IRVINE, Calif. --- The reliable Anteater defense tripped up Friday night against Cal State Fullerton dropping the opener to the series 8-3, in Anteater Ballpark.

UC Irvine (25-15, 8-5) starter Andre Pallante walked the tightrope in the early innings wriggling out of trouble in the first inning against the Titans. He did the same in the second inning, and seemed to have the final out sewn up on a check-swing comebacker, but his throw in the dirt skipped away and allowed two runners to score giving Cal State Fullerton (20-20, 7-3) the early 2-0 lead. This coming after Cole Kreuter dropped a throw from Ryan Fitzpatrick on a sacrifice giving the Titans additional runners in the inning.

The Titans added their only earned run of the game in the fifth as Ruben Cardenas smacked a single to right field scoring Hank LoForte to make it 3-0, Titans.

The Anteaters finally answered back after leaving their share of runners on in the early innings. Jake Palmer rolled over a grounder to score Matt Reitano who led the inning off with a double to make it a 3-1 game through five innings.

Cal State Fullerton added another run in the sixth thanks to an Anteater error on a potential double play, and then the flood gates really opened in the eighth as Cole Spear airmailed a throw to first off a comeback scoring CSF's fifth run with three more to follow on a Brett Borgognon sac fly and RBI singles by Mitchell Berryhill and Daniel Cope.

The 'Eaters made it fairly interesting in the ninth inning as Konnor Zickefoose led the inning off with a massive solo HR, and a trio of singles brought home the third run and knocked out starter Colton Eastman, but Dillon Brown shut down any notion of a comeback to secure the 8-3 win for the Titans.

Eastman cruised through 8.1 innings tossing 110 pitches to win his sixth. He did allow three earned runs on nine hits, but walked just one and struck out seven. Anteater starter Andre Pallante did finish with eight strikeouts, but walked a pair and allowed an earned run of the four he was present four through six innings to record his first loss of the season. Altogether, the Anteaters allowed seven unearned runs of the eight CSF plated.

UCI and its opponent finished with the same number of hits for the fourth straight game as three Anteaters finished with multi-hit nights. Zickefoose and Reitano each contributed a run and RBI. Fullerton's Ruben Cardenas had three hits to lead all players. Jake Pavletich scored three times and Sahid Valenzuela added two runs despite just one hit between the two of them. The clubs also came together to register six sacrifice hits on the evening with CSF picking up four of them.

The crowd of 1,029 fans was the largest for an Anteater home game on the season, and the teams return to the Anteater Ballpark on Saturday, April 28, for a 2:00 p.m. game in the second game of the three-game weekend series.