Anteater Baseball Opens Season with Nevada at Home

Friday, February 16

Irvine, CA

6:30 PM

UC Irvine

Nevada

Anteater Baseball Opens Season with Nevada at Home

February 11, 2018 | Baseball

Game Notes

By: Alex Croteau

UPCOMING OPPONENTS

Game Notes

UC Irvine Anteaters (23-33, Big West 9-15)
vs. Nevada Wolf Pack (19-36, Mountain West 13-16)
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3,408) - Irvine, Calif.
KUCI 88.9 FM | Live Stats | Tickets

UC Irvine leads all-time series, 18-8 | Last series: Feb. 26-28, 2016 (UCI wins 3-0)

Pitching Probables
Friday, Feb. 16 - 6:30 PM
RHP Andre Pallante (6-4, 4.53) vs. RHP Mark Nowaczewski (6-6, 4.89)
Saturday, Feb. 17 - 2:00 PM
RHP Louis Raymond (5-5, 3.54) vs. TBD
Sunday, Feb. 18 - 1:00 PM
RHP Trenton Denholm (NCAA Debut) vs. TBD

Broadcast Information

Radio - KUCI 88.9 FM with Mark Roberts and Tim Becwar All games also available live on the internet at kuci.org and ucirvinesports.com

Live Stats - Live stats are available for every Anteater baseball game through ucirvinesports.com and the UCI Sports Front Row app.

Around The Horn

46 - Keston Hiura broke a 46-year-old UC Irvine record in 2017 with his .442 batting average. Tom Spence's .403 season average had stood since 1971. Keston joins Tom and Mike Nagle (.402 in 1981) as the only Anteaters to hit over .400 in a season

.442 - Keston Hiura led the nation with a .442 batting average and on-base percentage of .567 in 2017. His .442 average is the third-highest in the NCAA since 2009, and highest among players that played every game that season

1 - UC Irvine took down the No. 1 team in the nation in 2017 in TCU winning 2 of 3 at home making it the 2nd top-ranked school UCI has taken a series from (CSF in 2009). UCI took 1 game from No. 14 CSF this season for a total of 3 wins over College World Series programs

The Anteaters finished 2017 seventh in the Big West Conference going 9-15, and a 23-33 overall record marks just the second losing season since the program returned in 2002.

Head Coach Mike Gillespie returns for his 31st Division I season and 11th with the Anteaters where he is currently the program's winningest coach holding at 361 wins with UCI, 1,124 overall

The team hit .274 a year ago, second-highest in the Big West, and posted the conference's best on-base percentage of .364, but had a .371 slugging percentage that ranked as the lowest. The Anteaters finished near the top in many offensive categories placing top three in runs, hits, walks, sacrifice flies, and hit by pitch recording the most plate appearances of any Big West squad.
On the pitching end, UCI struggled with the highest ERA at 5.35 and opponent batting average of .299 while issuing 253 walks, highest in the Big West and the program's third-most in a single season.

The defense did stand out committing just 48 errors, the second season in program history where the 'Eaters were charged with less than 50 errors, while leading the conference in putouts and chances finishing with a .978 fielding percentage. The team also turned 55 double plays, second-most in the conference and in program history, and had the second-best percentage of throwing out basestealers throwing out a Big West-best 29 runners.

The Anteater infield will be the most veteran part of the field, but still loses some key members like Mikey Duarte who finished with 180 games played as an Anteater, a .303 career average, and .971 fielding percentage making two All-Big West squads and twice being a Brooks Wallace Award candidate.

Aside from Duarte, the Anteater infield remains intact with seniors Parker Coss, manning third base, and Cole Kreuter, back as a second baseman. Sophomore Christian Koss, who bounced around the infield last year, enters as the frontline shortstop. Depth around the infield will be found in the form of senior Devin Pettengill and freshman Brendan Brooks.

First base will be a battle between a couple second-year players - power-hitting senior Ryan Fitzpatrick and sure-handed lefty sophomore Adrian Damla.

The Anteater outfield loses a lot of firepower with the departures of seniors Evan Cassolato, who dropped three homers and hit .283 over his 177-game career including all 56 games in 2017, and Adam Alcantara, a .307 career hitter who drove home 79 runs in 156 career games.

The 2018 Anteater outfield brings with a ton of intrigue with all three outfield spots up for grabs. Freshman Jake Palmer, brother of 'Eater alum Grant, looks like a frontrunner for a spot followed by a stable of others vying for the other two spots which includes veterans Jake Hazard, Ryan Johnston, Mikey Filia, and Dailin Lee meanwhile first-year players Konnor Zickefoose and Mike Peabody will all be involved in the competition for play time.

UC Irvine has the luxury of a few two-way players this season which includes Ryan Johnston who put in 40 at-bats and 30 innings on the mound. Freshman Brendan Brooks has the chance to follow suit as does graduate transfer Nick Anderson who saddled 89 hits and 80 innings on the mound for Virginia Tech in two seasons.

Easily the biggest hole to fill will be the offensive presence of Keston Hiura who was the 2017 NCAA batting and on-base champ hitting .442 and finishing his career in the program's top 10 all-time in hits, doubles, HR, runs, RBI, and walks. He finished this career out as a unanimous All-American in addition to being named Big West Field Player of the Year despite not playing an inning in the field

Keston's departure does open up the designated hitter role with plenty of worthy bats likely to get a shot with Fitzpatrick, Zickefoose, and Anderson possibly the frontrunners.

