IRVINE, Calif. --- Anteater pitching dealt a shutout Friday night in Anteater Ballpark taking the series opener, 3-0, against St. John's.

Averting Danger
The 'Eaters (8-3) got in a little bit of trouble early with St. John's (2-8) putting the first two runners on base against Andre Pallante. The first out came from Matt Reitano on a caught stealing, and Pallante rode the wave to strikeout the next two hitters and get out of the first inning jam without a run coming across

Pivotal Errors
The Anteaters got things started in the second with Brendan Brooks reaching after third baseman Carson Bartels dropping a grounder and throwing it away. Later in the inning, with runners on second and third, Mikey Filia shot the gap with a two-out double to score Brooks and give UCI a 1-0 lead on an unearned run.

Pallante Performs
The junior settled in getting 1-2-3 innings in the third, fifth, sixth, and seventh shutting the Red Storm down along the way. He got his eighth and ninth strikeouts of the game in his final inning to get him over the 200-mark for his career making him the 13th Anteater in program history with 200 for a career.

Insurance
UCI loaded the bases against reliever Ben Greenberg forcing him out with one out in the ninth. Turner French entered and allowing an RBI single to Konnor Zickefoose and a Filia sac fly to build UCI's lead to 3-0.

Final Score: No. 24 UC Irvine 3, St. John's 0
Filia finished with two RBIs as UCI managed just five hits and no players with multiple hits. Taylor Rashi came in to close out the ninth, and despite allowing a leadoff triple, would strike out the next three hitters to collect his fourth save and keep opponents scoreless against him on the season.

Pitchers of Record
Pallante picked up the staff's second quality start of the season now at 2-1 on the year. Jordan Bocko put up a perfect eighth inning helping the 'Eaters continued their shutout streak now at 18.1 consecutive innings. The three pitchers have shutout streaks of 13.2 (Rashi), 12.0 (Bocko), and 11.2 (Pallante). SJU's Joe LaSorsa was the hard-luck loser now at 0-2 despite 5.2 innings of three-hit ball and one unearned run allowed.

Thoughts from starter Andre Pallante
On tonight's performance looking more like the Pallante of last season - "Just small adjustments, I don't think my stuff has changed at all, just making better pitches in better counts. Having a team behind me that's put up a lot of runs in games I've pitched in and kept me in my spot, it helps out a ton."

On his 200th strikeout - "Every strikeout is the same, just getting us that much closer to winning the ballgame."

Next Up
The Anteaters and Red Storm get it going again on Saturday, March 9, at 6:00 p.m. with a heavyweight bout between juniors Tanner Brubaker and Sean Mooney in Anteater Ballpark

First Pitch
Prior to Friday night's game, the Anteater baseball program honored one of its own, Paul Hammond. The outfielder from 1982-85 threw out the first pitch following his contributions to the program during his playing days and since. He hit .336 over his career ranking in the top 20 in nearly all offensive categories all-time.