IRVINE, Cailf. --- The Anteaters dusted off the diamond with a 4-0 shutout victory of Nevada to open the 2018 season in Anteater Ballpark Friday night.

Andre Pallante whirled a gem allowing five hits and striking out seven hitters in 6.1 innings to pace the 'Eaters (1-0) early en route to his first win of the season from the team's wins leader from a year ago.

The offense came primarily in the third inning starting with two outs. New Anteater Nick Anderson punches a single to right field to score Jake Palmer from third base. Cole Kreuter followed with a booming double off the left field wall bringing home Konnor Zickefoose and Anderson from first for a 3-0 lead after three innings.

UC Irvine added a fourth run in the seventh inning after a screwy turn of events. After Palmer reached for the third time on the night, a wild pitch would move him to second, but an Anteater bench player came out to retrieve what he thought was a foul ball. After the commotion, Palmer remained on second base, and Christian Koss busted a two-out single up the middle to score Palmer for the fourth and final run of the night.

Pallante worked magnificently in his longest career outing tossing 82 pitches, and was relieved by Jordan Bocko who allowed just two baserunners over the final 2.2 innings to seal the victory. Bocko would finish with four strikeouts while Pallante's seven was a career high for the sophomore.

Mark Nowaczewski drew the loss for Nevada (0-1) hurling 104 pitches over six innings without a walk and punching out three. Nevada was limited to six hits with catcher Kaleb Foster producing the only two-hit game for any Wolf Pack player.

The series rolls on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. with redshirt junior Louis Raymond on the bump for UC Irvine against a starter to be determined by Nevada.

NOTES: All 4 Anteater runs came with 2 outs on the night...Christian Koss' stolen base was the first of his career...the shutout was the first in 73 games for Anteater pitching dating back to April 29, 2016 vs. Cal State Fullerton after not recording one in 2017...three players made their Anteater debuts on the evening - freshman LF Jake Palmer singled in his first collegiate at-bat and finished the night 2-for-3 with two runs scored, redshirt sophomore Konnor Zickefoose went 0-for-4 scoring a run and reaching on a HBP as the RF, Nick Anderson was the DH and went 2-for-3 with a walk,run, and RBI...7 strikeouts from Pallante matched the single-game high for any Anteater pitcher in 2017...UCI is now 24-16-1 all-time in season openers and 8-3 under coach Gillespie...UCI has now won eight straight home games against Nevada...In the series with Nevada, there have been five shutouts, all in favor of the 'Eaters