - that is the lowest his average has been at any point during the entire season.
+ Coming down to the wire, Hiura is still in line for the conference batting title at .370. There are three others within striking distance in CSF's Dalton Blaser (.367), Hawai'i's Jacob Sheldon-Collins (.364), and UC Riverside's Vince Fernandez (.361). He's also battling with Fernandez to be the conference leader in total bases and hits. Fernandez has a three-base edge (110-107) over Hiura total bases and a four-hit edge (75-71) to top the conference. CSUN's Fred Smith is also in the running with 72 hits.
+ In 106 career games, Hiura has failed to reach base in just seven games while producing 146 hits, 29 doubles, 92 RBIs, and 12 sac flies, and career average of .348 while slugging .537.
+ 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.
PROGRAM POWER
+ The UC Irvine offense has quietly gone about the 2016 season as the best in the Big West Conference.
+ Anteater hitters lead the Big West with a .282 batting average, 508 hits, a .364 on-base percentage, and 98 doubles.
+ UCI's offense also ranks among the top three in slugging, runs scored, RBI, triples, HBP, and, unfortunately, strikeouts.
+ Other notable numbers are the 20 double plays UCI has grounded into, three less than all other teams, and UCI has laid down 41 sacrifice bunts, second-lowest amount of all Big West programs.
+ Hiura remains the conference's leading hitter batting .370. Grant Palmer stands ninth at .322, and his .365 average in Big West games is fifth. Alcantara is just behind him in sixth batting .361. Both are also top 10 in on-base percentage.
+ Hiura also leads the pack overall with a .557 slugging, is one of three conference players with 70+ hits, one of six with 40+ RBI, and one of two players with over 100 total bases.
+ Cole Kreuter and Mitchell Holland are two off the conference leaders in doubles with 14 each.
+ The pitchers have gotten into the act as well in conference play.
+ Surrey is one of seven players to strike out 10 or more batters looking in Big West play. His 47.2 Big West innings ranks fifth and 34 total strikeouts ranks 10th. Bishop is sixth with 37 strikeouts.
+ Alonzo Garcia ranks fourth with a .229 opponent batting average, and he's won four games, one of eight pitchers.
+ Even on the defensive side, UC Irvine has the conference's most prolific fielding infielder in Mitchell Holland with a .996 percentage.
MATADOR MENTALITY
Games 70-72 in the series
UCI leads series 39-30
UCI 22-5 at home
Won 14 straight at home
Last CSUN W at UCI: 2005
Last CSUN series W: 2012
Only CSUN series win at UCI came in 2003
The Matadors have been up-and-down by defeating UCLA twice, but dropping two-of-three to Bakersfield. CSUN is 10-11 in Big West play with sweeps of Cal Poly and UC Davis, series win over Hawai'i, and a single win vs. UCSB. Most recently, CSUN traveled in non-conference to Purdue, a team coming into the series with a 7-43 record. Purdue won 3 of the 4 games in the series including two by shutout.
Nationally, they are top 30 in ERA (26th), WHIP (16th), and fielding (27th), however rank near the bottom with 4.6 runs a game. In Big West play, they hit .262, and their 10 HRs hit and allowed are tops.
CSUN's pitching will combat the high-flying UCI offense, a bunch that is one of the Big West's best in ERA (3.23), opponent's batting (.238), strikeouts (433), runs allowed (197), and pickoffs (10). LHP Kenny Rosenberg with 113 Ks (8th in the nation) and three 10+ K games.
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