#BlackAndBlue Rivalry Ramps Up in Anteater Ballpark

Friday, April 5

Irvine, CA

6:00 pm

UC Irvine

Long Beach State

Buy Tickets

#BlackAndBlue Rivalry Ramps Up in Anteater Ballpark

April 03, 2019 | Baseball

By: Alex Croteau

THIS WEEK IN ANTEATER BASEBALL

Game Notes | Season Preview with Head Coach Ben Orloff

No. 19 UC Irvine Anteaters (18-5, 2-1 Big West)
vs. Long Beach State Dirtbags (4-23, 0-0 Big West)
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3,408) - Irvine, Calif.

Friday, April 5 - 6:00 PM
RHP Andre Pallante (4-2, 2.66) vs. LHP Adam Seminaris (2-4, 3.40)
ESPN3 | Live Stats | KUCI 88.9 FM | Game Program | Tickets

Saturday, April 6 - 6:00 PM
RHP Tanner Brubaker (3-1, 2.25) vs. RHP Nick Avila (0-0, 6.43)
ESPN3 | Live Stats | KUCI 88.9 FM | Game Program | Tickets

Sunday, April 7 - 1:00 PM
RHP Trenton Denholm (5-0, 1.89) vs. RHP Sagun Gainey (0-2, 5.93)
Live Stats | KUCI 88.9 FM | Game Program | Tickets

Broadcast Information

Video
ESPN3 will broadcast the first two games of the series Friday and Saturday night between the 'Eaters and Dirtbags with links found on ucirvinesports.com

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.

13-2 - The Anteaters finish the month of March with a record of 13-2, the third such March the program has won as many as 13 games (2008, 2009). The team hit .278 outscoring opponents 113-43 while recording a team ERA of 2.80 along with four shutouts and opponents hit just .199 from the plate

4 & 6 - The Anteaters have had success on the basepaths being caught just 4 times on steal attempts going 17-for-21 overall with Christian Koss leading the 'Eaters with 7. Behind the dish, Anteater catchers have cut down 6 of 11 attempted basestealers on their end with Jacob Castro 3-for-5, Matt Reitano 2-for-5, and Griffin Mazur 1-for-1

UC Irvine won its weekend series against Hawai'i coming from behind after dropping the opener. It's the second time this season they've accomplished that along with the opening series against Washington. The 'Eaters are 7-0 in weekend series in 2019

The Anteaters will be featured on ESPN3 this season four times confirmed with four more Wild Card options a possibility starting with this weekend's series with Long Beach State. Friday and Saturday are set for ESPN3 treatment with Sam Farber on the call each game for play-by-play joined by Wes Clements on Friday and Adam Kennedy on Saturday. UC Irvine's series against UC Davis late in May is also scheduled for ESPN3, and additional Friday and Saturday night games could be added to the road series at CSF and the home series against Cal Poly.

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

The Anteaters are approaching the 20-win mark at 18-5. The quickest to 20 wins in program history was 2008 when the squad started 20-4. The 2011 club was 20-6 early in the season as well

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

The 'Eaters allowed a season-high 10 runs in Friday's loss. They had allowed nine runs twice both coming in the first four games of the season in losses to Washington and at San Diego State

Trenton Denholm helped carry the torch for the weekend throwing eight shutout innings of three-hit ball Sunday to propel the Anteaters to a 4-0 victory and series win. It's his second performance this year carrying a shutout through eight innings joining the one-hit effort against St. John's. He runs his record to 5-0 on the year with 17 strikeouts now over the last two starts, and has lowered his ERA back down to 1.89 with a team-best .146 batting average against

Tanner Brubaker got the other weekend victory allowing two runs on six hits in seven innings. He improved to 3-1 now with three quality starts matching Andre Pallante for the team lead. He has taken the lead on the staff with 44 innings pitched now
Taylor Rashi helped lead the bullpen charge getting five outs over two games on the weekend including his seventh save. He kept his ERA at 0.00, and has now allowed eight of 45 hitters to reach base.

