Five Days, Four Games in Anteater Ballpark vs. SDSU, CSUN

Tuesday, April 16

Irvine, CA

6:00 pm

UC Irvine

San Diego State

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Photo by: Steve Coburn

Five Days, Four Games in Anteater Ballpark vs. SDSU, CSUN

April 15, 2019 | Baseball

By: Alex Croteau

THIS WEEK IN ANTEATER BASEBALL

Game Notes | Season Preview with Head Coach Ben Orloff

No. 21 UC Irvine Anteaters (21-9, 5-4 Big West)
vs. San Diego State Aztecs (21-15, 7-6 Mountain West)
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3,408) - Irvine, Calif.

Tuesday, April 16 - 6:00 PM
LHP John Vergara (0-0, 2.31) vs. RHP Harrison Pyatt (0-1, 3.00)
Live Stats | kuci.org | Game Program

No. 21 UC Irvine Anteaters (21-9, 5-4 Big West)
vs. CSUN Matadors (16-19, 4-5 Big West)
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3,408) - Irvine, Calif.

Thursday, April 18 - 6:00 PM
RHP Andre Pallante (5-3, 2.80) vs. LHP Wesley Moore (4-2, 2.85)
Live Stats | KUCI 88.9 FM | Game Program

Friday, April 19 - 6:00 PM
RHP Tanner Brubaker (4-2, 2.47) vs. LHP Isaiah Nunez (6-3, 3.17)
Live Stats | KUCI 88.9 FM | Game Program

Saturday, April 20 - 1:00 PM
RHP Trenton Denholm (6-1, 1.87) vs. RHP Blake Sodersten (1-2, 4.84)
Live Stats | kuci.org | Game Program

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.

20 IP - Anteater pitchers have registered four different streaks of 20 IP of scoreless baseball this season. Andre Pallante set a new program record with 27 shutout innings, Trenton Denholm's second streak of 20+ IP was snapped last weekend at 21.1 IP eclipsing his mark of 20.2 IP earlier this year. Taylor Rashi's two innings at UCSB raised his
current shutout streak to 21.1 IP

40 - USA Baseball announced its list of 40 college baseball players recognized on the Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List and included Brandon Lewis as the lone Big West representative among them. Lewis enters the weekend atop the conference in HR, RBI, slugging, total bases, and doubles while batting .355

UC Irvine lost its first weekend series of 2019 in a sweep at No. 19 UC Santa Barbara. The 'Eaters are still 8-1 in weekend series this year

UC Irvine currently stands third in the Big West Conference with a 5-4 record. UCSB leads the pack at 5-1 with Cal Poly in second at 7-2. CSF is 3-3 sitting in fourth while weekend opponent, CSUN, is a game back at 4-5 alongside Hawai'i
The Anteaters eclipsed the 20-win mark last week against Long Beach State to register the second-quickest occurrence in program history accomplishing it in just 25 games. The 2008 squad started the season 20-4

The Anteaters have sunk to 21-9 overall in the midst of their longest losing streak of 2019 at four games. The team averaged under two runs a game over the last week hitting .169 as a squad. The staff's ERA rose to 3.44, 26th in the nation allowing an average of 6.5 runs a game last week in four losses to ranked opponents

Anteater starters allowed 10 of the 17 runs over the weekend to the Gauchos in the three losses off 18 hits. The Anteater staff still ranks top two in the conference and top 30 in the nation in WHIP, walks per 9 innings and hits per 9 innings, ERA, and shutouts. All three starters Tanner Brubaker, Trenton Denholm, and Andre Pallante rank among the Big West's top 10 in ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, strikeouts looking, innings pitched, opposing batting average, and wins. The weekend rotation has put together a 15-6 record and 2.47 ERA in 163.2 IP striking out 145 batters to 41 walks

UC Irvine's offense was stymied by the combined pitching of No. 1 UCLA and No. 19 UCSB managing 21 hits in the four games. Brandon Lewis and Adrian Damla each had four hits and two doubles each.

