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
 
Video - All three games at Cal Poly this weekend will be streamed live online. Check ucirvinesports.com for the links and all updates pertaining to UC Irvine Baseball
 
Around The Horn
 
79 - UC Irvine's walkoff win Saturday was its first since April 1, 2017, a span of 79 games which ended the longest drought in program history previously standing at 64 games. Christian Koss now has UCI's last two walkoffs, and is the 12th Anteater all-time with multiple walkoffs. UCI now has 80 all-time as a program and 28 under coach Gillespie

66 - The Anteaters have accumulated 66 sacrifices with 37 sac bunts and 29 sac hits on the year. The Anteaters are 1 of 3 schools (Nicholls State, Incarnate Word) who rank within the top 30 in each category nationally (28th in SH, 8th in SH)

14th - Andre Pallante's 9-strikeout performance vs. Oregon put him within striking distance of 100 strikeouts on the season, just six away from becoming the 14th Anteater to reach the mark. Meanwhile, Trenton Denholm is 9 away from reaching 50 strikeouts, a mark only 10 freshmen have attained
 
In UC Irvine's Big West bye week, it continued to tread water staying in a tie for second place, now with Cal Poly, at 8-7. The conference leader Cal State Fullerton maintain a four-game lead on the 'Eaters with a sweep of UC Davis. The rest of the conference is packed pretty tightly with last place UC Riverside just three games behind the 'Eaters at 5-10. Hawai'i and CSUN sit at 9-9, and Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara are each 7-8

The Anteaters still have a lot of ground to make up to catch CSF and make the postseason. UC Irvine's at-large chances are slim with the team sitting with an RPI of 87. At-large selections historically have fallen within the top 50. UC Irvine has gone 10-9 against the nation's top 100 in RPI including 3-4 against the top 50. The Anteaters have an uphill climb even if they continue to win with four opponents left on the ledger - 2 with RPIs higher than 200, and the lowest remaining RPI game a midweek matchup with No. 117 USC

UC Irvine finished the week with a 2-2 mark which saw it snap a season-long four game losing streak made from a 12-0 pounding at home at the hands of No. 7 UCLA. It was the squad's first midweek loss of the season, now sitting at 8-1 with one midweek contest remaining. A win at USC will give UCI its sixth season with as many as nine midweek wins. The 'Eaters will finish the regular season going 2-3 against ranked opponents

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.

The Anteaters won Saturday's contest on a walkoff, its first since April 1, 2017 when it took down this week's opponent, Cal Poly. Christian Koss was responsible for that win with a bases loaded single, and he did it again on Saturday with an 11th-inning sac fly. Koss becomes the 12th Anteater all-time with multiple walkoffs. It's the 28th walkoff under coach Gillespie, 80th in the history of the program, and fifth different Pac-12 school UCI has walked off against. The walkoff was the first in 79 games for the 'Eaters shattering the program's longest drought which stood at 64 games between the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

Saturday's game also featured seven Anteaters hit by a pitch tying the program record set in 2008 vs. USC. Jake Palmer was hit for the 12th time, the new freshman recordholder in that category

Koss was the standard offensively hitting .500 including four of the team's nine hits against UCLA, and finished with three more in Sunday's loss. He's raised his average to .297 on the year behind a .343 mark at home

Mikey Filia had a breakout week at the plate centered around his Saturday performance where he went 2-for-3 scoring twice, reaching five times in all, and scoring the winning run in the 11th after stealing third base

Andre Pallante returned to form on the mound outdueling Oregon's Kenyon Yovan to improve to 7-1 on the year. He allowed three hits over seven innings to lower his batting average allowed to .198. He worked his 11th quality start in 12 tries this year preserving his ERA perfectly at 1.31, sixth-lowest in the country. He also jumped back up with a nine-strikeout performance giving him 150 in his career and six shy of reaching 100 for the season

Sean Sparling appeared twice over the weekend each time as a closer. He was successful his first time earning his third career save on Friday and first since his sophomore year in 2015. He was unsuccessful in Saturday's try, but appeared in his 72nd career game, tying him for 12th in program history alongside Sam Moore

