STANFORD, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball dropped a second game at the Sunken Diamond to Stanford getting outslugged, 6-1, Saturday in the first game of the doubleheader.

FOUR-BASE CLOVER
UCI (5-6) jumped out to the early lead in this one thanks to Sam Ireland making his first start of 2021. He popped the first pitch he saw in the third inning out over the left-center wall for his first career home run and a 1-0 Anteater lead.

LOVABLE LEFTIES
The starters took the reins of the game from that point as Nick Pinto and Stanford's Quinn Mathews chopped down all hitters they saw. Both had allowed just three hits through six innings and three walks between them. Stanford managed to knot things up against Pinto with two outs in the sixth getting an infield single and a double by Tim Tawa to make it 1-1.

BIG FLYS
The 'Eaters went to the bullpen for the seventh relieving Pinto. Josh Ibarra was greeted rudely by the first batter he saw as Vincent Martinez lifted his second home run of the series out to center field for the 2-1 Stanford (9-1) lead. After the next two hitters singled, Drew Bowser connected for another home run to open up a 5-1 lead in the seventh.

FINAL: STANFORD 6, UC IRVINE 1
The Cardinal added a final run in the eighth on a double play ball. Ibarra drew the loss now at 1-2 on the season, Mathews for Stanford improved to 2-0 going eight innings.

Pinto was not in the decision, but finished with five strikeouts returning to form he had against previous Pac-12 competition.

The offense outside of Ireland's home run came from Justin Torres and Luke Spillane who each had two singles, but could not find a run. Spillane added his fourth steal of the year. Anteater freshman Abraham Garcia-Pacheco made his collegiate debut in the game pinch-hitting and registering two at-bats in the game.

The 'Eaters continue to search for their first win over Stanford, now 0-6 all-time. The rest of the doubleheader was set to start right after game one with Michael Frias and Drew Dowd going toe-to-toe on the mound.