SEATTLE, Wash. --- UC Irvine baseball found another gear Saturday at Husky Ballpark evening the series with a 9-0 victory over the Washington Huskies.

TONE SETTING
The first inning went a little different this time around as the 'Eaters (5-5) made the first move. Jake Palmer reached on an error followed by a Mike Peabody single and a bunt single by Luke Spillane to load things up. The first run came home the easy way on a walk to Adrian Damla. Josh Sheck brought the next two home from a potential double play ball. Ramon Bramasco's diving play and glove flip got Damla at second, but the throw to first was not gloved by Rollie Nichols skipping away and allowing Spillane to follow Peabody home and put UCI up, 3-0.

PETER PIPER
The Anteater junior took the mound and led the UCI charge putting up a dominant performance against the Huskies. He scattered baserunners through the first three innings, and struck out the side in the fourth to hold a runner in scoring position.

The Huskies perked up in the sixth hitting the ball hard and getting a pair of baserunners on, but he worked through it as part of seven shutout innings for the Anteaters.

"I really tried to focus on first pitch strikes. Fastball command has been a little shaky recently so I've been trying to dial it down," noted Peter Van Loon who had yet to put in a full performance in his first two starts which included no hits and four walks in 4.1 innings last Saturday.

"It's easy to say just go out there and don't walk guys, but where does that start? I noticed my first pitch strikes had been terrible recently so I really decided to treat each one like it was a 3-2 count and try to get it over. After that, each pitch builds on the last and the confidence in the fastball builds."

POURING IT ON
With Van Loon in cruise control, the Anteater offense decided to keep pace adding runs in the fifth, sixth, and eighth. Josh Sheck singled home a pair in the fifth to extend the lead, Luke Spillane fought through a ball fouled off his foot to drive home the sixth, and then Adrian Damla put the exclamation mark on the day with a sky-high two-run home run.

FINAL SCORE: UC IRVINE 9, WASHINGTON 0
Big breakout games came from freshmen Spillane and Sheck who produced six of the team's nine runs. Spillane had three hits driving in two and scoring twice while Sheck had three RBIs from two hits.

The tablesetters, Jake Palmer and Mike Peabody, did just that reaching base seven times between them and scoring five times led by Peabody's three hits including a triple.

"Always trying to go one extra base. If it's going to the wall, I'm always going to try. But I'm just getting comfortable staying with my approach, and with Palmer at the top, when he gets on I'm just trying to get him to the next base."

Peabody's day was punctuated by what he thought was his best play of the day coming on the defensive end. With the game still in the air in the sixth inning, Preston Viltz stepped up with a runner on and laced a shot into the right-center gap, and Peabody made his sprint out diving to make the catch and stop the momentum and ultimately preserve the shutout.

"I'm always going to think the defensive plays are better. I got a good read on it, and it was great to pick up Peter like that and keep them off the board."

Rounding out the offensive stars was Adrian Damla who was quiet most of the day walking in his first three at-bats while picking up an RBI, but put a big charge into a ball in the eighth inning high into the air and inches over the left field wall to make it a 9-0 ballgame. Damla finished with three RBIs on a 1-for-2 day, and his home run was the third of his career.

The Huskies (6-3) had little to report with just five hits, two from Ramon Bramasco batting ninth. Starter Jack Enger was touched for five runs, three of them earned, in addition to five walks and six strikeouts as he took the loss from five innings pitched.

The Anteater shutout is their first of the 2020 season after posting eight in 2019.

WRAPPING UP THE SERIES
The finale comes down Sunday with a 1:05 p.m. first pitch with Cole van den Helder on the mound for the 'Eaters looking to build on his impressive start last weekend. It sets up as a rubber match with either team able to take the series, and Van Loon and the entire staff has made a note of that.

"Nobody on this team likes losing, and when it's a complete team win you know it just fires everyone up. It's definitely something to build off of, and we're really excited for tomorrow."

The Huskies have yet to reveal their starter, but will look to get back on the winning side after their six-game win streak ended Saturday.