PORTLAND, Ore. --- The 'Eaters fell behind early once again, but battled to take a late lead and earn a split in the Saturday doubleheader against Portland winning, 6-5, Saturday night in Joe Etzel Field.

Once again, the Anteaters (9-5) jumped out tot he early lead scoring a run in the second inning without a hit as an error on a Jacob Castro put him on base, and Christian Koss' hard grounder was mishandled by fellow shortstop Chad Stevens to score Castro and put the 'Eaters up, 1-0, in the second.

Portland (5-10) quickly answered knocked Anteater starter Alonzo Garcia around for four runs in the bottom half of the inning and ending his outing early. Sean Sparling extinguished the rally with the 'Eaters trailing, 4-1, after two innings.

Ryan Fitzpatrick blasted a two-run home run in the top of the third to reel the Pilots back to within one, 4-3, in the third inning.

The score held up until the fifth inning as once again UCI would benefit from everything but a hit as Parker Coss forced home the tying run on the third walk of the inning tying things at 4-4.

UCI completed the comeback in the eighth inning loading the bases once again, and Jacob Castro came through with an opposite field single, the 'Eaters' third hit of the game, to plate two and lift UC Irvine back on top, 6-4.

The Pilots would string together a pair of two-out hits to chop the Anteater lead to 6-5 in the eighth, but Jordan Bocko regrouped and ended anymore scoring, and came out with a flawless ninth inning to save it for the 'Eaters with a 6-5 victory.

Bocko earned his second save of the weekend as he teamed up with Sparing and Taylor Rashi, who registered his second win of the season, to shut down the Pilots to the tune of one run, one walk, and six hits over the final 7.1 innings. Portland's staff of seven pitchers dished out 12 walks on the evening as the 'Eaters needed just four hits to get the victory. Starter Jordan Horak lasted just 2.2 innings allowing two earned runs, just one hit, four walks, and five strikeouts. Jake Hawken was pressed with the loss after he walked three of the four batters he faced in the eighth.

Brendan Brooks drew three of those walks on the night scoring twice from the them. Fitzpatrick drove in two runs and scored a pair himself. He also walked twice along with Castro who joined him with a pair of RBI. Portland recorded 12 hits on the evening including three from Stevens and multiple hits from three others, Beau Brundage, Matt Kelly, and Travis Turney, who each added an RBI.

UCI now sits at 9-5 on the year with wins in two of the first three games in the series. The finale comes down Sunday, Mar. 11 at 12:00 p.m. with Trenton Denholm and Camden Muller slated to face off.