UPCOMING OPPONENTS
Game Notes | Game Program
UC Irvine Anteaters at Bakersfield Roadrunners (22-17, WAC 8-7)
Hardt Field (1,000) - Bakersfield, Calif.
Tuesday, May 2 - 6:00 PM
RHP Cole Spear (3-3, 7.07) vs. (8-1, 2.92) RHP Mathew Seibert
Video | Live Stats | Radio (Internet only)
CSUN Matadors (21-24, Big West 8-7) at UC Irvine Anteaters
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3,408) - Irvine, Calif.
Friday, May 5 - 6:30 PM
RHP Louis Raymond vs. RHP Tei Vanderford
Live Stats | KUCI | Tickets
Saturday, May 6 - 2:00 PM
RHP Jordan Bocko vs. RHP Andrew Weston
Live Stats | KUCI | Tickets
Sunday, May 7 - 1:00 PM
RHP Cole Spear vs. RHP Samuel Myers
Live Stats | KUCI | Tickets
Broadcast Information
Radio
KUCI 88.9 FM with Mark Roberts and Tim Becwar (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). All games also available live on the internet at kuci.org and ucirvinesports.com
Video
The Roadrunner Sports Network will stream Tuesday night's game online. Fans can find the link on ucirvinesports.com
Live Stats
Live stats are available for every Anteater baseball game through ucirvinesports.com and the UCI Sports Front Row app.
LAST WEEK RECAP
+ The 'Eaters started to turn it around last week with its first week with two wins since mid March against a pair of schools with RPIs in the top 60.
+ Tuesday night was nearly a four-hour game as a total of 17 batters were walked at USD. The 'Eaters charged out to an 8-3 lead after a five-run fifth and hung on late stranding the tying run at third base in the ninth for an 8-7 victory.
+ Friday night was the opener against No. 14 Cal State Fullerton and the Anteaters fell behind, 3-0, but rebounded to tie it in the seventh. CSF got a pair in the bottom of the inning thanks to a walk and an error on a sacrifice bunt to snag a 5-3 win.
+ UCI and CSF put on a show for national television Saturday battling for 14 innings and over five hours. After the Titans tied things 2-2 in the fifth, the pitching and defense took over with shutout ball until the 14th as a wild pitch and collision at the plate brought home the winning run for CSF, 3-2.
+ Sunday was a statement day for UC Irvine coming back after Saturday's marathon and finding their offense to the tune of a 12-4 victory. Jordan Bocko went a career high seven innings to record his first career victory, and he was helped by Ryan Fitzpatrick's bat as he connected for a pair of home runs including a third inning grand slam in the win.
WHO SHOWED OUT
+ The pitching had one of its best weeks of the year pumping out a 3.64 ERA over the four games and a 2.97 mark in the three games against Fullerton. Starters combined to pitch 20 innings allowing a total of eight earned runs.
+ Louis Raymond spun another gem tying career highs with eight innings and seven strikeouts against CSF behind a 125 pitches and two walks which were both intentional. He now has seven quality starts of his 11 this season.
+ Jordan Bocko broke out with his Sunday performance with a career high seven innings and scored his first career win.
+ Raymond teamed up with Calvin Faucher, who went three innings, and Andre Pallante and his 2.1 innings to tie and Anteater record with 16 strikeouts in the game, only the third time the staff has reached that mark in program history.
+ Ryan Johnston continues to deal on both sides of the ball scoring a hit, RBI, and two walks in Tuesday's victory, and adding a two-run double in Sunday's shelling. Right in the middle of all that, he shutdown Cal State Fullerton on the mound Friday giving up one run in a career-high four innings of relief, and allowing his offense to tie the game even though he ultimately was charged with the loss.
+ The bats were up and down in the series, but got a lot of help from Mikey Duarte who delivered two-run doubles in both games Tuesday and Friday. He added three hits on Sunday before being lifted in the sixth inning which builds on his inclusion to the Brooks Wallace Award Watch List that, an award he was a semifinalist for his junior season in 2015. He's remains second on the club in hitting (.329), slugging (.458), on-base (.407), hits (51), doubles (15), and walks (16), is the standard in the field with a .976 fielding percentage (4 errors in 161 chances) and is the toughest 'Eater to strikeout going down 16 times in 173 plate appearances, seventh-best in the Big West.
+ Keston Hiura did what he could from the DH role once again reaching base 15 times in his 22 plate appearances with six hits, one in each game, and seven more walks. His 37 walks on the season leads the conference and ranks 17th nationally. He's started to creep up the Anteater record books now 17th all-time with 79 over his career, one behind Ben Orloff, and with 16 walks down the remaining stretch will become the program new single-season leader currently held by Brady Anderson at 52. He also remains the nation's on-base-percentage leader at .545.
The most pleasant surprise came from the emergence of Ryan Fitzpatrick who saw his only action on Sunday, but made a noticeable mark with two HRs and five RBI inking his name all over the Anteater record books. He mashed UCI's first grand slam since 2014 when Kris Paulino clubbed one against Oregon
+ State in the regional, and is the third Anteater joining Jaime Martinez and Chris Klemm to hit one against Cal State Fullerton. He registered just the second 2-HR game all-time against CSF joining Larry Dotson who did it in 1980. He also notched UCI's second five-RBI game of the year joining Evan Cassolato
+ The other standout was Saturday's marathon game. UCI pitchers threw 239 of the 439 total pitches in the game that stands as the third-longest in program history at 5 hours, 4 minutes, and is officially the first Anteater game to be played past midnight. It was the seventh game all-time to reach the 14th inning and first since 2006 when UCI played a program record 15 innings against UNLV.
