Broadcast Information
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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
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Game Updates -Â All UC Irvine baseball games can be followed via live stats with links found on ucirvinesports.com and the UCI Athletics app. Each game is also live tweeted at @UCIbsb
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Around The Horn
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9th -
Ben Orloff begins his head coaching career in 2019 as the
9th head coach in program history taking over for Mike Gillespie who led the program to 393 of his 1,156 career wins. For the program, it's the 41st season of Anteater baseball, 33rd in Division I, and 18th since the program returned in 2002.
49 - The Anteater offense awoke scoring
49 runs in the series at Utah Valley, surpassing the previous records for runs in a weekend series (44) and in any three-game stretch in program history (47) both set in 1974. After not getting 10 hits in a game all season, UCI averaged 15 hits a game over the weekend. The 'Eaters also set a program record with 13 runs in an inning in the 10th on Saturday
2 - The Anteaters have now been saddled with
2 cancellations due to weather after dropping a contest at Missouri State and now a midweek meeting with Michigan.
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Another duo that impressed were
Mike Peabody and
Andre Pallante helping UCI win
2 Big West Player of the Week awards thanks to their performances at Utah Valley
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UC Irvine won its weekend series at Utah Valley making the 'Eaters 5-0 in weekend series in 2019 matching the 2009 squad that did the same.
UC Irvine bats were white-hot hitting .366 (45-for-123) and an on-base percentage of .521 to raise the team's average 37 points in three games. Prior to the weekend, the 'Eaters had not registered 10 hits in any game. At UVU, they had at least 14 in every contest.
The 'Eaters scored 49 runs in three games against the Wolverines, a program record for both a weekend series and for any three-game stretch of baseball. The team scored in 19 of 28 innings played with multiple runs in 11 innings and five or more runs in eight.
UC Irvine scored a program record 13 runs in the 10th inning of Saturday's 17-4 victory. It's the 13th such inning with 10 or more runs scored with the previous high for an inning being 11 runs achieved four times. UCI sent 18 hitters to the plate hitting two home runs, walking six times, and collected six hits.
Mike Peabody was an unstoppable force helping secure his first Big West Field Player of the Week award. He reached 12 times in 16 times to the plate with nine hits in 13 official at-bats. On Sunday, he recorded his first career triple and HR on his way to four extra-base hits while scoring four times. He had multiple hits and RBIs in each contest ultimately raising his season average 155 points to the highest in the conference and the 10th-highest in the nation. His career batting average rose 106 points, and his season on-base percentage is 21st nationally. His 11 total bases on Sunday was the third-highest total in the history of the program
The rest of the batting order raised their games starting with
Mikey Filia who charged his first career home run Friday night. He added pivotal triple Saturday before launching his second career HR, a grand slam, in extra innings en route to a six-RBI day, the program's 15th, as he now has an RBI in six straight contests. He finished with the same amount of HRs and RBIs as
Brandon Lewis and
Christian Koss who each had 2 HR and 9 RBIs. Lewis tied a program record with eight at-bats on Saturday and came back hungry Sunday with his first two-HR game. Koss had multiple runs and RBIs in each game taking over the team lead in triples on Sunday.
Adrian Damla kept up reaching base 11 times in 15 plate appearances including six times on Saturday to raise his average to .394.
Jake Palmer scored eight runs along with Peabody and Koss reaching base 13 times. Palmer now has a 16-game on-base streak and ranks 12th nationally with 21 walks and fourth averaging 1.31 per game. He recorded the 14th 4-BB game on Saturday and also leads the conference scoring 1.19 runs per game.
Among the other notable performances were
Brendan Brooks adding a fourth HR and six RBIs.
Griffin Mazur played in all three games reaching base four times and driving in two.
Sam Ireland was hit by a pitch in three consecutive plate appearance scoring all three times. The Anteaters as a team walked 15 times on Saturday, the second-most in the program's history, and also left 19 runners on base, the third-most behind 21-LOB games that UCI also won.
