DAVIS, Calif. --- UC Irvine's final series of the regular season began with a victory at Dobbins Stadium Thursday afternoon dropping the Aggies, 5-3.
Anteater starter
Andre Pallante was going for the 'Eaters, and was greeted rudely in the first allowing three of the first four Aggies to reach allowing two to score to put UC Davis (16-35, 7-15) up 2-0 after one.
The Anteaters (32-22, 13-9) fought back slowly chipping away at UC Davis starter Matt Blais scoring a pair in the fourth as
Konnor Zickefoose doubled home
Brendan Brooks, and
Ryan Fitzpatrick's sac fly tied things up at 2-2.
The Aggies answered right back in the bottom of the inning taking advantage of a walk and a wild pitch plating the third run on a two-out single by Brad Pluschkell to go up, 3-2.
The sixth inning is when the 'Eaters mounted its comeback started once again by Brooks and Zickefoose. A second sacrifice from
Cole Kreuter put runners in position for consecutive RBI singles by
Ryan Fitzpatrick and
Parker Coss vaulting the Anteaters into the 4-3 lead through six.
Kreuter got his a couple innings later singling home pinch-runner
Devin Pettengill to up the Anteater advantage to 5-3 before
Jordan Bocko locked in his eighth save of the season shutting down UC Davis for the final two innings to complete the 5-3 lead.
Pallante earned the win despite not his greatest outing of the year going seven innings allowing three hits, three runs, and issuing five walks while striking out five. He finishes the season with a 1.60 ERA, seven points off the program's lowest single season ERA, but finishes with 115 strikeouts, fifth-most in a season for an Anteater pitcher. Pallante runs his record to 10-1, the first 'Eater to post 10 wins since Andrew Morales back in 2014. He's just the 17th Anteater to win at least 10 in a season, and the fifth with at least 10 wins and one or fewer losses in a season.
Brooks and Zickefoose each scored twice while Fitzpatrick finished with a two-RBI game to up his season total to 44. The Aggies managed just three hits on the day with two bringing home runs on singles from Brad Pluschkell and Joseph Myers while the third from Tanner Murray came around to score.
UCI goes 10 games over .500 to 32-22 on the season and remains in a tie for second place in the conference. The Anteaters are also 16-9 on the road this season. It goes for another road win on Friday starting 2:30 p.m. continuing the series against UC Davis