Brandon Lewis scored twice and reached on a pair of walks to extend his on-base streak to 27 games, but his hitting streak was snapped on Sunday ending at 17 games, the 11th-longest streak in program history and 14th streak of at least 15 games. He remains high in the national rankings at 16th in slugging, 22nd in HR, 43rd in total bases, 48th in doubles, and 55th in RBIs while leading the Big West in every single one of those categories. Lewis was named as 1 of the 40 members of USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award Watch List last week making the seventh Anteater all-time to make a Golden Spikes list which includes Andre Pallante who made the preseason list

Jake Palmer had the most productive week at the plate scoring a run in each game, and four of the 'Eaters' seven runs on the week. He shared the hit lead on the week with four and walked four times, along with Christian Koss, to continue his average of over a walk and run scored per game, near the tops in all of college baseball. To cap it off, he launched his first career home run, a solo shot to right field to put UCI on the board first on Sunday

Other notable performances were Sam Ireland posting his first career multi-hit game on Sunday in his fifth start. Mike Peabody was held hitless, but drove in a pair of RBIs. Griffin Mazur had another hit in his one start Sunday putting him at 8-for-24 over his last 10 games played with four RBIs

The Anteaters took a hit in the rankings now 21st in Baseball America's poll this week. Elsewhere, the 'Eaters now stand 23rd according to Perfect Game and 24th from Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. UCI fell completely out of the rankings according to D1Baseball.com and ESPN/USA Today. NCBWA will release its updated rankings Tuesday with entering last week at 16th

The Anteaters finished March with a record of 13-2 improving to 18-5 overall. It was the third such March in program history with 13+ wins joining the 14-3 March of 2008 and 13-5 mark in 2009.

UC Irvine's spectacular March saw the team hit .278, walks twice as many times, and average 7.5 runs a game while allowing opponents to hit just .199. The staff has a 2.80 ERA in the month striking out 130 hitters over 135 innings while opponents have a 6.85 ERA when facing Anteater hitting

UC Irvine's series win against Hawai'i is the first to open conference play since 2015 which was a sweep of the Rainbow Warriors at home. Since 2002, the 'Eaters have own the opening Big West series 12 times now in 18 seasons. This was the eighth season since 2002 UCI started Big West play on the road with the Anteaters winning the series four times. This was the first Big West opening series win on the road since 2010 for the program. In the 11 previous years that UCI won the opening Big West series, they've finished with a winning conference record in nine of those years

UC Irvine scored a program record 13 runs in the 10th inning of Saturday's 17-4 victory at Utah Valley. 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.

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 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. A pair of Anteaters finished their undergraduate schooling following the Winter Quarter in pitcher Alonzo Garcia and outfielder Konnor Zickefoose. 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. UCI is currently 5-2 against the conference winning each weekend series against Washington and Washington State while dropping a midweek matchup on the road at No. 1 UCLA pushing the 'Eaters to now an 86-71 record against the Pac-12 since 2002.

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.

SAN DIEGO STATE AZTECS
San Diego State returns to complete the home-and-home series with UC Irvine after winning the opener, 9-3, in February. Tuesday's matchup is the 95th all-time between these teams with SDSU winning 56 of them. SDSU has taken off to a 21-15 record, and are third in the Mountain West at 7-6. They've won seven of eight weekend series against schools like CSF, San Francisco, and New Mexico, they took two of three in the Tony Gwynn Legacy, and have played 11 midweek games losing twice to No. 11 Texas Tech while swiping wins from Arizona and No. 6 Oregon State

Both offense and pitching for SDSU rank 81st in the nation with a .279 batting average and 4.10 ERA. Brian Leonhardt leads the bats hitting .320 with 14 doubles and 32 RBIs doing just that in the first matchup against UCI going 3-for-4 with 2 doubles and 4 RBIs as SDSU had a three-run first and five-run fifth to propel them to a victory. The hot start of Julian Escobedo has cooled off now hitting .259, but a team-high 4 HR with 26 RBIs, tied in HRs with Chad Bible, and other worthy compliments such as Casey Schmitt (.317, 3 HR) and the duo of Angelo Armenta and Matt Rudick each hitting .306 with 21 RBIs.

