Broadcast Information
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Video
UC Irvine's weekend series at Iowa will be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network Plus+ as well as FLOLive for all three games
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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
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.
45 -
Taylor Rashi has put himself on the national radar as 1 of
45 pitchers chosen to the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Midseason Watch List, the ninth time an Anteater has appeared on the list in the award's 15 years. Rashi has built a 32-IP shutout streak, allowed opponents to hit just .116 , won 3 games, saved 11, and this week took home his first Big West Pitcher of the Week award
2009 - The UC Irvine Anteaters won a series against Cal State Fullerton for the first time since
2009. This rare event happened for just the third time since 2002 and fifth time in the history of the program. The 'Eaters just missed out on their second-ever sweep of CSF, and now will play them for the first time ever in a regular season non-conference midweek clash Tuesday night
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UC Irvine scored its 10th series win in 11 weekends in 2019 after taking down Cal State Fullerton. The 'Eaters have swept six series including two conference sweeps.
UCI finished the week 3-1, all road games, defeating USC Tuesday night in 10 innings and taking two of three at CSF. The team hit .297 scoring seven runs or more in three of the contests, were hit by 10 pitches, and put together a staff ERA of 4.25 with all four matchups decided by four runs or less.
UCI's series win over CSF was its first since 2009 and only its third since bringing the program back in 2002. The 'Eaters and Titans will play just its second game out of conference since 2002 joining the 2007 matchup in the College World Series which was played on a Monday. UCI and CSF also had a non-conference series in 2006 with two games played in Fullerton and the third in Irvine
The Anteaters enter Tuesday with a 12-game home win streak and a 6-0 record against Big West foes. The 'Eaters had a seven-game overall win streak snapped in Sunday's loss. UCI's 15-2 mark at home this year has potential to be its best on record with nine home games remaining. UCI finished with 25 wins at home in its 2013 campaign while going 23-4 in 2011 and 21-4 in the regular season in 2009. Since opening Anteater Ballpark in 2002, the 'Eaters have finished with a winning record at home in 15 of 17 seasons
UC Irvine currently stands third in the Big West Conference with a record of 10-5. Cal Poly took the conference lead with a record of 10-2 trailed closely by UCSB at 9-3. UC Irvine will play its week outside the Big West this week with a trip to Iowa. UCI holds a three-game edge on Hawai'i (7-8) and is ahead by two in the loss column over CSF and UC Riverside, both 5-7
The Anteaters are trending nationally on the mound with the third-most shutouts in the country at seven behind just Tennessee and UCLA. It also ranks among the top 10 in the NCAA in least amount of walks allowed per game (2.71), least amount of hits (7.26), strikeouts-to-walks (3.16), and overall WHIP (1.11) where its second behind UCLA, all while producing the 18th-lowest ERA at 3.40
UC Irvine's weekend starters have produced
18 quality starts in their 32 starts.
Trenton Denholm and
Andre Pallante are tied atop the conference with seven wins each. Each starter tops the Big West in some category with Pallante taking the lead in strikeouts looking (23), Denholm with the lowest WHIP (0.81) and opposing batting average(.167), and
Tanner Brubaker on top with 71.2 innings pitched. The trio ranks within the top 10 in each of those categories in addition to overall strikeouts and ERA. The weekend rotation together has a record of 19-7 in 32 starts with a 2.42 ERA, 150 hits allowed, 57 walks issued, and 172 Ks in 204.2 innings
Flamethrower
Taylor Rashi is making his case for the staff's best arm putting in work last week to bring home his first career Big West Pitcher of the Week award. Rashi pitched in three of the contests going 4.1 innings in relief and not allowing any of his 13 baserunners to reach. He's set down 22 consecutive hitters to go with his 32-inning shutout streak that dates back to 2019, one of the four streaks of 20+ innings UCI pitchers have produced in 2019. In the process, he earned his third win of the season Tuesday and saved UCI's two wins at CSF giving him 11 on the year to lead the Big West. Earlier last week, he was also selected to the NCBWA's Stopper of the Year Midseason Watch List as 1 of 45 pitchers to watch. He became the sixth Anteater to grace the list, and in the 15-year history of the award, an Anteater has been represented nine times with three years (2008, 2009, 2014) placing an 'Eater among the finalists
The Anteater offense came through with a solid week hitting .297with a .308 clip against Cal State Fullerton.
Konnor Zickefoose held the torch hitting .533 with hits in all four games, multiple hits in three, and a three-hit game Sunday.
Griffin Mazur continued his assault with hits in now nine of his last 11 starts going .462 on the week with four RBIs.
Adrian Damla had five RBIs along with his second career home run on Saturday.