The catching position will continue to be a competition with three Anteaters all worthy of some time as the season begins as Alex Guenette made 47 of the starts in 2017.

Junior Matt Reitano is the only returner to put time in in 2017 despite being injured for some of the season. He did make 20 appearances hitting .212 and made 25 starts as a freshman. Griffin Mazur returns as a plus defender, but has not played since 2016 where he hit .125 in 28 games and is coming off a 2017 filled with injuries. The third competitor behind the dish is freshman Jacob Castro who is a highly-decorated high school catcher and left-handed hitter. Fellow freshman Johnny Pacheco will provide depth behind the trio.

Between the three catchers, they will be receiving a much-improved pitching staff that starts healthier, deeper, and full of more experience. Not much of the staff departs outside of impact players Michael Martin, who led UCI in games pitched a year ago, and strikeout-leader Calvin Faucher, who also locked down 20 saves over his career.

The weekend rotation is bunched up with six different pitchers with a chance to earn a start. Last year's opening day starter Andre Pallante is a frontrunner coming out of the bullpen most of his freshman season, but finished with a team-high six wins. Second Team All-Big West Louis Raymond was the consistent arm throughout the 2017 season starting all 15 weekends putting up a 3.54 ERA in 94 IP.

Other veterans include Jordan Bocko, who earned his stripes with 4.37 ERA in 12 starts last season including his best performance against Cal State Fullerton earning his only career win, and the return of Alonzo Garcia who missed most of 2017, but made 12 starts the year before going 5-5 with a 4.11 ERA including his best performance coming in an 8-inning, 2-hitter at Long Beach State.

The newcomers to the fold are transfer Taylor Rashi coming off a couple years on the junior college level where he posted a 2.54 ERA and 244 strikeouts in under 200 innings along with the talented freshman Trenton Denholm who was drafted in the 26th round by Boston after registering a 1.08 ERA over 23 high school starts striking out 162 batters in 125 innings, and each has a chance early for significant innings.

Adding to the pitching depth are the likes of Cole Spear who made 11 starts as a freshman, the return fifth-year senior Sean Sparling and sophomore lefty Dylan Riddle who each are back from injuries, other veterans returners Chris Vargas and Kaz Akamatsu, fresh faces in left-hander Brian Marquez, 6-foot-7 Jake Lachemann, and Irvine-native Michael Frias, rounded out by another junior college transfer Evan McMillin who is a favorite to take over in the closer role.

The Anteaters were picked to finish sixth in the Big West according to the preseason coaches poll, however they did land a first-place vote.

The 2017 Anteater schedule included six NCAA Tournament teams and two programs to reach the College World Series. The 2018 schedule has five tournament teams from a year ago on the slate as well as four conference champions overall. Three schools show up in the Baseball America Top 25 to start out the season including perennial midweek foe UCLA at 13, No. 11 Cal State Fullerton who will visit Anteater Ballpark for a series, and TCU at No. 7 that UC Irvine will travel to after winning their series in 2017 with TCU ranked No. 1 in the nation.

The Anteaters are 10-2 in Anteater Ballpark against non-conference ranked opponents winning two of three against No. 1 TCU this year adding to the series win over No. 25 Cal in 2006 and sweeps of No. 23 Baylor in 2013 and No. 8 Washington in 2005.
Since Head Coach Mike Gillespie took over in 2008, UCI has played 103 games against ranked opponents, 81 coming during the regular season, and the 'Eaters have won 47 of those games. Since 2002, UC Irvine is 32-41 overall against ranked Big West programs

Nevada Wolf Pack

For the third time all-time, UC Irvine and Nevada will match up with each other to open the season up. UCI won two of three scheduled games in a snowy start to the 2008 season in Reno, and the teams mixed it up again to start 2011 with a UCI sweep as part of 13 wins in its first 14 games that season. UCI holds the series lead all-time, 18-8, including seven straight wins at home.

The clubs last squared up in 2016 with a highly-competitive sweep for the 'Eaters in part of a 37-win season for Nevada. Last year, the Wolf Pack took a bit of a dip winning just 19 games, 13 in the Mountain West Conference which included solo dates against UC Davis and UCSB in which Nevada lost each and a four-game series in Hawai'i that the Rainbow Warriors took 3 of 4.

Nevada is led by fourth-year coach T.J. Bruce who comes from Long Beach State and the Big West Conference. His team excels on the defensive end with an overall fielding percentage of .974 a year ago, 62nd in the nation, led by one of the best teams at turning the double play with 61. The Wolf Pack bring a speed element to the offensive end with 16 triples a year ago, and laying down the most sacrifice bunts in the Mountain West at 49.

The sparkplug on offense is senior third baseman Grant Fennell who hit .328 and had a .405 on-base percentage to lead the team, and was among the leaders with a .456 slugging and 24 RBI. The all-conference player joins big, 6-4 right-hander, Mark Nowaczewski, on the mound who went 6-6 and led the conference with 99.1 innings pitched. Each were named to the conference's preseason team according to Perfect Game. The team is projected to finish fourth in the Mountain West, just as they did finish a year ago.