Broadcast Information

ESPN3 - UC Irvine's games Thursday and Friday will be shown on ESPN3 available to stream in ESPN3.com and the ESPN app

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

Around The Horn

5 - The Big West in conjunction with ESPN3 have announced their broadcast schedule for the 2018 baseball season which includes 5 games featuring UC Irvine in Anteater Ballpark starting with Thursday and Friday's games vs. Hawai'i and the entire series vs. UC Santa Barbara April 13-15

12 - Entering the series at SIU, UC Irvine hitters had scored nearly 30% of their runs (28 of 96) with two outs. In Carbondale, the 'Eaters scored 16 runs and 12 with two outs

12-3 - UC Irvine is 12-3 against the Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors since they joined the Big West in 2013. All-time, UCI is 27-9 against UH including winning all 13 home games in the series

UC Irvine will be featured on five ESPN3 broadcasts this season as announced by the Big West Conference on Monday. The first two broadcasts will come this upcoming series against Hawai'I with Thursday and Friday each getting the primetime treatment with commentators Trent Rush and Wes Clements. The 'Eaters will again be featured on ESPN3 in all three games of their April 13-15 series against UC Santa Barbara, also in Anteater Ballpark.

The Anteaters have not won a series all March losing three and splitting a four-game series at Portland. The 'Eaters were 2-0 in series in February winning against Nevada and Gonzaga at home. The 'Eaters have yet to sweep or be swept in a 2018 series.
UC Irvine improved to 3-0 in midweek contests on a dramatic 8-7 victory over USC last Tuesday night to even the all-time series, 33-33. UCI and LMU will match up this Tuesday for the 86th time all-time with UCI leading 45-37-3

Andre Pallante carried the Anteaters in Friday night's win going eight innings to tie career high and strikeout 10 hitters, the second time in his career with at least 10, and he now has at least seven strikeouts in all six starts this year. All six have also been quality starts while the one run allowed to Southern Illinois nudged his Big West best ERA up from 0.81 to 0.87, eighth-lowest in the NCAA.

The rest of the Anteater rotation scuffled going two and three innings respectively on Saturday and Sunday from Louis Raymond and Trenton Denholm, respectively. The pair were bitten by sub-par defense making six of their 10 runs allowed unearned. Southern Illinois scored 11 and 10 runs on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, for the first two instances UCI allowed double-digit runs in 2018

Jordan Bocko once again was a driving force in the backend of the bullpen. He entered the game in the ninth with a one-run lead and allowed the game-tying hit Friday against SIU, but found his game after that earning the win in the 10th inning. In addition to the win he registered Tuesday night vs. USC, Bocko had both Anteater wins this week. Prior to last week, Bocko had one win in his previous 41 career appearances.

Taylor Rashi was also very effective on Sunday getting all six batters he faced in the seventh and eighth innings on just 13 pitches. He began the week with his first career start Tuesday night against USC lasting 1.1 innings allowing a hit, run, and three walks.
Ryan Fitzpatrick continues to hammer the ball with four more hits last week and seven RBI. He had three each in the wins Tuesday and Friday linked to home runs in each, a two-run HR to briefly give UCI the lead against USC and a crushing blow Friday in the 10th inning in a three-run home run to put the game out of reach. Fitzpatrick also worked his first career triple Sunday, and in doing so extended his on-base streak to 30 straight games dating back to 2017. He remains the team leader in average, slugging, hits, doubles, HR, RBI, and BB

The 'Eater offense was streaky scoring six runs in Friday night's win, but followed that up with a stagnant Saturday performance with just two hits until the ninth when it scored twice all with two outs. Sunday's offense produced a season-high 18 hits with seven players posting multiple hits, but the squad stranded 16 baserunners in the loss including the bases loaded four times

The Anteaters got a big boost from grad transfer Nick Anderson who dipped his toe back into the action with a pinch-hit single on Tuesday. He started the ninth inning off on Friday and lasted just two batters, but made the Sunday start at DH going 3-for-4 with three RBI reaching base four times with a sac fly mixed in. Anderson also extended his lengthy streaks now to 11 games in a row on base and seven with a hit.

UC Irvine did get sophomore Cole Spear back as well on Sunday vs. Utah Valley, and made appearances Tuesday against USC and Saturday against SIU after missing the first 17 games of the season. He posted the fourth-most innings pitched in 2017. In his three 2018 outings, he's allowed five hits, four walks, and three earned runs

UC Irvine has already seen the return of four players that missed all or a considerable amount of the 2017 season:
Pitchers Alonzo Garcia and Sean Sparling were shut down after their

first few outings in 2017 - Sparling pitched in his 60th career game on Sunday becoming the 22nd Anteater all-time to reach that mark. Garcia has been effective in two midweek starts earning the win in the midweek victory over San Diego State.