The Anteater pitching continued to cruise posting an ERA of 2.57 over the weekend. On Friday,
Andre Pallante,
John Vergara, and
Kaz Akamatsu came together for the team's second consecutive one-hitter. Pallante earned Big West Pitcher of the Week accolades, the third of his career, while picking up his 19th career win. He can become the program's 14th player with 20 career wins in his next start. Vergara and Akamatsu each tossed a pair of scoreless innings on the weekend with Akamatsu adding three strikeouts.
Taylor Rashi,
Ryan Johnston, and
Darius Garcia each threw scoreless relief while
Jordan Bocko allowed his first runs of the season halting his scoreless inning streak at 14.2 IP
Other scoreless streaks stayed intact including Pallante now up to 18.2 IP and Rashi up to 14.2.
Trenton Denholm was shaky to get his third win of the season, but raised his scoreless inning streak to 20.2 IP before allowing a run joining Andrew Morales and Scott Gorgen as the only Anteaters with shutout streaks of 20 innings or more.
As a staff, UCI has a 2.36 ERA from its weekend starters while the bullpen has a season ERA of 2.88. UCI leads the conference in shutouts, WHIP, ERA, and least hits and walks allowed in nine innings. Nationally, the 'Eaters are top 20 in shutouts (5th), hits allowed (7th), WHIP (8th), K-to-BB ratio (13th), walks allowed (15th), and ERA (18th)
The Anteaters remain ranked staying at 22nd in Baseball America's poll. Elsewhere, the 'Eaters are 23rd according to Perfect Game and also for the first time from D1Baseball.com and the NCBWA. Collegiate Baseball Newspaper added UCI at No. 24, and they continue to receive votes in the ESPN/USA Today Poll. UCI has been ranked in all polls this season after not receiving national recognition since 2015
The offense has made the most of its opportunities nearly doubling its run output over the weekend, now with 113 runs (7.1 per game) on 130 hits. The team is among the Big West leaders in runs per game, sacrifice flies and bunts, triples, on-base, and slugging. They are also averaging over one HR per game, 30th in the country
The Anteater fielding has improved now third in the conference committing just three errors in the eight games thus far in March. Anteater pitchers added a pair of pickoffs to their resumes with
Jordan Bocko catching Missouri State off second and Pallante picking the Red Storm off first.
UCI welcomes its second of four Pac-12 opponents to Anteater Ballpark, the seventh visit for Washington State and first since 2013. UCI is 4-2 in matchups with the Cougars, and 83-70 since 2002 against the conference as a while.
The Anteaters will be featured on ESPN3 this season four times confirmed with four more Wild Card options a possibility. UCI's Friday and Saturday home matchups with Long Beach State in April and UC Davis in May are set for ESPN3 treatment. Additional Friday and Saturday night games could be added to the road series at CSF and the home series against Cal Poly.
The ninth head coach in program history,
Ben Orloff returns to the Anteater dugout for a sixth year, but first at the helm. Even though he is the NCAA career and single-season record holder in sacrifice bunts, don't expect to see his the Anteaters bunting their way around the bases.
"You don't have a style, you adjust to your players," the head coach stated recognizing the talent and pop his lineup brings. "Offensively, we have some power bats that are looking to hit in the middle of the lineup withÂ
Konnor Zickefoose,Â
Brandon Lewis, andÂ
John Jensen. Any of those guys can lift a double or leave the yard so there's potential for the big inning and we look to capitalize on that. A big part of the offense will be an emphasis on walking more, strike zone management, raising that slugging percentage. We'll walk more this year than we ever have in the last five years."
"
Alonzo Garcia could be a big bounce back guy that's had a good career as an Anteater, but has been hurt in recent years. He could step into a big role and will be very valuable with the way he pitched over the fall and winter"
"Vergara has interesting potential, but he's been out the whole fall. He only threw three innings in the fall, didn't really get to see him, redshirted last year at Glendale CC, and had a decent summer with the Conejo Oaks. He's kind of a wild card and an intriguing arm, looking forward to seeing what he brings to the fold."
