Baseball Has Valentine's Date at Fresno State

Friday, February 14

Fresno, CA

6:05 PM

UC Irvine

Fresno State

Baseball Has Valentine's Date at Fresno State

February 10, 2020 | Baseball

By: Alex Croteau

THIS WEEK IN ANTEATER BASEBALL

Game Notes

UC Irvine Anteaters (37-17, 17-7 Big West)
at Fresno State Bulldogs (40-16-1, 20-8-1 Mountain West)
Pete Beiden Field at Bob Bennett Stadium (3,575) - Fresno, Calif.

Friday, February 14 - 6:05 PM
RHP Trenton Denholm (9-4, 1.81) vs. LHP Jaime Arias (1-3, 3.28)
Watch Online | Live Stats | KUCI 88.9 FM

Saturday, February 15 - 2:05 PM
RHP Peter Van Loon (UCI debut) vs. RHP Oscar Carvajal (4-4, 2.68)
Live Stats | kuci.org

Sunday, February 16 - 1:05 PM
TBD vs. LHP Nikoh Mitchell (3-4, 5.23)
Watch Online | Live Stats | KUCI 88.9 FM

Broadcast Information

Video
This weekend's games will be broadcasted online via the Mountain West Network and Stadium on Friday and Sunday only

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
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

18 - Head Coach Ben Orloff enters his second season at the helm with a 35-man roster filled with 18 newcomers - over half of the roster. The Anteater experience returns 56% of their at-bats from 2019 (1,022) and less than 40% of their innings pitcher from a year ago (188.1 IP)

11-7 - UCI has flirted with the winning side on Valentine's Day all-time going 11-7. UCI has opened on Valentine's Day 3 times with a 2-2 record. The 'Eaters are also 7-3 when Valentine's Day comes on the road. The last two Valentine's Day matchups have come against Fresno State winning 2 of 3 at home in 2014 and being swept at Fresno State in 2015

Anteater baseball is back for its 42nd season of existence. Friday night's season opener will mark 50 years to the day of the first UCI baseball game played in 1970. The Anteater 50th Anniversary will be celebrated all season highlighted by an Alumni Reunion Weekend Game on May 9 in Anteater Ballpark when UCI will host Cal State Fullerton and honor their 1970 squad and the entire "Golden Era" of UC Irvine Baseball from the 1970s.

The 'Eaters come into 2020 fresh off a second-place finish in the Big West tied with Cal Poly with 17-7 records, two games back of champion UC Santa Barbara. The Anteaters finish second or higher for just the sixth time in the program's 27 years in the Big West. They won 17 conference games for just the third time.

The team is projected to finish 5th according to the Big West Preseason Coaches Poll gathering one first-place vote. UCI was projected to finish second last you and did, and hauled in the most first-place votes with four. Finishing atop the preseason poll is Cal State Fullerton with Cal Poly and Long Beach State tied for second and UC Santa Barbara settled in fourth. Hawai'i was one vote behind UCI projected to finish sixth. CSUN stands in seventh with UC Riverside just edging out UC Davis for eight at the bottom of the preseason Big West projections

UCI begins behind the arm of junior Trenton Denholm who has been named to three Preseason All-American teams so far. Junior transfer Peter Van Loon will follow him as the Saturday starter. The rotation will be completed as the weekend rolls on with arms like Nick Pinto, Troy Wentworth, Josh Ibarra, and Cole van den Helder all in the mix to make the Sunday start

UCI is 24-16-1 all-time in season openers entering its 42nd season. UCI has been rained out in 2 of the last 3 season openers. Last year, they played a twice vs. Washington splitting the games. In the last four seasons, UCI is 3-2 on Opening Day. The season also conveniently opens up on Valentine's Day, a date that UCI is 11-7 all-time on, 7-3 on road Valentine's games, and 2-2 when their season begins directly on Valentine's Day with the last two games coming vs. Fresno State.

UC Irvine finished 2019 with 13 series wins 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

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. He returns to the rotation as 1 of 5 returners to the staff that put up innings in 2019 and the only to toss over 30 innings

"On the pitching staff side as we sit here in January, it's going to be a lot looser roles. We may not have designated Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Tuesday guys. Does someone start or setup or close? We have more numbers of quality pitchers this year. But think its going to look a little different. More creative or maybe less conventional."

A lot of the staff have starting experience, but come from different places at their previous stops Peter Van Loon made 22 starts on the JC level striking out 100 more hitters than walks with a chances to put up bigger innings than most. Josh Ibarra has seen time on each end, primarily late-game situations at Golden West, but stepped up to throw a no-hitter with 16 Ks in his final JC start. Troy Wentworth was solely a bullpen arm in his one JC year, but has promise to both start a game and get a good chunk of innings in the same way Cole van den Helder has come in and stpped up in the fall and winter. Stepping up in either role at the JC level most recently after starting in a similar position to Gordon Ingebritson in a redshirt season at Oregon. Other versatile arms include Ingebritson who traveled across the country to Coastal Carolina redshirting there, returning to Pasadena, and will be put into high leverage situations out of the pen with and unconventional arm slot with teams likely seeing him multiple times in a weekend

"Putting guys in positions to try to be successful, and I think that we have a lot of guys like a Rashi last year. As a reliever, he can put up really good numbers. If he's a starter, he'll be good, but not what he can do in the bullpen. We have a lot of arms that could be good in 1-2-3 inning stints. In smaller roles, guys could exceed expectations and we need more of them to collectively do what we need to do as a staff."

