photo credit to Steve Coburn
SAN DIEGO, Calif. --- UC Irvine walked all the way to the edge of the ninth inning before closing out a second straight midweek win Tuesday night in Fowler Park holding San Diego off, 8-7, in a game lasting nearly four hours.
Calvin Faucher looked for his 10th save of the season returning for the ninth after getting the final out in the eighth. A walk and single started the inning on a sour note, but a strikeout and popout quickly put USD (27-12) down to its final out. After a wild pitch and a balk, suddenly the Toreros had cut the deficit to two, and a walk to Brhet Bewley put the tying run on base. Another wild pitch brought USD to within one and moved the tying run into scoring position, but another strikeout wrapped the 8-7 win up.
The 'Eaters saw a 2-0 lead in the second disappear, but took advantage of 10 walks from USD pitching including five in the fifth leading to a five-run frame for UC Irvine (15-23, 2-7) highlighted by a two-run double to the opposite field from Mikey Duarte that grew the UCI lead up to 8-3.
The Toreros continued to chip away like they did with single runs in the second, third, and fourth adding a fourth run on a massive Roman Garcia home run in the fifth, and then fifth run with two outs in the seventh to keep the 'Eaters within reach at 8-5 entering the eighth.
Anteater pitching never let USD's offense fully get going with Andre Pallante allowing one earned over three innings, Cole Spear posting a career high five strikeouts over 3.2 innings of relief to earn the win, and Michael Martin bridging the gap to Faucher with a scoreless inning of work. Faucher became the first Anteater closer since 2014 with 10 or more saves in a season now with 18 over his career.
USD went through six pitchers with four of the five relievers walking multiple Anteaters including Miles Sandum whose three walks and two earned runs over 1.2 gave UCI the lead for good dropping him for his third loss of the year.
The Anetaters spread the offense around with three hitters recording multiple hits and six driving a run home including Duarte who was the only 'Eater with two RBI and runs scored. Cole Kreuter also scored twice, and Evan Cassolato had a two-RBI game. Keston Hiura produced his second three-walk game in the last three with two of them coming intentionally.
The win is the second straight on Tuesdays for the 'Eaters who are now 6-5 on the year in midweek contests. The next test lies at Cal State Fullerton as a series with the 14th-ranked Titans starts on Friday at 7:00 p.m.
