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
 
Game Updates - All UC Irvine baseball games can be followed via live stats with links found on ucirvinesports.com. Each game is also live tweeted at @UCIbsb
 
Around The Horn
 
15-9 -  The 'Eaters have put up a phenomenal 15-9 record on the road this season, the team's first  winning regular season road record since 2014 (11-8), and could be the best mark since the 2010 Anteaters went 15-9 in true road games during the regular season

1,155 - Head Coach Mike Gillespie enters the regular season's final weekend with 1,155 wins all-time, 34th in Division I history, 10th among active DI coaches, in 1,875 games with 212 wins in Anteater Ballpark. Including his 16 years on the junior college level, his overall record is 1,573-883-2 in 2,458 games

10th - UC Irvine has reached the 30-win mark for the 10th time in head coach Mike Gillespie's 11 seasons with the program UC Irvine baseball secured its 27th winning season in its 40 seasons of the program. The team was picked to finish 6th in the Big West Preseason Coaches Poll
 
Head Coach Mike Gillespie has three 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 392 UCI wins, 1,155 overall

The Anteaters split on the week winning twice, both against UC Riverside. The offense hit .234 for the weekend dropping after two hits on Saturday, however it did walk 16 times and used five sac bunts in its winning efforts.
UC Irvine has officially been eliminated from the Big West title race now four games back of Cal State Fullerton with three to go. UCI currently sits at a tie for second alongside Cal Poly. The lowest the squad can finish in the Big West standings is sixth after the coaches voted UCI would finish sixth in the preseason poll

UCI's postseason chances have all by dissipated dropping its RPI to 95 overall with at-large berths awarded to programs typically within the top 50. UCI's RPI won't see much movement in the final weekend as it matches up with UC Davis with an RPI of 220

The Anteaters are 6-5 in the month of May hitting .285. 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. UC Irvine finished with an 8-2 record in midweek games

Christian Koss and Mikey Filia continue to be offensive catalysts down the final stretch of the season. Filia hit .400 again over the weekend as he now holds a .425 average in May. He completed the weekend with his first walkoff hit to win Sunday's game scoring Mike Peabody in the bottom of the ninth. Koss added a big eighth-inning triple on Sunday, his third to lead the team this season, and remains at a .408 clip in May.

Brendan Brooks officially announced his return to full strength by pounding his first career home run Friday night. He reached 50 hits over the weekend becoming the eighth Anteater freshman with a 50-hit season, and his .317 average leads the squad where he could become just the fourth Anteater freshman to lead the team in hitting joining Ronnie Shaeffer (2009), Scott Darling (1980), and Dan Hansen (1970)

Konnor Zickefoose continues his quiet dominance with a team-highs four hits and a .538 on-base. His .333 average in Big West game also leads the squad, and he's also hitting .333 in May

The Anteater starting pitching has risen to the top with two quality starts on the weekend, now 20 overall, and have put together a 3.26 ERA on the season including 1.96 in Big West starts

Andre Pallante added seven more strikeouts as he remains three strikeouts clear of LBSU's Clayton Andrews for the conference lead. His ERA swelled to its highest of the season, 1.43. He has one final start to set the Anteater single season ERA record set in 2014 when Andrew Morales posted a 1.53 ERA

Taylor Rashi had one of his best starts of the season going 7.2 innings tossing a career high 112 pitches. He held UC Riverside to a run on three hits and a walk, but struck out a career high seven hitters as he left in a 1-1 tie.

Jordan Bocko picked up his fifth win in relief after registering just one in his first two seasons. He leads the Big West in wins among players without a start, and is second behind CSUN's Tei Vanderford whose appeared in 22 games, four as a starter, with six wins.

