Weekend Information
 
Weekend Festivities - UC Irvine will celebrate head coach Mike Gillespie's career in a ceremony prior to the game on Friday, May 18. The team will honor its senior class in a pregame ceremony on Sunday, May 20
 
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
 
Around The Horn
 
7 - The Anteaters will honor 7 seniors prior to Sunday's matchup. Pitchers Sean Sparling and Chris Vargas, infielders Parker Coss, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Cole Kreuter, utility player Devin Pettengill, and two-way player Nick Anderson

210 - Mike Gillespie has played 319 games in Anteater Ballpark. With the 'Eaters, he has a record of 207-107 on his home field, and had a 3-2 record as a member of the visiting team giving him 210 total wins in Irvine

14th - Andre Pallante's 9-strikeout performance vs. Cal Poly made him the 14th Anteater to reach 100 strikeouts in a season, still three ahead of LBSU's Clayton Andrews for the conference lead. Meanwhile, Trenton Denholm is 7 away from reaching 50 strikeouts, a mark only 10 freshmen have attained
 
This week marks the final matchup for head coach Mike Gillespie against his former school, USC, with the midweek matchup on Tuesday, and also his final home series at Anteater Ballpark with a three-game series against UC Riverside. The program will honor coach Gillespie prior to Friday night's game with a ceremony

Head Coach Mike Gillespie has seven games remaining in his 31st and final Division I regular season and 11th with the Anteaters where he is currently the program's winningest coach holding at 390 UCI wins, 1,153 overall

UC Irvine gutted out a series victory at Cal Poly winning two of three games scoring a grand total of 10 runs. The 'Eaters did roll out the hits with 32 in the three games hitting .308 over the series. The series win for UCI is its seventh in 13 series which includes one split.

The Anteaters entered the weekend in a tie for second with Cal Poly in the conference and came out of it in sole possession of third seeing CSUN pass them for second with just one Big West series remaining for them. The 'Eaters also remained four games back of Big West leader Cal State Fullerton with six games to go.

UCI's postseason chances remain slim but still alive as it RPI still sits at 87. Historically, at-large selections have come from teams within the RPI top 50. Six of the final seven games come against teams with RPIs of 214 and 230. Tuesday's matchup with USC (RPI 114) will give UCI its best chance of boosting its RPI

The Anteaters have improved to 4-3 in the month of May hitting an even .300. UC Irvine finished April with a record of 11-5, the first 10-win month since April of 2015 and 17th time the 'Eaters have won 10+ games in April. Tuesday's matchup with USC will be the final midweek contest of the year with the 'Eaters coming in 8-1

For the second straight week, Mikey Filia and Christian Koss set the tone offensively for the Anteaters. Each is hitting over .400 for the month with Koss at .471 and Filia at .462, and together are 28-for-60 at the plate in the month. Each has registered a four-hit game including Filia's on Friday where he scored twice. Filia 7-for-13 performance at the plate along with three runs, an RBI, a stolen base, and a lead-saving outfield assist at the plate scored him his first Big West Field Player of the Week accolade. Koss assumed the team's lead in multi-hit games this season now with 15.

Andre Pallante continued his dominance on the mound outlasting Cal Poly ace Trent Shelton scattering eight hits over six innings for his 12th quality start in 13 tries. He upped his record to 8-1 on the season to tie him for the conference lead in victories. His ERA also ballooned to 1.32 which sits as the seventh-lowest in the nation. He put up his second straight nine-strikeout performance pushing him over 100 strikeouts on the season, the 14th time in Anteater history. He remains three up on in the strikeout race in the Big West.

The only thing better than Pallante was the Anteater bullpen which tossed 9.1 scoreless innings over the weekend. Jordan Bocko led the charge with six of those innings. He allowed two hits and struck out four claiming Sunday's win, his fourth, and Friday's save, his seventh. He, Sean Sparling, Dylan Riddle, and Nick Anderson were the extent of the bullpen arms used allowing five hits total in 33 batters faced and did not issue a walk.

Sean Sparling appeared twice over the weekend for the second straight weekend. He earned a hold on Friday, his third of the year to lead the squad, and picked up Sunday's save, his second. He's moved into sixth in the conference with his 23 outings on the year, and overall has now appeared in 74 games as an Anteater pitcher moving him into a tie for 11th with Christian Bergman. He will move into the top 10 with two more appearances which is currently held by Evan Brock with 76 appearances.
Among the Big West ranks, UC Irvine's offense is tops in sacrifice flies with 31. It's also top three in batting (2nd - .283), slugging (3rd - .392), on-base (2nd - .365), hits (3rd - 473), RBI (3rd - 243), and hit by pitch (3rd - 57)

UC Irvine's pitching staff is on top of the Big West in least home runs allowed with 20 alongside Hawai'i. UCI is also among the leaders in ERA (2nd - 3.68), opponent's batting average (3rd - .262), innings (3rd - 442.2), strikeouts (3rd - 372), strikeouts looking (2nd - 109), and saves (T3rd - 13)

The 'Eaters remain third in fielding percentage at .973. UCI's catchers have caught 20 basestealers, third in the conference, with 11 from Matt Reitano, fourth in the conference, and the team has caught its last four attempted basestealers
Anteater individuals among the Big West leaders include:

Ryan Fitzpatrick who is the conference leader in slugging (.577), on-base (.465), and walks (32). He's among the leaders in hitting (4th - .327), runs (T2nd - 37), RBI (2nd - 42), doubles (T4th - 14), home runs (T3rd - 8), and hit by pitch (T2nd - 14)
Cole Kreuter has climbed into the Big West ranks with 34 RBIs(T5th), seven home runs (5th), 12 doubles (T8th), and four sac flies (T6th)

