STANFORD, Calif. --- Anteater pitching was true to form Saturday night in the second game of the doubleheader against Stanford the Sunken Diamond getting a 5-1 victory.
FRIAS FRAME
The third-year made his third career start and first on the weekend stepping in during this four-game weekend series, and he looked more than at home on the mound. The righty stymied the Stanford Cardinal (9-2) allowing no hits and one baserunner from a walk through five innings of work. He added four strikeouts en route to his second win of the season.
RUN SUPPORT
While Frias was dealing in the bottom half of the inning, UC Irvine (6-6) found their bats in the top half of the third.
Dillon Tatum got things going by launching his first career home run deep and gone to left field for the 1-0 lead. The inning continued and UCI found two more runs thanks to
Justin Torres' opposite field double to extend the lead to 3-0.
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The Anteater lead remained the same in the sixth inning when they loaded the bases with two outs. Stanford gifted the 'Eaters two more runs on bases loaded walks, one to
Nathan Church and another to the birthday boy,
Caden Kendle, the first RBI of his Anteater career.
FINAL: UC IRVINE 5, STANFORD 1
The win for UCI is the first in program history against Stanford in seven matchups. UCI now has five of its six wins in this season against Pac-12 schools.
Frias again earned his second win of the year, most on the squad.
Jacob King cleaned up the final two innings striking out three, and
Dylan Riddle appeared for the 60th time in his Anteater career adding a strikeout in 1.1 innings.
Six different Anteater hitters accounted for the team's six hits, and five different 'Eaters also scored a run. Stanford got its lone run in the bottom of the sixth from a two-out double by Henry Gargus off
Gordon Ingebritson.
Anteater
Taishi Nakawake had his hit streak and RBI streak ended earlier in the day, but did account for a hit and a run along with a sparkling defensive play going deep in the hole at shortstop and making a Derek Jeter-esque leap as he threw and got the runner at first base.
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"Pinto and Frias were both great. Pinto keeps making strides, and he looks like the guy that I've said could be a Friday night starter. He gave another one of those starts today. Frias has arguably been our best pitcher. He starts today and goes five, and he did an unbelievable job for us."
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"The story of the day is how we pitched. For 17 of the 18 innings, we really kind of had our way. Offensively, Ireland hit that home run and gave us a bit of a jolt. Tatum got that three-run inning started with a home run. This place plays offensive, and both those guys really haven't had a lot of opportunities to play. For them to get a chance to play and hit a home run, it's easy for the guys to excited and its a good sign."
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"This win doesn't have any additional significance other than winning against an historical, great program. A lot of the guys on this Cardinal team, the seniors, are something like 91-24, so it's a good team. It feels good to beat a good team and do it on the road, and we hope for a good performance tomorrow."
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"Sunday will be a lot more of what we saw today. I think its kind of the strength of our team, the pitching depth and the defense. That was on full display today and it will have to be again tomorrow. I think we're really going to be able to make up some ground this year because of those two things. I think our pitchers 8 through 12 and our ability to play defense is at a high level, and I'm hoping it's on display tomorrow."
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FINAL OF FOUR
The team's get together Sunday at 1:05 p.m. for the final of four games. Both pitchers are undecided as the Anteaters have a chance to even the series.
