No. 24 UCI at Home for No. 16 Michigan, St. John's

Friday, March 8

Irvine, CA

6:00 pm

UC Irvine

St. John's

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No. 24 UCI at Home for No. 16 Michigan, St. John's

March 04, 2019 | Baseball

By: Alex Croteau

THIS WEEK IN ANTEATER BASEBALL

Game Notes | Season Preview with Head Coach Ben Orloff

Midweek Matchup

No. 24 UC Irvine Anteaters (7-3, 0-0 Big West)
vs. No. 16 Michigan Wolverines (8-1, 0-0 Big Ten)
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3,408) - Irvine, Calif.

Wednesday, March 6 - Cancelled

Weekend Series
Game Program

No. 24 UC Irvine Anteaters (7-3, 0-0 Big West)
vs. St. John's Red Storm (1-6, 0-0 Big East)
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3,408) - Irvine, Calif.

Friday, March 8 - 6:00 PM
RHP Andre Pallante (1-1, 4.91) vs. LHP Joe LaSorsa (0-1, 4.35)
Live Stats | KUCI 88.9 FM

Saturday, March 9 - 6:00 PM
RHP Tanner Brubaker (1-0, 0.98) vs. RHP Sean Mooney (1-0, 2.04)
Live Stats | Listen online at kuci.org

Sunday, March 10 - 1:00 PM
RHP Trenton Denholm (1-0, 1.59) vs. LHP Jeff Belge (0-2, 11.17)
Live Stats | KUCI 88.9 FM

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 and the UCI Athletics app. Each game is also live tweeted at @UCIbsb

Around The Horn

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.

10 - The Anteaters have yet to collect 10 hits in a game this season. The team is hitting .213 on the season, but is averaging 5.5 runs a contest. Despite two 11-run performances at Rice, the 'Eaters managed eight hits in either game. The high-hit output on the season came in UCI's 7-0 Saturday win at Rice with nine hits

14 - UC Irvine plays host to the Big Ten Conference and Michigan this week for a midweek clash. UCI is 14-8 all-time against the Big Ten including 9-5 against them in Anteater Ballpark. Michigan took the only matchup against UCI back in 2002, and the 'Eaters look for their first win against the State of Michigan (0-4)

UC Irvine won its weekend series at Missouri State playing only two games, both schedule for seven innings. The 'Eaters have won their first two road series to start the season.

The 'Eaters did lose in the midweek matchup earlier in the week to LMU. After winning the first eight midweek games in 2018, UCI has now dropped four straight in the midweek

The UC Irvine offense battled through the elements and superb Bears pitching scoring seven runs and hitting .203. It's now hitting .213 on the season.

Brandon Lewis continues his offensive onslaught mashing his fifth HR of the season in dramatic fashion by launching a three-run HR in the 11th inning for the eventual game-winning runs. He doubled for his other two hits on the week giving him 11 extra-base hits of his 13 total hits and Big West bests in slugging (.791), doubles (6), HR (5), RBIs (15), and total bases (34). He scored the winning run in Game 1 Friday too thanks to an Andre Antone double

UC Irvine used squeeze plays to bring home two of their seven runs against Missouri State, one in each contest thanks to Ryan Johnston and Christian Koss. Koss is 8-for-18 since shaving his head following the game Friday at Rice including a pair of RBIs and a triple this week. Koss also leads the team with six stolen bases in addition to tying for the lead in the Big West

Jake Palmer has reached in all 10 games to start the season as he tops the team in runs (10) and walks (9). Lewis leads the team with a seven-game hitting streak while Mikey Filia hit in all three games and has reached base in four straight.

The pitching staff was lights out allowing nine baserunners in 18 innings of play. Missouri State hit .103 as a team and got two baserunners (BB, error) against the Anteater bullpen of Jordan Bocko, Taylor Rashi, and Trenton Denholm. Bocko pickoff a runner at second to go with seven strikeouts on the week, Rashi picked up his third save and has retired all 17 batters he's faced, and Denholm mowed down the Bears to send the game to extras upping his streaks to 11 innings without a run and 8.2 innings without a hit

Tanner Brubaker was masterful once again allowing four hits in 5.2 innings despite not picking up a decision. He remains at a 0.98 ERA this season and is tied with Denholm each having a 0.71 WHIP

Andre Pallante returned to form to pick up his first win of the season. He along with Rashi two-hit the Bears in seven innings Friday for the program's first two-hitter since 2016 with Alonzo Garcia and Calvin Faucher did it at Long Beach State

The Anteaters return home for four games in five days starting with Michigan out of the Big Ten. The Wolverines and 'Eaters have played once before with Michigan winning, 4-2, at Anteater Ballpark back in 2002. The 'Eaters are 14-8 all-time against the conference and 9-5 in home games holding wins over six different schools

The Anteaters remain ranked jumping a spot to No. 24. UCI has been ranked in all four polls this season after not receiving national recognition since 2015

Michigan enters the week ranked 16th. UCI was 3-8 against ranked schools in 2018 including 0-4 in Anteater Ballpark. The last home win against a ranked opponent was came in 2017 when UCI took two of three over the weekend from No. 1 TCU. All-time, UCI is 35-33 in Anteater Ballpark against ranked competition and have 82 wins over ranked foes in 180 meetings. Against teams ranked No. 16, UCI is 5-3 all-time with the only No. 16 team to come to Anteater Ballpark being UCLA in 2011 when the 'Eaters won, 2-1

UCI is 0-4 all-time against schools from Michigan. In addition to the loss vs. Michigan, UCI went 0-3 against Eastern Michigan in 1970 & 1971.

