'Eaters Head to Portland for Four-Game Series

Friday, March 9

Portland, OR

6:00 PM

UC Irvine

Portland

'Eaters Head to Portland for Four-Game Series

March 07, 2018 | Baseball

Game Notes

By: Alex Croteau

UPCOMING OPPONENTS

Game Notes

UC Irvine Anteaters (7-4, Big West 0-0)
vs. Portland Pilots (4-8, WCC 0-0)
Joe Etzel Field (1,300) - Portland, Ore.

* - Probable Starters

Friday, Mar. 9 - 6:00 PM
*RHP So. Andre Pallante (2-0, 0.47) vs. (1-1, 4.32) RHP Eli Morse
Video | KUCI Internet only | Live Stats

Saturday, Mar. 10 - 3:00 PM
RHP RS-Jr. Louis Raymond (1-1, 2.84) vs. (2-1, 3.86) LHP Corbin Powers*
Video | KUCI Internet only | Live Stats

Saturday, Mar. 10 - 40 minutes after Game 1
RHP RS-Jr. Alonzo Garcia (1-0, 3.24) vs. TBD
Video | KUCI Internet only | Live Stats

Sunday, Mar. 11 - 12:00 PM
RHP Fr. Trenton Denholm (1-1, 3.60) vs. (1-0, 4.91) RHP Camden Muller
Video | KUCI Internet only | Live Stats

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

Around The Horn

1.89 - Anteaters starters have posted a 1.89 ERA through 11 starts this year. To this point of the season, UCI as a staff is second in the Big West with a 2.71 ERA and 1.15 WHIP, and has allowed opposing hitters to hit just .221

2 - The 'Eaters have used at least 2 catchers in all 11 games to this point in the season including three catchers three times. Combined, the position has hit .333 (12-for-36) with 2 doubles, a triple, and 5 RBI, and thrown out 2 of 9 attempted basestealers

6-5 - The 'Eaters return to the state of Oregon for the third time in the past five seasons with an all-time record of 6-5 in the state. The 'Eaters are 14-4 all-time vs. Portland, 3-2 at UP, and were 3-1 in the Corvallis Regional in 2014 going 2-1 against Oregon State and picking up a neutral site win over UNLV

UC Irvine dropped its first series of the season at No. 3 TCU, now 2-1 in weekend series this season after going 4-8 in 12 weekend series last season that went three games. All three series have ended 2-1.

The Anteaters took the win Sunday marking the 48th win over a ranked squad under head coach Mike Gillespie's tenure.

The pitching staff continues to impress with a team ERA of 2.71, 2nd in the Big West and 27th in the nation. The starters made the difference with a 1.89 ERA in its starts against TCU. UCI's pitching also holds the second-lowest WHIP in the conference at 1.15, 35th in the nation.

The staff also ranks top 50 and second in the Big West in hits (7.31) and walks (3.07) allowed per nine innings. They're also top three in opponent's batting average (2nd - .221), strikeouts (3rd - 95), and least hits allowed (2nd - 81).

Andre Pallante paces the Big West thus far leading in ERA (0.47), strikeouts (27), and is among the leaders in innings (2nd - 19.1), wins (T1st - 2), and opponent's batting average (3rd - .164).

Trenton Denholm sparkled Sunday to earn his first career win four-hitting the Horned Frogs through seven innings while issuing one walk and striking out a career high five batters.

Anteater hitters batted .250 over the weekend with the average remaining at .258 on the season. The 'Eaters erupted for 15 runs on 14 this in Sunday's win, both game highs for the season. UCI scored as many as 15 runs just once last season in a February, 18-4 win over Notre Dame as part of the Tony Gwynn Classic.

Cole Kreuter led the attack hitting .444 reaching base six times in 11 plate appearances. Three of his four hits went for extra bases including his sixth career home run, second against TCU, in the form of a grand slam, his first, in the sixth inning in Sunday's win. He also led the squad with four RBI and four runs.