Kreuter continues to climb the Anteater records with 13 HR (T12th), 35 doubles (20th), and 110 RBI (17th). He's reached 700 career at-bats, just the 10th Anteater to reach that mark now tied for eight alongside Chris Gallego, and should he continue to crack the lineup, will become the 10th 'Eater to play 200 games alongside his teammate Parker Coss

Jake Palmer remains a Big West leader scoring 33 runs (T7th) and hit by 12 pitches (T4th) while sporting a .424 on-base percentage (3rd)

Nick Anderson hit his eighth sacrifice fly of the season, tying a UCI record, which tops the Big West and is sixth in the nation

Parker Coss and Ryan Johnston each have seven sacrifice bunts tied for sixth in the conference

Andre Pallante has the conference's best ERA (1.31) which also ranks sixth nationally in addition to his Big West leading 94 strikeouts. He's second in wins with seven, batting average allowed at .197, strikeouts looking at 24, and in innings with 82.1, 2.1 off the conference leader

Taylor Rashi's 3.02 ERA and .244 batting average against rank seventh and eighth in the Big West, respectively. He's allowed just five doubles, lowest among qualified Big West pitchers

Jordan Bocko has four Big West saves. His seven on the season is fourth in the conference. He's one behind Sean Sparling who has appeared in 23 games, tied for sixth-most in the Big West, and has two saves himself.

Trenton Denholm allowed his first career HR over the weekend He does lead with 17 hit batters (8th in NCAA), but over a third of his strikeouts have been looking (16), seventh in the Big West

The Anteaters have won six Big West weekly awards this season, three times taking home Pitcher of the Week honors from Trenton Denholm (April 16) and twice by Andre Pallante (February 26, March 12). Ryan Fitzpatrick (April 16) and Cole Kreuter (April 23) now have Mikey Filia (May 14) as the three Field Player of the Week awards.

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 13-8 in Anteater Ballpark against non-conference ranked opponents winning two of three against No. 1 TCU last 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 108 games against ranked opponents, 86 coming during the regular season, and the 'Eaters have won 49 of those games. Since 2002, UC Irvine is 32-41 overall against ranked Big West programs

UC Irvine took the series at Long Beach State giving UCI five points toward the Black and Blue Rivalry Series this season. The season series finished at a 23-23 tie.
 
USC TROJANS
The Anteaters wrap up their midweek ledger with a meeting of coach Gillespie's two programs. Skip is 14-6 all-time against his former school after the 'Eaters took the first meeting, 8-7, at home with help from four-run first inning which helped even the all-time series between the Trojans and Anteaters, 33-33.

The Trojans have evened out at 23-23 with an 11-16 record in the Pac-12. They won the first meeting against Big West rivals CSF, UCSB, and LBSU before losing the return matchup to the Gauchos and Dirtbags with a grudge match against CSF next week.

The USC offense still ranked fairly low, among the bottom third in the nation in hitting (.253), runs per game (4.7), and even on-base percentage (.335). Two Trojans are hitting above .300 while power hitters Dillon Paulson (7 HR) and Lars Nootbaar (5 HR) looking to go yard much like the last meeting.

The defense remains solid at 17th in the nation despite two errors in the meeting with UCI. They're behind a staff with a 5.27 ERA which has allowed the most walks in the conference. Lefty Brian Gursky gets the call Tuesday as the freshman, who leads the team with 21 appearances, gets his first start. He's thrown more than an inning just six times and twice since mid-March which includes a scoreless inning with 2 Ks against UCI.
 
UC RIVERSIDE HIGHLANDERS
UC Riverside manned by former Angel Troy Percival is mirroring its 2017 campaign where it went 22-32 with an 18-28 record thus far. UCR is coming off a trip to Cal State Fullerton where it took a win Sunday to avoid a sweep, but is looking for another Big West series win after winning its conference opening weekend against UC Davis.

The Highlanders have just one non-conference series win as well with a home series win against Utah. It also has single wins at Nevada, Hawai'I, USD, UCSB, and on neutral sites against Nebraska and Washington State. They also won a game on Washington, but that followed the Huskies throwing a perfect game against them.

The Highlanders did win the 2017 series against the Anteaters two games to one after losing the opener out at Riverside. UCI still holds a 49-26 edge in the series including 29 wins in 37 games at Anteater Ballpark.

UC Riverside prides itself on the long ball with 33 home runs which ranks second in the conference. It's also put up 84 doubles which is fourth in the Big West, but in every other category offensively and defensively, it ranks in the lower half. The squad is batting .261 headed up by Colby Schultz hitting .322 (seventh in Big West) with a team-high 31 runs scored. Connor Cannon has nine home runs and 32 RBI, both team highs, while ranked eighth in slugging.

Nathan Webb has been big lately helping get the win vs. the Titans, and his 16 doubles ranks secondi n the Big West in addition to his team-high 19 walks, a stat where UCR is well in the basement along with its 17 sac bunts. In Big West games, the Highlanders have made a dent leading all programs in slugging and third in runs scored.

The pitching side pits UCR dead last with a 5.28 ERA allowing hitters to bat .297 with the second-lowest total of strikeouts. Behind Percival, the pitchers do hit the zone with just over three walks per game, 37th in the nation, behind starters Cole Percival (5-4, 3.46) and Trenton Toplikar (5-3, 4.62) and reliever Hazahel Quijada leading the team with a 3.35 ERA in the second-most appearances (25).