IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball started the 2021 season with a bang coming from behind for the walkoff, 5-4 victory Saturday afternoon at Anteater Ballpark.
EARLY RISERS
The 'Eaters (1-0) were the first on the board scoring a run in the first inning.
Mike Peabody bashed a double to center field.
Nathan Church followed with a bloop single to center to move Peabody up, and then with two outs,
Riley Kasper rolled a ball into the holt at shortstop on a run-and-hit to score Peabody and make it 1-0 after one.
HUSKIES FIRE BACK
The second inning started ominously with
Trenton Denholm leaving the game with a foot injury. Before he left, Will Simpson bombed a home run to dead center to tie things up and Christian Jones walked before he was lifted. Denholm had a steady first inning holding Washington (0-1) scoreless and striking out a pair despite 28 pitches thrown.
UW grabbed the lead in the third inning manufacturing a run off an infield single and stolen base by Braiden Ward. They got two more in the fourth inning, both with two outs, after the wind picked up in their favor helping keep a pop-up fair byCole Fontenelle and adding some distance on a Michael Petrie double to go up 4-1.
BULLPEN BEASTS
With Denholm down, the 'Eaters had a slew of arms step up starting with
Michael Frias. Despite allowing three Husky runs, he slammed the door in the second with three strikeouts after Denholm exited, and proceeded to strikeout a career high seven hitters over a career high five innings and preserve the close game.
Following Frias were
Dylan Riddle,
Gordon Ingebritson, and
Jacob King, all keeping the boat steady despite hits, walks, and errors peppered in there, but they gave UCI a shot heading into the bottom of the ninth.
FINISHING STRONG
The 'Eater offense had sputter after scoring the first run. A few double plays ended key rallies. They managed to get a run across on a
Connor McGuire double through the infield to score
Jake Cosgrove and make it 4-2.
UCI was down to its final outs against closer Gabe Smith, but he tagged
Riley Kasper with a hit by pitch. After a strikeout,
Jacob Castro bounced a ball to third baseman Cole Fontenelle who skipped it by his first baseman and into the dugout to put runners on second and third with just one out.
Connor McGuire was back to the dish, and picked up wihere he left off with a massive triple over the center fielder's head scoring both runners and tying the game at 4-4.
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Josh Sheck would follow as a pinch-hitter and drive a ball into the left-center gap plating
Connor McGuire for the 5-4 win and ensuing dogpile.
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FINAL: UC IRVINE 5, WASHINGTON 4
Jacob King scored the win on the evening throwing the top of the ninth. The win was his first of his career. Gabe Smith took the loss for the Huskies.
The walkoff win was the team's first since April of 2019. Sheck's single marked the first pinch-hit walkoff for UCI since
Parker Coss drew a bases loaded PH walk to beat Seattle U in 2016.
McGuire had his best night as an Anteater in the early stages of his career with a double, triple, and three RBI. He was the only 'Eater with multiple hits as they out-hit UW, 9-8.
Anteaters making their debut included pinch-hitters
Caden Kendle and
Justin Torres, and
Woody Hadeen who jumped in at shortstop for the final two innings.
For head coach
Ben Orloff, its his first win to open the season in his now third year as the program's head coach.
The game opened the 20th year of operation for Anteater Ballpark. The next home win for the Anteaters will be No. 350 in the park's history dating back to 2002.
The Huskies had two-hit days from Ward, Simpson, and Fontenelle, and each scored a run. Guerrero went the furthest on the mound for UW at 3.2 innings as the starter. Two of the five runs allowed by their staff were unearned.
Head Coach Ben Orloff's Thoughts
"It's great to win, especially like that on opening day. There's not a lot of times in the course of the season where you come from behind, you beat the other team's closer, you walk-off, you have the excitement; that was pretty special."
"McGuire took a huge at-bat. He's been swinging the bat really well since we've been back. Sheck was good for us last year. He was the only left-hander left for us on the bench, but we knew he was going to get into the game at some point if we were chasing runs, and he made us look pretty good."
"Sheck gets dogpiled, but Frias is the hero. For Frias to do what he did, to give us a chance to win tonight and a chance the next two nights, this game could have been crippling for the entire weekend if it not for the bullpen."
SERIES CONTINUES
The clubs start it up again Sunday, February 21, for the second game in this three-game set starting at 1:00 p.m.
Peter Van Loon will start for the Anteaters against UW righty, Logan Gerling. Fans can find multiple ways to follow the action on ucirvinesports.com - watching via Bigwest TV, listening on KUCI 88.9 FM and kuci.org, or following the live stats and twitter updates.
