Anteaters Post 37-Win Season, Finish 2nd in Big West
May 31, 2019 | Baseball
2019 UC Irvine Baseball Season
Game Notes
Record: 37-17
Big West: 17-7 (T2nd)
Home: 21-5
Away: 16-12
Team AVG: .268
Runs: 340
HR: 36
Team ERA: 3.54
Innings: 476.0
BB / K: 139 / 456
Team Defense: 0.981
Big West Pitcher of the Year: Trenton Denholm
Big West Defensive Player of the Year: Christian Koss
All-Big West
First Team: Trenton Denholm, Taylor Rashi, Brandon Lewis, Adrian Damla
Second Team: Andre Pallante, Christian Koss, Mike Peabody, Jake Palmer
Around The Horn
37 - Head Coach Ben Orloff lead the Anteaters to 37 wins in his first season as head coach. The 37 ranks second behind Mike Gillespie's 38 regular season wins for a coach in his first season at UCI. It's the fifth-most regular season wins for a UC Irvine team since 2002. UCI also registered its 10th season with 20+ wins in Anteater Ballpark
T2nd - UC Irvine finished with a 17-7 record in the Big West good for a tie for 2nd in the standings with Cal Poly. Its just the sixth season in 27 years with the Big West finishing second or higher. The 17 Big West wins mark a tie for the second most the team has won behind only the 2009 Big West champion team that won 22 games
8th - The 8th Anteater to reach the Major Leagues emerged on Tuesday, May 14 as Keston Hiura joined the Milwaukee Brewers and went 2-for-3 with a BB in his debut. He has since homered three times. Hiura was the No. 1 prospect in Milwaukee's organization and by position (2B). He's the first 'Eater to debut since Christian Bergman in 2014
UC Irvine finished 2019 with its 13th series win in 15 weekend series. UCI is just 1 of 5 schools to win 13 or more weekend series joining NCAA Tournament teams UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt. UCI completed seven sweeps among its series wins with three coming on the road and three coming against Big West competition
The 'Eaters finished second in the Big West tied with Cal Poly with 17-7 records, two games back of champion UC Santa Barbara. The Anteaters finish second of higher for just the sixth time in the program's 27 years in the Big West. It also won as many as 17 conference games for just the third time.
UCI went 21-5 in Anteater Ballpark, the 10th 20-win home season in the 18 years of Anteater Ballpark. UCI's five losses are its least behind a 2-loss 2009 campaign and 4-loss 2011 campaign
UC Irvine finished with 20 non-conference wins going 20-10 including 12 wins against conferences rated in the top 10 nationally. UCI went 7-3 against the Pac-12 Conference with 6-2 mark at home. UCI traveled out of state five times including 1,000-mile+ trips Iowa, Hawai'i, Missouri State, and Rice. The 'Eaters finished with an 11-3 record out of state in 2019
2019 All-Big West awards rolled out with eight Anteaters honored, one shy of the program record, but matching the eight named in 2018. UCI took home two major awards - Big West Pitcher of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year:
Trenton Denholm took home pitcher of the year, the seventh for the program all-time after finishing with the Big West's top marks in ERA, opponent batting average, innings, and WHIP with second-most wins and strikeouts
Christian Koss was awarded defensive player of the year honors, a third for UCI and first since winning back-to-back in 2011 and 2012. Koss led the conference in assists with just 10 errors having played every inning of his 54 games, and 32 double plays turned ranked second.
Denholm and Koss each were among the all-conference honorees. Denholm was on the first team with Brandon Lewis, conference leader in RBI and tied for the most home runs in program history, Taylor Rashi, one of the two closers as he finished second with 12 saves and allowed just one earned run in 21 relief appearances, and Adrian Damla, hitting .299 as a first baseman with 27 RBI in Big West games to lead all players as the entirety of the group received their first honor.
Koss highlighted the second team along with other first-timers Jake Palmer, conference leader with 39 walks and third-highest on-base percentage, Mike Peabody, the fourth-best on-base percentage along with 11 doubles, 28 RBI, and a Big West-best 16 HBP, and the only returner to the team, Andre Pallante, who tied atop the win category with 10 while posting a 2.68 ERA and the most strikeouts looking at 31
UC Irvine took home the lion's share of weekly Big West awards claiming 12, a program record, with seven going to pitchers and five going to field players. UCI swept the awards in three different weeks.