I NEED A HIURA
+ Baseball America's most recent mock draft release slotted Keston Hiura to go 20th overall in the upcoming MLB Draft. He was projected as high as No. 10 in the initial Baseball American mock draft in March. Baseball America's John Manuel went as far as saying Keston is "pound-for-pound the best college hitter in the draft" Monday on MLB Network.
+ Keston Hiura leads the nation in on-base percentage (.545), ranks ninth in batting (.406), and 16th in slugging (.692) along with conference leads in walks (37), doubles (18), and total bases (99).
+ Hiura earned the spotlight early on being named to five Preseason All-American lists from publications such as Baseball American, the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association, D1Baseball.com, Collegiate Baseball News, and Perfect Game USA. He received Preseason All-American status by three publications heading into his sophomore season.
+ Hiura's most recent accolade was a return to the Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List as the only Big West member of list of 40 players marking the second straight year he's appeared on both the midseason and preseason lists.
+ He spent the summer with the U.S. Collegiate National Team on their global trip to play national teams in Taiwan, Japan, and Cuba. Hiura hit .289 hitting three homers and driving in six including a go-ahead HR in Cuba to give the team its first-ever series win at Cuba.
+ In 150 career games, Hiura has failed to reach base in just nine while producing 206 hits, 48 doubles, 21 HR, and 125 RBIs. He recently became the 23rd Anteater all-time to drive in 100 career RBI, the 15th Anteater all-time to record 200 hits, is tied for second in program history in HR, hitting, and slugging, and stands four doubles from matching Jeff Cusick's program record of 52.
+ 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 made it, following a 2015 campaign where he landed near the top of many Anteater freshman records including second in doubles (18), hits (75), and at-bats (227) while setting new marks with seven home runs and 52 RBIs.
INJURY REPORT
+ Keston Hiura's arm issues have drawn the interest of many in the college and professional ranks alike. Baseball America's John Manuel wrote of it prior to the season, and Aaron Fitt touched on it early this season about Hiura's offseason dealing with a partial tear in his elbow. Hiura was completely shut down for a majority of it, and underwent platelet-rich plasma (PRP) treatment in January to aid in the recovery. He has continued to take ground balls in the infield and fly balls in the outfield in batting practice, but does not have any plans to play the field in a game remaining the team's DH.
+ Last weekend marked the returns of Adam Alcantara and Christian Koss who each missed 10 games with nagging injuries. Alcantara played all three games at Fullerton leading the team with six hits, and Koss played the final two games adding a double and an RBI
+ Cameron Bishop has yet to play in 2017 with an oblique issue.
+ Matt Reitano will be out for an extended period of time after reinjuring his knee in Tuesday's win at USC, an injury that kept him out for most of the fall and winter.
+ The Anteaters have lost the services of pitchers Alonzo Garcia, Sean Sparling, Ben Ritchey, and Dylan Riddle for the remainder of the 2017 season.
The Roadrunners continue to trend upwards in 2017. When last we saw them, CSUB had lost 6 of 7 prior to a 14-2 pounding they put on UCI in a midweek matchup. Since, CSUB has gone 9-6 winning seven conference games and taking one from Arizona State. The Runners have struggled against the Big West lately with losses to Cal Poly and UCSB while topping CSUN over the last month.
CSUB is still hitting the cover off the ball batting .315 as a team, 11th in the nation, with the country's leading hitter, Ryan Grotjohn pushing .417 and David Metzgar on a 22-game hitting streak. It could be a football score with these offense going against staff days, and on top of that, CSUB's shaky defense could add some intrigue. Mathew Seibert will be making his second start of the season for the Runners.
CSUN's 2017 season truly has been a roller coaster to get to their 21-24 mark. The Matadors dropped a game to Portland to start the season, and then three more to Towson before a series win at No.14 Vanderbilt springboarding. A split with UCLA, three wins vs. Purdue, three losses to Saint Mary's and Washington State kept the ride going. Big West play saw a series loss to UC Davis, series win over UCSB, a win stolen at No. 12 Long Beach State, a sweep of UC Riverside, and most recently a series lost to Hawai'i after winning the opener.
It's hard to say what Matador team will arrive to Irvine over the weekend. Will it be the team that turns the eighth-most double plays in the country, or the one that's made 64 errors? Will it be the team that's mashed a conference-leading 41 homers, or the one that sits near the bottom with a .257 average? Will the weekend trio who average over six innings a start with a 4.09 stand out, or the rest of the staff and its 13 collective losses and ERA over six be the factor?
Last year's Matadors nearly took the series off UC Irvine to end the season if not for a Wyatt Castro walk-off single in the ninth inning on senior day for UCI to snatch it back. The Anteaters will see an entirely new rotation from the last year with Andrew Weston who threw two innings of relief being the only familiar face. Tei Vanderford and Samuel Myers join Weston with each starting all 11 games this year, and each member of the trio has posted a complete game. Conner O'Neil has a 4-3 record and six saves in 22 relief appearances to lead the pen.
Offensively, Albie Weiss holds the keys as the first baseman is hitting .290 with a Big West-leading 10 HRs and 42 RBI. Fred Smith and Nolan Bumstead have made every start this season, and Kevin Riley has added seven home runs for a club that is second in the conference in slugging and leads with 78 doubles. This club has played more baseball than the rest of the conference playing 22 more innings and posting 50 more plate appearances than the rest of the conference where it is successful very successful stealing bases (44-for-59) while topping the Big West in wild pitches and pickoffs.
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