Griffin Mazur really solidified his role behind the plate finishing as the primary catcher over the final two months of 2019 finishing with a .297 average at the plate scoring 19 times and driving in 18. Jacob Castro provides a vital left-handed bat as he found his stride in May and finished with 6 of 12 hits for extra bases and some of the team's lowest strikeout totals

The Anteater infield had one of its best seasons committing a program-low 38 errors, only the second time under 40 errors in a season. 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. He has since excelled in his pro career. First-year players Jake Cosgrove, Riley Kasper, Taishi Nakawake, and Connor McGuire will take the reins at the infield positions. Cosgrove sat out 2019 after coming from Seattle U where he produced 40 hits, 3 HR, 26 RBI in 49 games as a freshman in 2018. Riley Kasper is likely the heir at second base with the ability to play almost anywhere bringing plus-bat from the JC level where he had 102 hits, 76 runs scored in 83 games. Connor McGuire had taken reps at 3B throughout the fall and winter shifting from SS in HS, who has a bright future stemming from an athletic family pedigree. A bulk of the offense came from last year's offensive monster Brandon Lewis at third base who led UCI in all offensive scoring and power categories. Taishi Nakawake is ready to go as the frontrunner at shortstop. He hit .298 on an El Camino College squad that finished as the runner-up for the State title.

First base is open to whoever can grab hold of it. Andre Antone and Konnor Zickefoose have seen time there trying to get their bat in the lineup and the small bit of power in the order. Adrian Damla found his groove in conference play leading the Big West with 27 of his 39 RBIs. He's on track to be healthy for the opener and could fit right into the first base spot. Zickefoose's versatility could see him at 1B, RF, or DH with the addition of exciting first-year talent Nathan Church. Antone's big bat alongside John Jensen will compete for time in the order as well.

"That part of our game, we'll always try to fit like everything to the personality of the team, but for me, a disciplined approach will always be the core of our offense."

The outfield is strewn with talent as on-base fiend Jake Palmer shone out of the leadoff spot along with Mike Peabody who came alive and joined him on the All-Big West Second Team and will anchor the top third of the lineup for coach Orloff. The loss of Koss and Mikey Filia, 2 of 3 Anteaters to play all 54 games, won't lose a step with Peabody shifting to CF.

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.

The Anteaters were victorious in their fall exhibitions tying things up late at UCLA and going ahead in the 9th inning for a 7-6 victory. UCI pulled away in their home exhibition after a 3-3 tie scoring in each of the final four innings for a 9-3 win thanks to scoreless pitching from 7 of their 9 arms used

"What we can take from the fall games is that we can be good. We have talent, we've seen lots of growth in individual players. You just never know until the lights come on and the scoreboard turns on and someone is in the other dugout. The pitching was encouraging. Outside of Vergara and Riddle, it was guys new to facing Division I competition, but those are 9 arms that gave us a chance to win. On offense, we scored 7 and 9 runs through nine innings. Jake Cosgrove hit over .300 as a freshman two years ago and he's batting 8th. We've got a chance to be a deeper lineup than just the thump and star power in the middle of the order a year ago."

FRESNO STATE BULLDOGS

UC Irvine and Fresno State open the season against each other for the 5th time in their histories, 4th time as part of a three-game series. The inaugural meeting in 1983 started the season as Fresno State swept the series just as they did the last time these teams faced off to start the 2015 season

In the all-time series, the Bulldogs have dominated winning 34 of 44 meetings with 12 series wins in 13 previous series. UCI is just 5-23 at Fresno's Pete Beiden Field at Bob Bennett Stadium

2019 Bulldogs reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012 and 35th time overall with a 40-16-1 mark winning the Mountain West regular season and tournament titles. FS went a perfect 4-0 against the Big West last year defeating CSF, Cal Poly twice, and upending UCSB in the first game of the Stanford Regional.

Fresno State hit well in 2019 with a .299 average, 20th in the nation, along with top 50 marks in runs per game, doubles, slugging, and hits. Emilio Nogales (.290, 2 HR, 27 RBI) and Nate Thimjon (.267, 3 HR, 27) return what experience they have remaining

As a staff, Nikoh Mitchell returns after making 15 starts a year ago reaching the 5th inning just 4 times. He will lead a fairly inexperienced starting staff. Soph. Jaime Arias had 12 saves and a 3.28 ERA with 7 returners back after at least 16 appearances last year. First-rounder Ryan Jensen anchored the pitching staff into the tournament