"
Mikey Filia is a guy that will step into a much bigger role. He's bided his time over the last three years and now he should be an integral part of the team's success."
The 2019 Anteaters are a squad comprised of players that have a lot of college baseball experience and have put in a lot of time with the Anteater program. Twenty of the 2019 Anteaters are upperclassmen with 14 as juniors and six seniors including graduate student and starterÂ
Louis Raymond. Overall, 14 Anteaters have put in at least three years with the program including seven into now their fourth year.
The Anteaters will play 10 games against the Pac-12 in 2019, eight of which will be in Anteater Ballpark starting with the opening series against Washington fresh its first College World Series and returning their top four hitters. The 'Eaters end non-conference play with the other Pacific Northwest foe as Washington State plays a weekend series at Cicerone Field. UCLA and USC are usual midweek matchups
Other historically prominent baseball programs dot the Anteater schedule starting with trips to Rice and Missouri State. Missouri State is coming off its third straight regionals appearance, second 40-win season in those years, 36 conference wins in the last two years, and are looking for its sixth trip to the College World Series. Topping the tough road slate is a return trip to Utah Valley who stole the series at Anteater Ballpark in 2018. A new face in the midweeks is projected Big Ten champ Michigan. The Wolverines start the 2019 ranked as high as No. 17 and have finished in the conference's top two in each of the last two years including a 40-win season. UCI ventures to the Big Ten near in May during the midst of Big West play traveling to Iowa. The premier series in Cicerone Field features the class of the Big West in St. John's. A program that consistently puts up 40 wins every season and is coming off back-to-back regional appearances is stacked on the mound led by one of the premier Friday night matchups in the nation this season when 2018 National Pitcher of the Year finalists square off inÂ
Andre Pallante and SJU's Sean Mooney.
WASHINGTON STATE COUGARSÂ
Washington State baseball has been around since the 1800s picking up 16 trips to the NCAA Tournament, four appearances in the College World Series, and were runners-up in back in 1950. WSU last made the CWS in 1976 and was last in the postseason in 2010. Since it became the Pac-12, WSU has not finished higher than seventh with the program's last conference title back in 1995.
The 2018 Cougars finished 10th in the 11-team conference with a 16-33-1 record overall which included single wins against Oregon and Washington and a tie with Oregon State. The Cougar pitching staff surprised with a pair of no-hitters to add to their 26 total as a program
Things have started slowly in 2019 for Washington State riding a five-game losing streak into the weekend to put them at 6-13 overall. They took two wins from Santa Clara, Nevada, and CSUN, but fell to UNLV and Arizona State over the last week.
Washington State's strength is their defense ranking as the 18th-best in the country committing just 14 errors. The pitching has a 6.36 ERA with innings from 15 different Cougars to this point. The starting rotation of Brandon White (2-1, 5.06), A.J. Block (0-2, 5.21), and Hayden Rosenkrantz (2-1, 3.24) have a formidable K-to-BB ratio of 54-to-15, but hitters are averaging around .280. Davis Baillie is the first line of defense out of the pen ranks near the top of the nation with 11 appearances with two saves, a 3.00 ERA, and two walks to 19 strikeouts. The staff nearly had another no-hitter this season allowing a single hit to Santa Clara in a 10-0 victory allowing the game's only hit with one out in the ninth between White and Owen Leonard
The offense is hitting .261 to this point with Collin Montez (.343, 8 doubles) and Danny Sinatro (.311, 4 triples) reaching most often. Kyle Manzardo (2 HR, 16 RBI) and Dillon Plew (2 HR, 13 RBI) provide the production as seven Cougars have started all 19 games to this point in the year
The Anteaters and Cougars have met six times, all in Irvine, with UCI up all-time, 4-2. Washington State did take two of three in the only series the two had in 2003. UCI won the last meeting, 6-0, in 2013 in Irvine.
