IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball completed the weekend sweep of Rice taking Sunday matchup in Anteater Ballpark, 9-4.

Leading The Way
The top of the order was back to their old tricks in Jake Palmer and Mike Peabody. Palmer started the first off with a double, but was stranded. His next at-bat in the second came with two outs and a pair of runners laying in wait on the basepaths. Palmer would smack a shot through the right side to plate both of them and give UCI (4-3) the early, 2-0 lead. Peabody would follow him up by singling him home and making it a 3-run advantage.

Tag Team Match
The starters settled in over the next couple innings bending but not breaking as the score remained 3-0.

The Anteaters found the gas pedal in the fifth, however, started by Palmer and Peabody getting into scoring position on a walk and double. Adrian Damla bounced out to bring one home, and Griffin Mazur lofted a sac fly to make it a 5-0 lead now with the bases empty and two out.

UC Irvine restarted their engines from Luke Spillane shooting his first career single into left field and Josh Sheck walking to set up the bottom of the order. Sam Ireland lined an RBI single, Connor McGuire followed with an RBI double, and Taishi Nakawake capped it all off with a slicing single to left field to plate the final two of the six-run fifth inning and all but put away the victory with a 9-0 lead.

Helder Skelter
Junior Cole van den Helder looked for a better outing than his 2.2-inning performance last week in Fresno State and he did just that. He scattered four hits over sevne innings and 91 pitches without allowing a walk all while shutting out the Rice Owls (0-6) to secure his first Division I victory. He also cut down eight Owls on strikes, the most for an Anteater pitcher in 2020.

"I felt pretty good. Coming back from Fresno, I didn't throw a lot of pitches so it's good to get back out there. I let the defense work, they made some good plays, and the offense got me runs. We knew they were free swingers so we wanted to keep the ball down, especially with the changeup, I think I did a good job of that, mixing it up, and keeping them off balance.

It's good to have the crowd behind us, and the wins on Friday and Saturday helps, so the combination of all those things really made me feel comfortable.

Final Score: UC Irvine 9, Rice 4
The offense as stated ran through Palmer and Peabody each with two hits, and Palmer added two runs and two RBIs which puts him atop the team in RBIs this season with seven, and he reached base in 11 of 18 plate appearances on the week.

The bottom of the order really came through with Connor McGuire and Sam Ireland each going 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs, Nakawake had two RBIs, and Spillane and Sheck each registered their first career hits and scored runs making their debuts in the starting lineup.

Along with van den Helder, the bullpen was serviceable getting enough to get the win. Gordon Ingebritson and Troy Wentworth each made their home debuts while Andre Antone went 0.1 innings in his pitching debut as an Anteater.

Rice brought the late offense led by Braden Comeaux with a three-hit day and two runs. Tyler LaRue had a two-run single while Cade Edwards, Trei Cruz, and Rodrigo Duluc each had a pair of hits.

Upcoming Week
The 'Eaters stay local for Tuesday hosting San Diego State at 6:00 p.m. They then hop North to Seattle to play a series against the University of Washington February 28 through March 1