Broadcast Information
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Video
UC Irvine's Tuesday game at USD will air on TheW.tv. UCI and Cal Poly meet at home with ESPN3 broadcasting Friday and Saturday live on the ESPN app. Trent Rush will call the games joined by Adam Kennedy (Friday) and Wes Clements (Saturday).
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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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Around The Horn
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9th -Â
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.
108 - Anteater pitchers struck out 9 batters looking over the last week pushing their season total to
108 strikeouts looking to lead the Big West. The three Anteater starters are all in the top 10 with
Trenton Denholm (18) in sixth,
Tanner Brubaker (19) tied for fourth, and the conference leader in
Andre Pallante with 24 of his 67 strikeouts looking
4 - UC Irvine vs. Cal Poly has been a dead heat the last two years. In the 6 games the teams have played, each has won 3,
4 of the games have been decided by 1 run, the winning team only needed
4 runs in 5 of the contests, 3 games were decided in the team's last at-bat, and all 6 were tied at one point after the fifth inning.
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UC Irvine dropped just its 2nd series over the weekend to Iowa in 12 weekends. The 'Eaters have swept six of the 10 series they've won including two conference sweeps.
The Anteaters had just their second losing week of 2019 going 1-3 with a midweek loss to CSF and the road series loss at Iowa. UCI gave up a season high 16 hits on Tuesday and turned it around for a season high 17 hits and five doubles to finish the week on Sunday which included the team's second highest-scoring inning of the year with nine runs in the fifth inning against Iowa on six hits.
The Anteaters had two streaks snapped starting with the Tuesday loss to end a 12-game home win streak .The win Sunday did erase a four-game losing streak, its second of the season.
As the team returns home, UCI is 15-3 home this year with the potential to be its best on record with eight 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 with its standing unchanged during the non-conference week. The two teams ahead of UCI, Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara, are tied atop the Big West with 12-3 records. The rest of the conference holds losing records in conference play with Hawai'i and UC Davis at 8-10 each tied for fourth and Cal State Fullerton at 6-9 percentage points back in sixth. Every Big West squad has at least five Big West wins to this point. Overall, only UCI and UCSB have winning records with Cal Poly even at 22-22
Anteater pitching took a hit with a couple high-offensive games allowed, but still standing well nationally with the No. 4 WHIP (1.15) and No. 23 ERA (3.58). Elsewhere, UCI pitching has allowed 2.77 walks per nine innings, second-least in the country, the 10th-best strikeout-to-walk ratio, and 19th-lowest allowing 7.61 hits per game
In conference rankings, the pitching staff leads the Big West in BB/game, H/game, WHIP, and shutouts with other categories like K-to-BB ratio, strikeouts per nine innings, and ERA among the top two
UC Irvine's weekend starters were strong allowing six runs over 19 innings including the team's third complete game of the season and second from
Trenton Denholm in a losing effort. He also put up his second-highest strikeout total with eight while not issuing a walk.
Taylor Rashi took the third starting spot with
Tanner Brubaker unable to pitch over the weekend and work admirably in his first start of 2019 allowing a single run in five innings scattering seven hits. Rashi lost his shutout streak on a first-inning double ending his UCI record streak at 32.2 innings pitched while keeping his season ERA at a microscopic 0.29 along with three walks to 41 strikeouts
The trio of Pallante, Denholm, and Brubaker each still stand among the tops in the conference in major categories. Denholm leads the conference in WHIP and opponent's batting average and is second in ERA and innings. He's tied with 74.2 IP alongside Pallante who leads the conference in strikeouts looking with 23. The 'Eaters have 108 strikeouts looking to lead all clubs with Brubaker fourth and Denholm sixth. Pallante is fifth in strikeouts, one behind his teammate Denholm, and despite not starting over the weekend, Brubaker remains top 10 in ERA, opponent's batting, WHIP, innings, strikeouts looking, and wins with his fellow Anteater starters
The Anteater pitchers have collected five Big West Pitcher of the Week awards to tie a program single-season record. Earlier last week, Rashi 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 theaward, an Anteater has been represented nine times with three years (2008, 2009, 2014) placing an 'Eater among the finalists
The Anteater offense was up-and-down hitting .287 overall with a 15-run win and its first time being shutout mixed in.