The 'Eaters ended the year with a field player award from Christian Koss who hit .500 highlighted by a record finale going 6-for-6 with a double, HR, two RBI, a walk, and a stolen base. The six hits make him just the third Anteater all-time to accomplish that and first since Drew Hillman in 2011. He also reached base all seven times match Keston Hiura as the only two 'Eaters to make that happen, and he topped it off with a first in UCI history scoring six runs on the afternoon all in front of friends and family in his hometown of Riverside, Calif. for his first weekly award.
UCI finished with some noteworthy season marks:
+ The defense committed just 38 errors setting a new program-best beating out the 2013 Anteaters who committed just 39 errors
+ UCI walked 245 times in 2019, the most since the program was brought back in 2002. It's the seventh-most all-time
+ UCI pitching averaged 8.62 Ks per nine innings in 2019. UCI finished over 8.0 for just the fourth season all-time setting a new high
mark in 2019.
+ The 'Eaters also walked just 139 batters as a pitching staff falling eight short of the all-time program low of 131 set in 2013
UC Irvine leaders began with Brandon Lewis taking the team bests in batting (.315), at-bats (219), runs (51), hits (69), doubles (20), HR (14), RBI (54), total bases (131), and slugging (.598). Lewis was 1 of 3 Anteaters to play and start in all 54 games joining Christian Koss and Mikey Filia. Koss also finished as the team leader in assists on defense (160) along with stolen bases (11-for-13), triples (5), and sacrifice flies (4). Koss was tied with Sam Ireland with four sacrifice hits each. Jake Palmer finished as the walks leader with 39 despite missing multiple weeks, and his .460 on-base percentage led UCI. The 'Eaters finished with a team batting average of .268, one of the five-lowest in program history, and yet had five hitters finish the season over .300 and seven batting .295 or better
Nationally, the team finished among the nation's best in pitching with the 18th-best ERA, 22nd-least hits allowed per nine innings, third-most shutouts, third-lowest WHIP, and second-best strikeout-to-walk ratio. UCI finished as the nation's No. 1 in least amount of walks per nine innings issuing just 2.63 per game.
UC Irvine finished among the top half of the nation in every offensive, defensive, and pitching category except for hits, sacrifice bunts, and stolen bases. Offensively, UCI was 13th nationally with 93 hit by pitch which also led the Big West, and the team was top 100 in on-base percentage (66th), triples (81st), and runs per game (91st). UCI's win-loss percentage of 0.685 also ended as the 24th-highest in the NCAA
Anteaters had nationally-ranked individual performances starting with Trenton Denholm and his third-best WHIP and 1 of 12 pitchers with 4 or more complete games. Denholm was also top 100 in ERA (14th), hits allowed (12th), walks allowed (62nd), K-to-BB ratio (57th), and strikeouts (98th). He was also 1 of 51 pitchers with as many as nine wins topping only by his teammate Andre Pallante and his 10-win campaign, 1 of 21 pitchers. Pallante was also 83rd in ERA, 96th in hits allowed, and 79th in WHIP. Taylor Rashi also snuck in in the No. 20 spot in saves. On offense, Brandon Lewis had top 100 numbers in doubles (35th), HR (64th), RBI (98th), and slugging (96th) joined by Jake Palmer who finished 28th with nearly a walk per game and the 84th-best on-base percentage. Lastly were Mike Peabody and Christian Koss finishing top 50 in HBP and triples, respectively.
The Anteaters finished the regular season ranked No. 20 according to Perfect Game. UCI was as high as 15th this season from Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and 16th according to Baseball America. UCI was ranked in all major polls for 12 of 15 weeks during the year
UC Irvine had its eighth member join the Major League ranks last week as Keston Hiura made his debut on Tuesday, May 14, going 2-for-3 with a BB including a hit off of PHI pitcher Jerad Eickhoff's leg in his first MLB at-bat. Hiura later added his first career HR on Sunday, May 19, a solo HR in the fifth inning off ATL starter Mike Foltynewicz.
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 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.
UCI put up huge numbers in the season finale scoring 22 runs on 23 hits. It was the most runs since 1989, most hits since 2008, and featured 17 singles, a top-5 mark in program history. It featured UCI's first 6-run game from a player who also knocked the program's third 6-hit game as part of three players with four or more runs, four player with three-plus hits, and eight player with multiple RBI in the win over UCR.