Among the Big West ranks, UC Irvine's offense is tops in sacrifice flies with 29. It's also top three in on-base (2nd - .366), batting (2nd - .281), slugging (3rd - .396), hits (3rd - 441), runs (3rd - 251), walks (3rd - 163), and hit by pitch (2nd - 64)

UC Irvine's pitching staff is on top of the Big West in innings (416.2). It's also near the top in ERA (2nd - 3.80), opponent's batting average (3rd - .261), strikeouts (2nd - 353), and least home runs allowed (2nd - 19)

The 'Eaters dropped to third in fielding percentage at .973. UCI has matched its total from last year of 48 errors. UCI's catchers have caught 19 basestealers, third in the conference, with 10 from Matt Reitano, fourth in the conference.

Anteater individuals among the Big West leaders include:
Ryan Fitzpatrick who is the conference leader in slugging (.600), on-base (.478), and walks (31). He's among the leaders in hitting (4th - .335), runs (T2nd - 36), RBI (2nd - 41), doubles (T4th - 13), home runs (T2nd - 8), and hit by pitch (T2nd - 14)

Cole Kreuter burst into the Big West ranks now slugging .491 (10th), driving in 32 (T5th), adding seven home runs (T4th), 12 doubles (T7th), and 82 total bases (8th)

Kreuter continues to climb the Anteater records with 13 HR (T12th), 35 doubles (20th), and 108 RBI (18th). His next at-bat will be his 700th making him just the 10th Anteater to reach that plateau, and should he continue to crack the lineup, will become the 10th 'Eater to play 200 career games alongside his teammate Parker Coss

Jake Palmer remains a Big West leader scoring 33 runs (T5th), posting a .435 on-base (4th), and being hit by 12 pitches (4th)

Nick Anderson hit his seventh sacrifice fly of the season which tops the Big West and is 12th in the nation

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 three Big West saves. His six on the season is fourth in the conference. He and Sean Sparling have appeared in 20 games each, both tied for eighth in the Big West

Trenton Denholm is the only qualified Big West pitcher remaining to not allow a HR. He does lead with 17 hit batters (7th in NCAA), but over a third of his strikeouts have been looking (15), seventh in the Big West

The Anteaters have won five 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) won the 'Eaters' two Field Player of the Week awards in consecutive weeks.

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 388 UCI wins, 1,151 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 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 four points toward the Black and Blue Rivalry Series this season now up 22-19 on the season series. Remaining sports left to tangle in the series include Big West Championship matchups for men's and women's track and field (May 11-12) with the 'Eaters needing to finish ahead of LBSU in one of the two events to take the season title
 
CAL POLY MUSTANGS
Cal Poly has danced around a tough schedule to get to 21-25 on the season to this point and tied for second in the Big West alongside the Anteaters. Expectations were high entering the season with the Mustangs picked to finish in third behind Fullerton and Long Beach. Cal Poly took the 2017 series 2-1 in three games that were decided by a single run each.

Cal Poly went 1-3 early at the Surprise Tournament in Arizona, bounced back winning two of three at the Tony Gwynn Legacy including an upset of No. 4 Arkansas, and then split with Pacific before losing at Nebraska and vs. San Diego State. The Mustangs dropped five to start Big West play at CSUN and Fullerton before winning five of six at home over UC Davis and LBSU. Cal Poly was swept at home by No. 9 UCLA, but grabbed two wins at Hawai'i.

All-in-all, an up-and-down campaign, but they remain one of the two semi-realistic options, along with UCI, to catch Cal State Fullerton at the top. CP has ridden its offense and junior Alex McKenna batting .325 leading the team with 40 runs, 12 doubles, four triples, and five home runs throwing in 26 RBIs. The .287 average as a team leads the Big West ahead of UCI by six points, and it paces the conference in on-base percentage, walks, and triples. Colby Barrick has been a good compliment hitting .330 with the conference's second-best on-base.

Pitching has been subpar with a 5.10 ERA and a poor strikeout-to-walk ratio. CP walks nearly four hitters a game, most in the conference, but senior Trent Shelton has been big with 58 Ks and a 3.36 ERA. Five different relievers have also picked up a save behind him with freshmen Andrew Alvarez and Matt Arens each posting 22 outings. The defense does lead the Big West in turning double plays despite sitting dead last in fielding percentage.