Ryan Fitzpatrick added three more RBI and four hits as he now sits atop the squad in hits (14), doubles (5), RBI (10), and slugging percentage (.477). He's extended streaks on the season now to 19 games on base dating back to 2017, and 10 with a hit. Brendan Brooks led the team with five hits as he's now reached base in 10 consecutive contests.

Jake Palmer has shone in the leadoff role reaching base 20 times via walk (9), hit (7), and HBP (4) to lead UCI with a .488 on-base percentage despite an .250 batting average. He had a five-game streak of games with a run scored snapped on Saturday, but did pick up his first career RBI on a bases loaded walk Sunday.

Three debuts were made over the weekend. Junior transfer Evan McMillin made his first appearance on the mound after missing the first 10 games with an injury. He allowed a hit, a walk, and two earned runs working the ninth inning in Sunday's win. Ryan Johnston and Brendan Brooks each made their first appearance at a new position over the weekend. Brooks tossed his first inning on the mound with a scoreless eighth inning Saturday night picking up his first strikeout. Johnston worked his way to first base for the first time in his career in the ninth inning of play on Sunday.

Senior third baseman Parker Coss made his return to the lineup Friday after missing five games with an injury. He followed that up with his first career home run, a solo shot, in Saturday's loss.

The Anteaters were without grad transfer and DH Nick Anderson in Sunday's win after leaving midway through Saturday's game with an injury sustained on the basepaths as he attempted to avoid a tag on a force play between first and second base.
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 has returned allowing one earned run over 4.1 innings including a spotless inning on Sunday. Garcia has been effective in two midweek starts earning the win in the midweek victory over San Diego State. He is expected to start one of the four games at Portland with no midweek games scheduled.

Catcher Griffin Mazur struggled through a foot injury in 2017, but has returned to see action in all seven games this season earning one start and recording a pair of hits, a hit by pitch, and a sacrifice hit.

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 three appearances this season allowing just a hit by pitch over an inning of work that has totaled 16 pitches.

Andre Pallante was masterful and earned his first career Big West Pitcher of the Week honor on February 26 with career highs striking out 12 over seven innings, and allowed just one hit to win his second game of the season. He was the first 12-strikeout performance from an Anteater pitcher since Andrew Morales struck out 12 in a 1-0 Super Regional win at Oklahoma State in 2014. He also had his string of 15 consecutive scoreless innings snapped Friday at TCU

Louis Raymond followed up Pallante's gem with one equally as good on Saturday against Gonzaga. Raymond went the full nine innings for his first career complete game to win 6-1. For Raymond, its his first career complete game, and he fell just two outs shy of a shutout which would have been the team's first since Morales' outing vs. OK State. Raymond impressed by completing the game in only 83 pitches.

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 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 368 UCI wins, 1,131 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

PORTLAND PILOTS
A second straight road weekend for the 'Eaters after two home series to start the year sends UC Irvine to the Pacific Northwest for the third time in the last two seasons to face WCC foe, a second straight purple opponent, Portland. The Pilots struggled to a 10-41-1 record in 2017 with just five conference wins to land them 10th out of 10 teams. The Pilots did a little better at wet Joe Etzel Field winning seven of their games. They've played nine of their 12 games in the state of Oregon to start the season. Following a winless weekend at UCLA, UP won 3 of 4 at home against Saint Joseph's before losing 3 of 4 at home to Bakersfield, and lastly falling midweek to No. 2 Oregon State on Tuesday.

The 'Eaters swept Portland at home in 2017 with low-scoring efforts of 3-1, 6-3, and 5-3 to go to 14-4 all-time in the series. The 'Eaters play in Oregon for a second straight season, a place where they're 6-5 all-time.

The Pilots are much-improved to this point averaging nearly a run more than they did last season and leading the WCC in HRs already with 12. Daniel Lopez has parked four of them with 12 RBI, and Beau Brundage returns hitting .386 with 10 runs scored. The pitching staff has an ERA a touch under 5.00 and Corbin Powers has led the way with a pair of wins, 20 Ks, and a 3.86 ERA in his three starts starting each of the Pilots' two shutouts.