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 finished with the second-most regular season wins for a UCI head coach in their debut behind Mike Gillespie's 38.
Game Notes
Record: 37-17
Big West: 17-7 (T2nd)
Home: 21-5
Away: 16-12
Team AVG: .268
Runs: 340
HR: 36
Team ERA: 3.54
Innings: 476.0
BB / K: 139 / 456
Team Defense: 0.981
Big West Pitcher of the Year: Trenton Denholm
Big West Defensive Player of the Year: Christian Koss
All-Big West
First Team: Trenton Denholm, Taylor Rashi, Brandon Lewis, Adrian Damla
Second Team: Andre Pallante, Christian Koss, Mike Peabody, Jake Palmer
Around The Horn
37 - Head Coach Ben Orloff lead the Anteaters to 37 wins in his first season as head coach. The 37 ranks second behind Mike Gillespie's 38 regular season wins for a coach in his first season at UCI. It's the fifth-most regular season wins for a UC Irvine team since 2002. UCI also registered its 10th season with 20+ wins in Anteater Ballpark
T2nd - UC Irvine finished with a 17-7 record in the Big West good for a tie for 2nd in the standings with Cal Poly. Its just the sixth season in 27 years with the Big West finishing second or higher. The 17 Big West wins mark a tie for the second most the team has won behind only the 2009 Big West champion team that won 22 games
8th - The 8th Anteater to reach the Major Leagues emerged on Tuesday, May 14 as Keston Hiura joined the Milwaukee Brewers and went 2-for-3 with a BB in his debut. He has since homered three times. Hiura was the No. 1 prospect in Milwaukee's organization and by position (2B). He's the first 'Eater to debut since Christian Bergman in 2014
UC Irvine finished 2019 with its 13th series win in 15 weekend series. UCI is just 1 of 5 schools to win 13 or more weekend series joining NCAA Tournament teams UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt. UCI completed seven sweeps among its series wins with three coming on the road and three coming against Big West competition
The 'Eaters finished second in the Big West tied with Cal Poly with 17-7 records, two games back of champion UC Santa Barbara. The Anteaters finish second of higher for just the sixth time in the program's 27 years in the Big West. It also won as many as 17 conference games for just the third time.
UCI went 21-5 in Anteater Ballpark, the 10th 20-win home season in the 18 years of Anteater Ballpark. UCI's five losses are its least behind a 2-loss 2009 campaign and 4-loss 2011 campaign
UC Irvine finished with 20 non-conference wins going 20-10 including 12 wins against conferences rated in the top 10 nationally. UCI went 7-3 against the Pac-12 Conference with 6-2 mark at home. UCI traveled out of state five times including 1,000-mile+ trips Iowa, Hawai'i, Missouri State, and Rice. The 'Eaters finished with an 11-3 record out of state in 2019
2019 All-Big West awards rolled out with eight Anteaters honored, one shy of the program record, but matching the eight named in 2018. UCI took home two major awards - Big West Pitcher of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year:
Trenton Denholm took home pitcher of the year, the seventh for the program all-time after finishing with the Big West's top marks in ERA, opponent batting average, innings, and WHIP with second-most wins and strikeouts
Christian Koss was awarded defensive player of the year honors, a third for UCI and first since winning back-to-back in 2011 and 2012. Koss led the conference in assists with just 10 errors having played every inning of his 54 games, and 32 double plays turned ranked second.
Denholm and Koss each were among the all-conference honorees. Denholm was on the first team with Brandon Lewis, conference leader in RBI and tied for the most home runs in program history, Taylor Rashi, one of the two closers as he finished second with 12 saves and allowed just one earned run in 21 relief appearances, and Adrian Damla, hitting .299 as a first baseman with 27 RBI in Big West games to lead all players as the entirety of the group received their first honor.
Koss highlighted the second team along with other first-timers Jake Palmer, conference leader with 39 walks and third-highest on-base percentage, Mike Peabody, the fourth-best on-base percentage along with 11 doubles, 28 RBI, and a Big West-best 16 HBP, and the only returner to the team, Andre Pallante, who tied atop the win category with 10 while posting a 2.68 ERA and the most strikeouts looking at 31
UC Irvine took home the lion's share of weekly Big West awards claiming 12, a program record, with seven going to pitchers and five going to field players. UCI swept the awards in three different weeks.