The Anteaters are 3-0 all-time against New York schools. In the 1973 Division II College World Series, UCI defeated Ithaca College twice to claim the title. The other contest came in 2005 as part of UCI's co-hosted tournament where it took down Stony Brook, 3-2

The ninth head coach in program history took home his third series win as he's 7-3 through his first ten games joining Mike Gerakos (7-3) and Mike Gillespie (9-1) as UCI coaches to start with at least seven wins in their first 10 games as head coach. 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 with Konnor Zickefoose, Brandon Lewis, and 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 starter Louis Raymond. Overall, 14 Anteaters have put in at least three years with the program including seven into now their fourth year.

The 'Eaters are looking for their first postseason trip since the 2014 College World Series season, and are off to a solid start earning some recognition from the baseball coaches, writers, and experts of America earning a spot in the preseason rankings from Perfect Game (No. 23), Baseball America (No. 25), and even earning votes from ESPN/USA Today and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. UC Irvine has maintained those rankings through the first two weeks of the season

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 in Andre Pallante and SJU's Sean Mooney.

MICHIGAN WOLVERINES
No. 16 Michigan has been rolling through the season so far winning its first eight over Binghamton, The Citadel, and CSUN, before falling to the Matadors Sunday afternoon. The Wolverines make their second trip to UCI, first since 2002, sporting the nation's fourth-best ERA at 1.58. Jordan Brewer and Christian Bullock are each hitting .333 with 13 steals between them, Jimmy Kerr and Joe Donovan each have 2 HRs and 7 RBIs, and Jesse Franklin has nine runs scored to lead the team despite hitting .133

ST. JOHN'S RED STORM
The St. John's Red Storm are the class of the Big East Conference winning it four times in the last nine years and are coming off a 40-win season which included the program's 37th trip to the NCAA Tournament and 10th trip in the last 16 years. Head coach Ed Blankmeyer has a chance to snag his 800th career win this week just one shy with five games on his docket.
The 2018 Bears reached the 40-win plateau going 40-17 and winning the Big East regular season crown with a 15-3 mark and taking the tournament. The Red Storm were sent to the Clemson Regional for the second straight year winning a game before being eliminated by the hosts.
The Red Storm have started slowly in 2019 going 1-6 with games still to go this week against San Diego (Monday) and CSUN (Tuesday). SJU was swept at No. 3 UCLA and split at Western Carolina in a rain-soaked weekend, and they finish their 10-day California trip here at UCI for a first-ever matchup between the schools.
St. John's and the Big West haven't met very often, overall SJU is 5-6 against the Big West and will meet a 12th time on Tuesday with a trip to CSUN. SJU split two games at UC Davis last year, prior to that the last meeting with 2008 with four games at CSUN along with single games against UCSB in 2007 and LBSU in the 2004 Regionals. This series will be the first for the Anteaters against anyone from the Big East in their program's history
St. John's hangs their hat on pitching boasting the fifth-best ERA in 2018 at 3.08 along with a top-5 WHIP, a 2.75 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and seven shutouts. The leader was now-junior righty Sean Mooney who joined Andre Pallante as finalist for the National Pitcher of the Year award. Mooney led all returning pitchers with 11 wins in 2018 adding 104 Ks and a 2.56 ERA coming a year after a 1.71 ERA and 8-2 mark in 100 freshman innings. He's made three starts going five innings in each and now allowing more than two runs, but has only earned one win to date. He fellow starters have scuffled allowing 13 ERs over four starts, and the staff as a whole has balloon its ERA to 6.51 in the early going allowing opponents to hit .304 as a staff
The Red Storm's hitting is at just .160 to start the year adding to the struggles with just 16 runs in seven games. The 2018 Red Storm hit .297, 20th in the NCAA, with the most hits, doubles, runs, and on-base percentage in the Big East. They've struggled to fill the voids from their big hitters with just Wyatt Mascarella's .340 average, 14 doubles, and 5 HRs returning. Mitchell Henshaw (.308, HR, 6 RBI) and Sean McGeehan (.385, 3 HR, 4 RBI) have been highlights, but five other everyday starters are all hitting under .136. The offense has mustered five runs in a game just once and is averaging over 10 strikeouts a contest.
The MLB has seen its share of St. John's alums with names like John Franco and Frank Viola, more recently C.J. Nitkowski, Rich Aurilia, and Anthony Varvaro. Currently, Joe Panik is the lone representative with the San Francisco Giants who is top 10 in most career school offensive stats