Among the Big West ranks, UC Irvine's offense is tops in sacrifice flies with 33. It's also top three in batting (3rd - .282), slugging (3rd - .388), on-base (2nd - .365), runs (3rd - 280), hits (3rd - 506), walks (3rd - 189), hit by pitch (2nd - 70), and sac bunts (3rd - 46)

UC Irvine's pitching staff is on top of the Big West in least home runs allowed with 21 alongside Hawai'i. UCI is also among the leaders in ERA (3rd - 3.77), opponent's batting average (3rd - .263), innings (2nd - 477.2), strikeouts (3rd - 399), and Ks looking (2nd - 114)

The 'Eaters remain third in fielding percentage at .971. UCI's catchers have caught 23 basestealers, third in the conference, with 14 from Matt Reitano, also third in the conference, and the team has caught its last seven attempted basestealers

Anteater individuals among the Big West leaders include:

Ryan Fitzpatrick leads the conference in on-base (.446) and is close behind in slugging (2nd - .541), RBIs (2nd - 42), home runs (3rd - 8), walks (2nd - 33), doubles (7th - 14), and hit by pitch (2nd - 33)

Cole Kreuter has climbed into the Big West ranks with 37 RBIs (6th), seven home runs (T5th), and 15 doubles (T4th), and he continues to climb the Anteater records with 13 HR (T12th), 38 doubles (T14th), and 113 RBI (17th). He's reached 700 career at-bats, just the 10th Anteater to reach that mark now four back of seventh-most, and played his 200th game to become the 10th 'Eater to do so.

Jake Palmer remains a Big West leader scoring 36 runs (7th) and hit by 13 pitches (5th) while sporting a .424 on-base percentage (2nd)

Nick Anderson hit his ninth sacrifice fly of the season, setting a UCI record, which tops the Big West and is second in the nation

Parker Coss's eight sacrifice bunts are tied for sixth in the conference

Andre Pallante has the conference's best ERA (1.43) by nearly a full point, and it also ranks sixth nationally in addition to his Big West leading 110 strikeouts. He's tied atop the conference with nine wins, second in batting average allowed at .212 and strikeouts looking with 29, and his 94.1 innings pitched lands second, 4.1 behind the Big West leader

Taylor Rashi's 2.75 ERA ranks fourth and a .234 batting average against is fifth in the Big West. He's allowed just 51 hits and seven doubles, lowest among qualified Big West pitchers

Jordan Bocko has four Big West saves. His seven on the season is fourth in the conference.

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.
 
UC DAVIS AGGIES
UC Davis is bringing up the rear of the Big West along with last week's opponent, UC Riverside. The season started slowly dotted with single wins over St. John's, Oregon, and Saint Mary's. The Aggies dropped its first three Big West series before taking two of three from UCSB and LBSU, but the bottom really dropped out in May where UCD is 1-11 putting it at 16-34 overall and 7-14 in Big West play.

UCI and UC Davis ended the 2017 together in Anteater Ballpark with UC Irvine winning the series before the Aggies stole an offensive season finale, 11-9. All-time, the 'Eaters have the 30-9 advantage winning 15 of 21 games in Davis, and have won each of the last five series dropping three games in total in those.

The Aggies hang their hat on their offense with a .282 average, second-best in the conference. It's among the top teams in the Big West in slugging and on-base as well with nearly 500 hits and 100 doubles scoring exactly five runs a game. Ryan Anderson is the catalyst with the conference-best .354 average averaging nearly 1.5 hits a game, and is joined by Ryan Hooper with six home runs each. Hooper has also swiped 10 bases and drawn 14 HBP, and both have over 30 RBIs to go with the 5 HR and 32 RBI of Caleb Van Blake

The pitching, behind head coach Matt Vaughn, has struggled with a Big West-worst 5.32 ERA allowing the most hits in the conference, 11.42 per game, and lows in strikeout-to-walk ratio (1.78) and strikeouts per game (5.6). It has gotten some help from the defense which leads the Big West turning 49 double plays. The starting depth has featured just four pitchers with Matt Blais, Jared Sasaki, and Chris Brown handling the weekend roles. The trio has combined for a 10-18 record with opposing hitters hitting over .325 against each. In 216 innings, they struck out a grand total of 110 hitters with Blais' 48 topping the bunch. The walks are low with just 56 between the three. The bullpen features seven hurlers with 10 or more outings this year topped by Connor Loar's 1.93 ERA and 3-3 record over 17 appearances. Brett Erwin is also sporting a 3.38 ERA in 19 outings with the team's high of three saves.

Lastly, Aggie Logan Denholm returns after a redshirt season for his second year. He is the brother of Anteater freshman Trenton Denholm. The two are likely to face off with one another in Friday's game