The 'Eaters ended the year with a field player award from Christian Koss who hit .500 highlighted by a record finale going 6-for-6 with a double, HR, two RBI, a walk, and a stolen base. The six hits make him just the third Anteater all-time to accomplish that and first since Drew Hillman in 2011. He also reached base all seven times match Keston Hiura as the only two 'Eaters to make that happen, and he topped it off with a first in UCI history scoring six runs on the afternoon all in front of friends and family in his hometown of Riverside, Calif. for his first weekly award.
UCI finished with some noteworthy season marks:
+ The defense committed just 38 errors setting a new program-best beating out the 2013 Anteaters who committed just 39 errors
+ UCI walked 245 times in 2019, the most since the program was brought back in 2002. It's the seventh-most all-time
+ UCI pitching averaged 8.62 Ks per nine innings in 2019. UCI finished over 8.0 for just the fourth season all-time setting a new high
mark in 2019.
+ The 'Eaters also walked just 139 batters as a pitching staff falling eight short of the all-time program low of 131 set in 2013
UC Irvine leaders began with Brandon Lewis taking the team bests in batting (.315), at-bats (219), runs (51), hits (69), doubles (20), HR (14), RBI (54), total bases (131), and slugging (.598). Lewis was 1 of 3 Anteaters to play and start in all 54 games joining Christian Koss and Mikey Filia. Koss also finished as the team leader in assists on defense (160) along with stolen bases (11-for-13), triples (5), and sacrifice flies (4). Koss was tied with Sam Ireland with four sacrifice hits each. Jake Palmer finished as the walks leader with 39 despite missing multiple weeks, and his .460 on-base percentage led UCI. The 'Eaters finished with a team batting average of .268, one of the five-lowest in program history, and yet had five hitters finish the season over .300 and seven batting .295 or better
Nationally, the team finished among the nation's best in pitching with the 18th-best ERA, 22nd-least hits allowed per nine innings, third-most shutouts, third-lowest WHIP, and second-best strikeout-to-walk ratio. UCI finished as the nation's No. 1 in least amount of walks per nine innings issuing just 2.63 per game.
UC Irvine finished among the top half of the nation in every offensive, defensive, and pitching category except for hits, sacrifice bunts, and stolen bases. Offensively, UCI was 13th nationally with 93 hit by pitch which also led the Big West, and the team was top 100 in on-base percentage (66th), triples (81st), and runs per game (91st). UCI's win-loss percentage of 0.685 also ended as the 24th-highest in the NCAA
Anteaters had nationally-ranked individual performances starting with Trenton Denholm and his third-best WHIP and 1 of 12 pitchers with 4 or more complete games. Denholm was also top 100 in ERA (14th), hits allowed (12th), walks allowed (62nd), K-to-BB ratio (57th), and strikeouts (98th). He was also 1 of 51 pitchers with as many as nine wins topping only by his teammate Andre Pallante and his 10-win campaign, 1 of 21 pitchers. Pallante was also 83rd in ERA, 96th in hits allowed, and 79th in WHIP. Taylor Rashi also snuck in in the No. 20 spot in saves. On offense, Brandon Lewis had top 100 numbers in doubles (35th), HR (64th), RBI (98th), and slugging (96th) joined by Jake Palmer who finished 28th with nearly a walk per game and the 84th-best on-base percentage. Lastly were Mike Peabody and Christian Koss finishing top 50 in HBP and triples, respectively.
The Anteaters finished the regular season ranked No. 20 according to Perfect Game. UCI was as high as 15th this season from Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and 16th according to Baseball America. UCI was ranked in all major polls for 12 of 15 weeks during the year
UC Irvine had its eighth member join the Major League ranks last week as Keston Hiura made his debut on Tuesday, May 14, going 2-for-3 with a BB including a hit off of PHI pitcher Jerad Eickhoff's leg in his first MLB at-bat. Hiura later added his first career HR on Sunday, May 19, a solo HR in the fifth inning off ATL starter Mike Foltynewicz.
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 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.
UCI put up huge numbers in the season finale scoring 22 runs on 23 hits. It was the most runs since 1989, most hits since 2008, and featured 17 singles, a top-5 mark in program history. It featured UCI's first 6-run game from a player who also knocked the program's third 6-hit game as part of three players with four or more runs, four player with three-plus hits, and eight player with multiple RBI in the win over UCR.
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 finished with the second-most regular season wins for a UCI head coach in their debut behind Mike Gillespie's 38.
Players Mentioned
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