John Jensen followed suit with his first HR as an Anteater Sunday while muscling four hits and four RBIs last week
Other key contributors included
Brandon Lewis who drove in four of his five RBIs on Friday along with his 12th home run, tying him for the second most in a season in program history. His on-base streak continued to grow now up to 35 consecutive games, and he had UCI's lone stolen base on the weekend.
Mike Peabody worked out of the leadoff spot with three hits and team highs of six runs scored and four walks. He was hit by a pitch three times giving him 12 on the year which leads the conference and ranks 59th nationally for the team that has been hit by pitch 71 times, 15th-most in the nation
The Anteaters retained their ranking at 19th according to Baseball America. Elsewhere, the 'Eaters jumped to 18th by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and 17th from Perfect Game. D1Baseball.com returned the 'Eaters to their top 25 at No. 25 while the NCBWA had UCI as high as 24th in last week's poll
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 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 collecting 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."
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John 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."
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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.
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
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CAL STATE FULLERTON TITANS
The balance of this matchup shifted a little bit over the weekend with UC Irvine's series win at Cal State Fullerton, just its fifth all-time, third since 2002, and first since 2009. CSF still holds a commanding lead in the all-time series at 88-42 including 46-16 in Irvine, but the 'Eaters have a leg up in 2019 sitting in third in the Big West while CSF is tied for fifth with two more losses than UCI. The teams meet up on a Tuesday for the first time ever in just the fifth non-conference matchup since 2002 and second non-conference games ever in Anteater Ballpark.
The Titans, who are the second-best hitting team in the conference, were held to four runs or less in each game over the weekend and just three extra-base hits. The 'Eaters were able to stop Mitchell Berryhill's streak of reaching base on Sunday halting it at 47 games despite being unable to keep him off the bases on Friday.
The pitching staff posted a 5.33 ERA with starters responsible for 14 of UCI's 17 runs. The Titans have not decided on a starter Tuesday night. The defense committed just one error raising its level to the third-stingiest defense in the nation with a 0.982 fielding percentage
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IOWA HAWKEYES
The Iowa Hawkeyes matchup with UC Irvine for the first time ever on a baseball field. For UCI, it's the program's first trip to Iowa and first matchup with any school from Iowa. Iowa is 4-3 against Big West foes this year already splitting a four-game series at Hawai'i early in the year before welcoming CSUN to Duane Banks Field where Iowa won two of three. The Anteaters have periodically played against the Big Ten going 14-9 all-time. The last meeting was to open the 2017 season splitting a pair of games with Minnesota at home. UCI had a midweek matchup with Michigan washed out in 2019.
Iowa is trending up with an 11-6 mark in April lifting it to a 26-16 record overall and 11-7 mark in the Big Ten where they stand in fourth, a couple games off the top spot. In addition to the Big West series, Iowa has won series over ranked Illinois, Nebraska, and Oklahoma State squads. For the second third time this year, Iowa will stack midweek games on Tuesday and Wednesday prior to their weekend series. Both previous times, they've split the midweek matchups, and have followed that up with a sweep at the hands of Indiana on one weekend and a series win at home against Rutgers in the other.
The Hawkeyes finished 2018 at 33-20, and are just a year removed from their last NCAA Tournament berth in 2017 where they were bumped by Houston in their regional after beating them in the opener, and closing out the year with 39 wins
Iowa is tough at home going 15-4 so far in 2019 coming off a 20-6 mark in 2018. Iowa has lost just 24 games at Duane Banks Field in its last 4+ seasons, a record of 67-24 in those 91 games
Iowa's offense is fourth in the Big Ten hitting .266 with top-3 totals in walks (196), on-base percentage (.367), and stolen bases (49) while sitting near the bottom in triples and HRs averaging 5.3 runs per game. Zeb Adreon boasts a .321 average with a team-best 10 doubles, Ben Norman tops the Hawkeyes with six home runs, 10 stolen bases, and 30 RBIs, and Chris Whelan claims the conference's second-best on-base percentage with 25 hits, 31 walks, and 11 times hit by pitch
The pitching staff is formidable with a 4.02 ERA (58th in NCAA) allowing 8.44 hits a game (65th in NCAA). The starting staff rolls through right-handers Grant Judkins (4-5, 2.11) and Cole McDonald (4-3, 3.66) each with over 50 strikeouts in over 60 innings. Cam Baumann has also made 10 starts with a 3-2 mark and 4.96 ERA, and the bullpen has put in its miles with 22 appearances for Grant Leonard (5-1, 4.10) spanning 26.1 IP, Grant Leonard appearing in 20 games (2-1, 1.17, 10 saves) with just eight walks in 23 innings, and 10 other relievers with 10 or more outings. As a whole, they do walk 4.5 hitters a game, but have only hit 33 batters on the year.
The defense is middle of the pack with an 0.967 fielding percentage turning the second-most double plays (35) in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes' field is all turf, a surface UCI has seen once in Hawai'i