Catcher Griffin Mazur struggled through a foot injury in 2017, but has returned to see action in 18 games this season earning five starts and recording four hits, three walks and three RBI

Reliever Dylan Riddle was also on the shelf after injuring his shoulder in an offseason accident prior to the 2017 season. He's been flawless in four appearances this season allowing just a one hit and a hit by pitch over 2.1 innings of work.

The 'Eaters continue to lead the Big West with a .977 fielding percentage despite errors in each game over the weekend. UCI had four in Saturday's game, and allowed eight unearned runs in all

Andre Pallante has taken home two Big West Pitcher of the Week awards thus far in the season. He struck out 12 Gonzaga Bulldogs over seven one-hit innings to score the first. His second come in a 3-0 win at Portland where he struck out eight over a career high eight scoreless innings scattering five hits

UCI's 4-0 shutout win in the opener was its first shutout in 73 games dating back to April 29, 2016, a Friday night shutout of Cal State Fullerton. It's the fourth season opener UCI has won with a shutout joining 2008 vs. Nevada, 1992 vs. LMU, and 1972 vs. UCLA. The 'Eaters added a second shutout to begin the Portland series.

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 in the conference at 5.35 in 2017 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 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 and final Division I season and 11th with the Anteaters where he is currently the program's winningest coach holding at 373 UCI wins, 1,136 overall

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 106 games against ranked opponents, 84 coming during the regular season, and the 'Eaters have won 48 of those games. Since 2002, UC Irvine is 32-41 overall against ranked Big West programs

LOYOLA MARYMOUNT LIONS
The Loyola Marymount Lions have made a great turnaround since the Anteaters last saw them. UCI dropped LMU in 11 innings, in a game where each squad hit 2 of their 8 HRs on the year, to send them to 0-4 on the season back on February 20. The Lions continued their fall losing 7 of their first 8 and 10 of their for 13 before kicking things into gear winning seven straight and 9 of 10 including a 5-1 mark against BYU and Pepperdine in a competitive West Coast Conference.

Last year at Anteater Ballpark, LMU took the game, 4-2, as part of their 20-6 record away from home in 2017. This year's Lions are skilled at sacrifice bunts much like the 'Eaters, have an RBI machine in Jamey Smart with 22 hitting .330 and Nick Sogard's .372 clip, but have also been bogged down by three of its primary starters hitting under .200

Lefty Mark Finkelnburg, who made his debut against the 'Eaters in 2016, will get the start after allowing a pair of runs in two innings in the first meeting things year. LMU's staff mirrors UCI by limiting walks and hits, but low on strikeouts

HAWAI'I RAINBOW WARRIORS
Hawai'i has made strides over the past few years taking the series against UCI in 2016 and finishing with its first winning record last year at 28-23 since 2012. Now the Rainbow Warriors are 13-8 doing it mostly at home with splits against BYU and LMU, but also went to No. 21 LSU and won a game in that series.

UC Irvine still holds the all-time series lead at 27-9 and a 12-3 record since UH joined the Big West, and really own home field advantage winning all 13 games the squads have played in Irvine.

Hawai'i has really rode its outstanding pitching to this point which leads the conference with a 3.05 ERA and 1.23 WHIP, and they've only hits six batters on the season which is the lowest total in the nation. Since Hawai'I normally plays four-game series on the island, they have a venerable stable of starters working for them starting with Jackson Rees who is 2-0 leading the squad with a 2.08 ERA and 27 strikeouts. Logan Pouelsen has worked back to the mound effective over four starts with a 3.92 ERA that includes a complete game shutout. Neil Uskali has joined him with a CG after coming out of the bullpen in 2017 to allow the game-winning HR to Adrian Damla on Mother's Day.

The offense has backed up its staff hitting .264 as 10 different Rainbow Warriors have driven in at least five runs this year. Adam Fogel has 11 doubles, 12 RBI, and 15 runs, all leading the team along with his .338 batting average. Johnny Weeks heads up a squad that is proficient at sacrificing with 8 of the team's 22, and Maaki Yamazaki has shone as a newcomer from Japan hitting .301 and just three strikeouts in 73 at-bats making him the 7th-toughest in the nation to K. Hawai'I also draws plenty of walks with 91 to lead the conference, and the conference's leader, Eric Ramirez, has 19 averaging at least one per game