STANFORD, Calif. --- UC Irvine fell in the series finale at Stanford and Klein Field at the Sunken Diamond Sunday by a score of 8-6.

CARDINAL SINS
The scoring began in the second inning as Stanford (10-2) got to starter Troy Wentworth opening the inning with a double, walk, and two singles to go up 2-0 and knock the second-year 'Eater from the game. Reliever Michael Stanford got a pair of outs, but could not hold back the Cardinal offense allowing two more runs to come home on singles before Cole van den Helder stopped the inning and the Anteaters trailing, 4-0.

OUT OF REACH
The Anteaters (6-7) chipped away with a run on a Nathan Church sac fly in the third inning. The Cardinal responded with runs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth. Andrew Crampton doubled home an unearned run followed by a two-run single from Christian Robinson, and then a walked forced home the eighth run to make it an 8-1 Stanford lead heading to the final three innings.

UCI's offense made a late charge, but couldn't come all the way back putting up four runs in the seventh. Another sac fly started the rally off the bat of Dillon Tatum, and then a pinch-hit RBI double from Thomas McCaffrey sparked a frenzy of RBI hits that followed by Woody Hadeen and Nathan Church to make it a three-run contest. A Mike Peabody single and a passed ball scored Church to close the gap to two, but a pop-up stopped the five-run frame and cut short UCI's comeback effort.

FINAL: STANFORD 8, UC IRVINE 6
The pitching that had fueled the Anteater efforts over the weekend let them down on Sunday as seven pitchers were used and three just to get out of the second. Troy Wentworth took the loss, the first of his career, from four runs in an inning-plus. One of those seven pitchers was Cameron Wheeler, second-year Anteater making his collegiate debut, and got the final out in the sixth inning to stop the bleeding after entering with the bases loaded.

Mike Peabody returned to the lineup after missing the last seven games posting the 'Eaters' only two-hit performance. Nathan Church drove in a pair of RBIs. He along with McCaffrey and Hadeen had a hit, run, and RBI each.

Stanford shone at the bottom of the order getting six RBIs out of the six, seven, and nine hitters while each had two-hit games. Brandt Pancer was superb in his start going six innings allowing a run on three hits without a walk to secure the win. Zach Grech closed the door with a two-inning save for his fifth of the season.

For UCI, in its first four-game series since 2018, it dropped three of four, and has now lost or split each of its last five four-game series.

Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
"That what our team does, we play hard for nine innings. A couple times being down big like we were today and once in the Riverside series, I feel like we competed for nine innings. The frustration is the inability to get stops in those first three innings. It feels like a blowout, and then you look up at the end of the game and its 8-6."

"When we play good, we can beat anybody. Offensively, we have to start stringing together more at-bats and scoring more runs. We can't pitch and play defense at a high enough level if we don't score. It was good to see Tanner Brooks pitch good twice, looked like he could be a guy. Wheeler got into a game for the first time, McCaffrey had a good weekend, Tatum hit a home run, so those were some of the bright spots to be encouraged about. We're not interested in playing it tight, we've got to play better, and I think the pieces are here."

"That's part of why we schedule how we schedule, to test ourselves before league starts. Now it's 0-0 and we'll be on a bus to play UC Davis who had some good results against Pepperdine, so 0-0 and here we go, on to the Big West Conference."

CONFERENCE PLAY COMING
The 'Eaters stand at 6-7 on the season coming off three straight series losses on the road. Next up is another four-game road series, the end of 12 consecutive games away from home, but a whole new slate as Big West play begins with a series against UC Davis. The squad start play Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. followed by a Saturday doubleheader and finale Sunday at Dobbins Stadium.