Broadcast Information
Â
Video
UC Irvine's Tuesday night game at USC will be streamed online over the Pac-12 Network and pac-12.com. Its weekend series at Fullerton will be shown online via bigwest.tv and ucirvinesports.com
Â
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
Â
Â
Around The Horn
Â
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 streaks of
20 IP of scoreless baseball this season.
Trenton Denholm's second streak of 20+ IP was snapped at UCSB at 21.1 IP eclipsing his mark of 20.2 IP earlier this year,
Andre Pallante set a new program record with 27 shutout innings, and then
Taylor Rashi broke that record against CSUN as he enters the week on a 27.2 IP streak
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
Â
UC Irvine scored its ninth series win in 10 weekends in 2019 winning all five home series. The 'Eaters earned its sixth sweep overall and second conference sweep. UCI improves to 6-0 at home in Big West action now with a 12-game home win streak
UC Irvine currently stands third in the Big West Conference with an 8-4 record. UCSB leads the pack at 8-1 with Cal Poly in second at 10-2. Hawai'i is in fourth at 6-6 leading UCI's opponent this weekend, CSF, who sits fifth at 4-5
UCI got back on the ball with a 4-0 week defeating San Diego State and CSUN. The team hit .270 outscoring its opponents 19-9 with a 2.25 staff ERA including its third pickoff of the year, second at 2B
Among the wins was UCI's first walkoff of 2019, the team's first since May 20 of 2018Â in a 4-3 win over UC Riverside from a
Mikey Filia single. Friday's walkoff win also came from a single off the bat of
Adrian Damla with the winning run of
Matt Reitano scoring by way of an error in right field. UCI has walked off 82 times in program history, four times with help from an error, and twice now on a hit and an error joining Alan Belasco's triple + error in 1975
UCI closed up the weekend with its seventh shutout of the year Sunday joining Tennessee (8), Auburn (7), and UCLA (7) as the only schools with seven or more in 2019.
Each Anteater starting pitchers recorded a quality start on the weekend giving each of them five on the year.
Andre Pallante has six to lead the bunch who have registered 16 quality starts in 29 weekend starts. He matched his season high of nine strikeouts in Thursday's game propelling him to eighth in the all-time UCI strikeout rankings with 232 over his career, two behind the next Anteater on the list of David Bladow
The trio continues to pace the Big West ranking in the top 10 in ERA, WHIP, opponent's batting average, strikeouts, strikeouts looking, wins, and innings.
Trenton Denholm is the Big West's leader in ERA, WHIP, and opposing average tied with UCSB's Ben Brecht with seven wins each. Denholm ranks second nationally with an 0.75 WHIP and ninth allowing 4.68 hits per nine innings. As a trio, the weekend starters are 17-6 with a 2.39 ERA in their starts
Taylor Rashi really pushed UCI over the threshold on the week appearing in three of four games collecting two saves, to give him nine and tie him atop the Big West, and his second win of the season. In the effort, he threw 6.1 shutout innings to raise him shutout streak to 27.2 IP eclipsing UCI's longest streak of 27 IP set earlier this year by Pallante.
The Anteater offense was consistent pouncing in key moments.
Sam Ireland broke out with four hits, three of which brought home runs, and a team-high four RBIs. He is 6-for-17 in the last five games in which he's started, and posted the team's first two-SB game with a pair Friday night
Other key contributors included
Brandon Lewis who was constantly working against a four-man outfield to produce six hits, reaching base 10 times, driving home two, and stealing two bases. He's built an impressive streak of 31 straight games reaching base. Others like
Griffin Mazur scored in four of the six occasions where he reached base,
John Jensen had a four hit week with a stolen base, two runs, two walks, and his third triple to lead the team and put him within the conference leaders, and
Konnor Zickefoose who went 3-for-6 scoring twice and adding a double
The Anteaters got their ranking back returning to 19th in Baseball America's poll this week. Elsewhere, the 'Eaters are also 19th according to Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and is 23rd with Perfect Game. UCI remains out of the rankings according to D1Baseball.comand ESPN/USA Today, but jumped into NCBWA's Top 30 at No. 29
The Anteaters eclipsed the 20-win mark 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. UCI had a pair of games canceled by weather (vs. #16 Michigan, at Missouri State) leaving them in a 54-game schedule. Two more wins will guarantee the 'Eaters a non-losing season and one more conference win will guarantee a non-losing record in Big West play
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 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
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. 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 making UCI 86-71 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 inÂ
Andre Pallante and SJU's Sean Mooney.
