IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine took another Big West series Saturday night in Anteater Ballpark shutting down Cal Poly's attack with an 8-0 win.
Glove At First Sight
The Mustangs (23-25, 12-5) had something brewing in the first inning with two outs on another Tate Samuelson hit. Myles Emmerson singled as well to right field, and Samuelson turned to take third base, but
Konnor Zickefoose delivered a dart to
Christian Koss relaying on to
Brandon Lewis to nail Samuelson at third and end the threat in the top of the first.
Triple City
The 'Eaters (31-14, 12-5) didn't have much going on early until two outs in the second inning. Koss lined a ball in front of the right fielder who fought the sun and misplayed the ball allowing it behind him for a triple.
Mikey Filia would follow suit with a shot hugging the right field line tripling home Koss to make it a 1-0 Anteater lead.
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Power Baseball
UCI built on its one-run lead in the third inning with
Adrian Damla once again on the case blasting his fourth double of the series over the right fielder's head to score two more Anteaters. After adding another run in the frame, UCI took its 4-0 lead into the fourth inning where
Mike Peabody drew a leadoff walk. He acrobatically slid around a tag to successfully steal second base, and on the next pitch,
Brandon Lewis made it count lofting his 13th home run of the season over the left field wall for a 6-0 lead.
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Denholm Field Advantage
Sophomore hurler
Trenton Denholm would settle down after the rugged first inning to paint a masterpiece. He allowed just two more hits, one erased on a superb double play ball up the middle, and the other stranded with two outs in the seventh to carve up Cal Poly tying a career high with 10 strikeouts.
Final Score: UC Irvine 8, Cal Poly 0
Damla added two more RBis for six on the series along with his two hits. He would score twice along with Peabody and Lewis as Lewis led the charge with three hits and now stands one home run away from tying the program single-season record.
Christian Koss also had two hits, scoring after his triple, and drove in two runs on a two-out single to RF and a sacrifice fly. Cal Poly's four hits were scattered as no Mustang reached base twice
Pitchers of Record
Denholm matched
Andre Pallante to win his eighth of the season while lowering his ERA to 1.74. He walked two along with his 10 strikeouts, only the second 10-K performance of the year for the 'Eaters, as he regained the team lead with 78 this year.
Alonzo Garcia pitched a perfect ninth inning to seal the win. Cal Poly starter Bobby Ay was tagged with his first loss of the year now at 7-1 giving up six earned runs in five innings while walking two and striking out five. Mustang pitchers combined to match Denholm with 10 strikeouts of Anteater hitters
Next Up
The win scores another Big West series victory and the 11th series win for UCI in 13 weekends. With each team yet to announce their Sunday starter entering the weekend, UCI will go with junior righty
Tanner Brubaker against Cal Poly's sophomore lefty Andrew Alvarez with a May 13 Mother's Day start time of 1:00 p.m.