The bats got big boosts from Christian Koss who hit .500 in Hawai'i with a HR and two doubles. Brandon Lewis has an 11-game hit streak and reached base eight times in the three games to set the tone. Brendan Brooks blasted two more home runs to give him six for the year, second on the squad. Griffin Mazur stepped up now with a three-game hitting streak driving in a pair of RBIs. Mike Peabody continues to hit finishing March with a .429 average and on-base percentage of .525. Jake Palmer has upped his on-base streak to 23 games maintaining his average of over a walk per game which ranks fourth-best in the nation

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

The Anteaters remain ranked at 19th in Baseball America's poll this week. Elsewhere, the 'Eaters now stand 20th according to Perfect Game, the NCBWA, and D1Baseball.com, and they continue to receive votes in the ESPN/USA Today Poll. Collegiate Baseball Newspaper dropped the Anteaters to 21st after 18th last weekend. UCI has been ranked in all polls this season after not receiving national recognition since 2015

The Anteater fielding has improved now third in the conference committing just 10 errors in 15 March games. Anteater pitchers added a pair of pickoffs to their resumes with Jordan Bocko catching Missouri State off second and Pallante picking the Red Storm off first. On the basepaths, UCI has been successful stealing 17 times in 21 tries with Christian Koss leading the way with seven. Conversely, Anteater catchers have thrown out six of 11 attempted basestealers on the year

The Anteaters remain in the national rankings in stats like shutouts with five where they have the fourth-most along with the seventh-best WHIP at 1.10. UCI's pitchers allow 6.89 hits per game (9th-least) and 2.99 walks per game (14th-least). The staff's strikeout-to-walk ratio is 3.03-to-1 (13th-best) in addition to the 21st-lowest ERA at 3.16. With the bats, UCI has the top on-base percentage in the conference (0.385) and rank top three in walks, HRs, runs per game, slugging, and triples. Batters have also been hit by 48 pitches, tops in the Big West and 14th-most nationally.

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. 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 5-1 against the conference winning each weekend series and pushing the 'Eaters to now an 86-70 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.

LONG BEACH STATE DIRTBAGS
Conference play rolls along with the second series for UCI, first for LBSU who opened with a non-conference trip to Cal. UCI and LBSU have played 15 series since 2002 with LBSU winning eight and UCI winning seven. The teams have each won four of the series played in Anteater Ballpark during that time. This is the most-played matchup in Anteater history as the schools will meet for the 131st time Friday with UCI holding the 69-60-1 series edge

The #BlackAndBlue Rivalry Series returns for 2019 between the two schools, the 13th year of the contest that includes all sports the programs compete in. UCI holds a 17-14 lead to this point of the year. The 'Eaters would earn four points for a series win this weekend with five going to LBSU for a road victory

The 2018 Dirtbags middled out in 2018 with a 12-12 conference record and 27-30 overall. The Anteaters went on the road to take two of three from LBSU in the first week of April as each squad tossed a shutout in the series

2019 has been truly unkind to Long Beach State with a 4-23 mark earning its first road win Tuesday night at No. 5 Arizona State. The Dirtbags have gone through a daunting road playing at No. 3 Florida, at No. 10 Mississippi, and at Cal being swept in each series, but LBSU is better than its record pulling in single wins over No. 16 Michigan, No. 23 TCU, and Minnesota. They even played a non-conference series against CSF being swept, but have kept games within three runs in 11 of the 23 losses. LBSU travels to No. 5 Arizona State for a midweek before coming back to SoCal to face UC Irvine.

Offensively, LBSU sits near the bottom in most categories hitting .222, 14th-lowest in the nation, with six home runs and conference lows of 3.3 runs per game, a .314 on-base percentage, and .288 slugging percentage. Jacob Hughey's .274 average, eight doubles, and 14 RBIs top the team with Brooks Stotler scoring 13 times and walking 14 times in addition to laying down seven of the team's 20 sac bunts which is near the conference's best

The Dirtbag pitching staff allows over 10 hits and 4.5 walks per game with a 5.47 ERA. Lefty Adam Seminaris tops the staff with a 3.40 ERA, 2-4 record, and 10 walks to 32 strikeouts in 42.1 IP. Zak Baayoun has made five starts as well with Dylan Spacke sporting two saves and a 2.92 ERA which has seen ERAs above 4.50 for the rest of the LBSU pen

LBSU fields well as well most of the Big West Conference, and have turned 20 doubles plays to date. Hitters get on base in other ways with 32 HBP. The running game is behind having been caught in 11 of their 20 steal attempts.