USC TROJANS
USC has improved itself in 2019 despite its 17-20-1 record. It has swept or been swept in just one of its 10 weekend series so far taking wins off ranked Arkansas, UCLA, and Michigan teams, two wins against ranked Arizona State, two more against Cal, and were swept on the road at Washington losing twice in extras. UCI and USC split its matchups last season keeping the all-time series close at 34-33 in favor of the Trojans who were average a 26-28 in 2019. USC has also played 25 times at home going 13-11-1 in them. The Trojans are hindered by their placement in a competitive Pac-12 where they stand in a tie for sixth
Trojans pitching has excelled in 2019 with a 4.38 ERA with four shutouts, top 100 ERA and WHIP, and allowing 8.02 hits per game, 45th in the nation. They've also turned 33 double play, near the most nationally, which is helped by its nearly five walks per game. Sophomore lefty Brian Gursky will get the call after his coming-out party last year where he shutout UCI through five innings with five hits and a walk. He's made four starts so far in 2019, twice pitching through four against CSF, allowing seven runs in 12.2 IP as the starter. Overall, he's 0-1 with a 7.06 ERA over his 10 total outings
USC's hitters are batting .274 with the Pac-12 third-most hits, but average 5.3 runs a game, near the bottom, and the lowest slugging in the conference. Matthew Acosta, CJ Stubbs, and Jamal O'Guinn each have five homers with Stubbs bringing a team-high 17 extra-base hits, Ben Ramirez tops the squad with a .314 average, and Blake Sabol is hitting .285 with team-bests in runs (27), hits (45), and stolen bases (9)
CAL STATE FULLERTON TITANS
CSF has not looked like themselves entering the week with a 16-19 record and fifth in the conference at 4-5 coming off a road series loss at Hawai'i. The Titans' schedule has been grueling picking up wins against Virginia, TCU, Oklahoma, Missouri State, Stanford, and USC, other matchups with Vanderbilt, Arizona State, and Fresno State, but have dropped series to New Mexico, SDSU, and James Madison which have hurt them. The Titans begin the week with a tough task as they host No. 1 UCLA Tuesday night. CSF did take two on the road at Cal Poly and one from UCSB at Goodwin Field, however are just 5-10 on their home field this season. CSF is still plenty dangerous as usual, but need to make up some ground to keep their postseason streak alive entering the weekend with an RPI of 90
The 2018 Titans went deep into the NCAA Tournament falling in their home Super Regional to Washington in game three in extra innings after knockout Stanford out up at Stanford. UCI was swept at home by the Titans falling to a 40-87 all-time record with the Titans with 23 of those wins at Goodwin Field. The 'Eaters have just six wins in their last 28 matchups with CSF looking for their first series win since 2009 which came in Fullerton. The programs have a twist in their 2019 matchup playing a weekend series at CSF followed by a Tuesday matchup next week at UCI
Fullerton's bread and butter is their defense ranking fourth in the nation with a 0.982 fielding percentage committing just 24 errors, one in their last seven games, 16 errorless games, and five games all season with multiple errors
The offense is hitting .286, second in the conference and 59th nationwide excelling at getting on base with a Big West-best .372 on-base percentage, and the second-best scoring offense with six runs a game. CSF has just 47 doubles and 15 home runs, but have the most hits in the Big West behind the Big West hit leader Mitchell Berryhill's 55 and a 43-game on-base streak along with a .437 average which ranks fourth nationally. He's added 22 RBIs along with Isaiah Garcia's team-best 24 RBIs, Sahid Valenzuela's 23, and Hank LoForte who is exceptional at getting on base scoring a team-high 29 runs.
Pitching has performed well despite a 5.09 ERA. They don't walk many (3.45 per game), but have given up the hit with 9.83 allowed per game. The weekend rotation has consisted all season of sophomore Tanner Bibee (5-5, 3.48) who leads the Big West with 67.1 IP and freshman Michael Knorr (3-3, 5.40) putting up just 26 strikeouts with a handful of starts between Timothy Josten, Kyle Luckham, and Gavin Velasquez. Josten has been masterful at times out of the pen as his 14 total appearances lead the squad. Dillon Brown has been lights out in the pen with just eight strikeouts, but two earned runs allowed in 18.2 innings pitched, and freshman Michael Weisberg has cleaned up with five saves in 12 outings
A little added emphasis this season with Anteater volunteer assistant
Cory Vanderhook in the opposite dugout from his uncle, CSF head coach Rick Vanderhook