Starting for SDSU will be righty Harrison Pyatt whose pitched just four times, all starts, going at least four innings allowing two ER or less against USF, Oklahoma, and Nevada, and used as an opener for an inning vs. CSF over the weekend where SDSU beat CSF at Goodwin Field two out of three. The defense behind him is among the nation's bottom third, but it has turned 43 double plays to lead all college programs

CSUN MATADORS
CSUN stands a game back of UCI in the Big West standings following a series at Long Beach State losing two of three. They began Big West play being swept at Cal Poly by a combined score of 9-4 and then coming home to sweep UC Riverside by a combined score of 50-12. CSUN is 16-19 overall playing a fairly similar schedule to UC Irvine losing two of three each at Washington State, at Iowa, and home to Michigan in addition to a pair of losses to UCLA, a loss to SDSU, and a home win over St. John's. They much better at home with just three wins in 15 road games in 2019

The 2018 Matadors finishing just under .500 not helped by a sweep at home at the hands of UC Irvine with all hands with in four runs that includes a ninth-inning comeback in the Saturday matchup punctuated by a go-ahead HR by Matt Reitano. The 'Eaters got revenge on CSUN after they won two of three in Anteater Ballpark a year prior. The schools played consecutive series at UCI in 2016 and 2017 with the 2016 series concluding the season, and the Anteaters took two of three then highlighted by a Senior Day walkoff from Wyatt Castro in a ninth-inning comeback

The Anteaters hold the all-time edge at 43-32 with a 25-9 mark at home. Since 2002, the Anteaters have won 12 of 17 series with an overall record of 34-17 in that time

CSUN's offense is powered by the home run with 36 of them to rank second in the conference and 36th nationally. The team bats .265 with the second-best slugging percentage and walks the third-most in the Big West in addition to top three in triples, stolen bases, and runs scored. Kyle Barret tops the team with a .341 average, 45 hits, 12 doubles, and 19 walks starting all 35 games. Sean Skelly adds six HRs and a .316 average complimented by Brandon Bohning (5 HR, 23 RBI, 41 hits, 13 SB), Wesley Ghan-Gibson (5 HR, 18 RBI), and Robert Bullard (25 R, 4 2B, 2 3B, 2 HR). The Matadors have played two more games than any other Big West school and five more than UCI to lead the Big West in plate appearances and at-bats in addition to the most strikeouts with 303

The pitching staff has raised its game with the third-best ERA at 4.36 allowing 3.3 walks a game, 32nd nationally, a 2.16 K-to-BB ratio, and a pair of shutouts for second in the conference. The weekend trio of Isaiah Nunez, Wesley Moore, and Blake Sodersten are a combined 11-7 with Sodersten joining the rotation in conference play. Nunez is exceptionally accurate with seven walks in 54 innings posting a 3.17 ERA along the way with six quality starts including six shutout innings against Michigan with his only multi-BB effort. Moore has the league's 10th-lowest ERA at 2.85 allowing opponents to bat .206 while striking out 47 of them including a 2-hit shutout of Gonzaga. Closer Blake Schriever has been great with a 3.34 ERA and seven saves in 18 outings, but has allowed a run in 10 of his outings. The staff as a whole allows opponents to hit .285 this season, almost 10 per game. The defense behind them is in the bottom third of the Big West committing 54 errors, and while picking off a Big West-best 13 runners, those attempting stolen bases are successful 80% of the time taking 28 of 35 steal attempts

The teams will play Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday afternoon with Sunday off to observe the Easter holiday