Jacob Castro led the charge with a pair of three-hit games going .375 over the week to lead the team along with his six RBIs and zero strikeouts. Castro also put up his first career home run, a solo shot Sunday for the first Anteater run.
Konnor Zickefoose added his first HR of 2019 in the ninth and hit .353 on the week with four RBIs and a team-high four runs., and
Mikey Filia  had the big blow in the nine-run inning blasting a three-run shot to dead center for his fourth of the season
Other key contributors included
Brandon Lewis, despite ending his on-base streak at 36 games Friday, he matched Castro with three doubles, scoring three times, driving in two, and stealing a base.
Sam Ireland was 2-for-2 Sunday leading the team on the week with a .571 slugging percentage walking twice, scoring three times, zero strikeouts, and was hit by a pitch in each weekend game.
Mike Peabody was hit twice to add to his Big West-leading total of 14 while stealing a base.
The Anteaters dropped from the rankings completely for the first time in 2019. UCI has been as high as 15th this season, and were 19th last week according to Baseball America.
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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SAN DIEGO TOREROS
UCI and San Diego finish their yearly series of home-and-home midweek matchups Tuesday at USD. 2018 saw UCI gutting out a 2-1 win at USD in 11 innings thanks to a
Matt Reitano solo HR. The Toreros are 28-20 to this point middling through the competitive WCC at 12-12. They also took at win from Missouri State and won at home series with St. John's.
USD can hit with a .285 batting average with the most hits and runs in the WCC along with nearly two doubles a game, but just 22 HRs. Transfer Ripken Reyes is hitting .360, 1 of 6 Toreros hitting over .290 along with seven players with at least 27 RBIs with Cody Jefferis and Jeff Houghtby leading the pack with 32 each
The pitching staff has a 5.70 ERA, last in the WCC, walking 5.45 batters a game among the most in the nation on top of 81 hit batters. Right-hander Louie Crow gets the start with a 9.13 ERA raised by 7 ER in 1.2 IP in his last outing at Saint Mary's. He allowed 4 ER in 1.2 IP at UCI earlier this year, and does have the 65th-best defense
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CAL POLY MUSTANGS
Cal Poly is battle-tested coming into the week with a 22-22 record, but tied atop the Big West with UCSB at 12-3. CP had a brutal non-conference starting with sweeps at the hands of Oklahoma, Washington, and Cal, a four-game split with Saint Mary's, and stealing road wins in series at USC and Baylor. CP plays Pepperdine Tuesday and finishes a suspended game prior before coming to UCI
The 2018 Mustangs were 30-27 finishing with a 15-9 Big West record. UCI went to San Luis Obispo and took two of three in low-scoring affairs a year after dropping two of three at home in three one-run games.
The Mustangs don't have any stats that jump out in the middle nationally and in the conference in most everything. They've turned 36 double plays which is 68th in the NCAA and second in the conference. They also allow 9.28 hits a game (4th in Big West) and strikes out 7.7 hitters a game (3rd in Big West). Chase Watkins and Bobby Ay will start Friday and Saturday, both broadcasted on ESPN3, with Ay undefeated this year at 7-0 with a 3.24 ERA in 66.2 IP. Watkins has made just five starts with an 0-1 record while Darren Nelson, whose started 11 games, will take the ball Tuesday
Michael Clark is a horse out of the pen for CP appearing in 26 games and tossing 56.1 innings putting up 11 outings with two or more innings even throwing 4 and 6.1 IP in separate games of the LBSU series and 5.2 IP at UC Davis not allowing a run in any of those three appearances. He picked up three of his four wins in those games, and has eight saves to his name as well.
The offense is hitting .258 led by Tate Samuelson at .296 with 2 HR and 24 RBIs while Conagher Sands has come on to hit .356 in 30 games. Cal Poly is one of the worst teams in the nation in hitting home runs, just 8, and at stealing bases, with 17, both totals coming in last in the Big West and among the bottom six in the nation
The defense is low in the conference with a .962 mark, eighth in the Big West, committing 64 errors in 44 games, but does turn a lot of double plays.
UCI holds the all-time series lead at 29-25 with a 14-13 advantage at home. The home team has lost the last two series in 2017 and 2018. The 2017 series in Anteater Ballpark featured an extra-inning win for the Mustangs on Friday and a walk-off Anteater victory Saturday
