IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball and Hawai'i finished their four-game set with an offensive barrage Sunday at Anteater Ballpark needing just seven innings to post a 20-10 final score and Anteater victory.
SO FAR, SO GOOD
The Anteaters (14-7, 8-0) grabbed another first-inning lead thanks to more two-out hitting.
Luke Spillane singled to start things off and came around on
Adrian Damla's single.
Jacob Castro would double Damla home, and then an error on a grounder up the middle scored Castro for a 3-0 UCI lead.
Hawai'i (11-7, 3-5) got a run back in the second inning, but the Anteaters kept forging on scoring twice in the second on a two-run
Mike Peabody triple. Then again in the third, the bats responded on three consecutive singles by
Taishi Nakawake,
Connor McGuire, and
Nathan Church for an 8-1 UC Irvine lead through four innings.
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TOUCHDOWN TO TIE IT
The Rainbow Warriors were not out of it yet as they came to the plate in the fifth inning. They loaded the bases with one out and began to work. Kole Kaler singled home the first run, and then an Alex Baeza walk forced in another and ended the day for UCI starter
Peter Van Loon.
Josh Ibarra was not able to record an out with a walk and two infield singles to score four more runs and close the gap to one run.
Dylan Riddle entered and promptly gave up a hit to score the tying run, and UH sent the second runner for the lead, but
Luke Spillane hit his cutoff Nakawake whose strike to the plate cut the run down and kept the tie at 8-8 and finish the seven-run frame.
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BACK AND FORTH
The offenses had their way the next couple innings as the lead would change hands. UCI grabbed the lead back in the bottom of the fifth as Peabody was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to go up 9-8.
Hawai'i erased that deficit on the second pitch of the sixth on a solo home run by Adam Fogel. An Alex Baeza double later in the inning swung the lead to Hawai'i for the first time in the game, 10-9.
UCI answered emphatically in the home half from a booming triple to center field by
Dillon Tatum to score two and put UCI up 11-10. Nakawake singled home Tatum for good measure and a 12-10 lead.
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ENDING IT EARLY
With the lead swinging back and forth, the 'Eaters stepped on the gas and literally ended the game in the seventh inning. The Anteaters put up eight runs to activate the 10-run rule implemented by the Big West this season scoring the 20th run of the game on a line drive single by Peabody that right fielder Tyler Best could not come up with on a slide for the game-ending play.
FINAL (7): UC IRVINE 20, HAWAI'I 10
The Anteater 20-run effort ties an Anteater Ballpark record for runs in a game reached twice before. The 20 runs and 21 hits are both season highs, and the most since the team put up 22 runs and 23 hits in the 2019 season finale at UC Riverside.
The win gives the team its second four-game sweep of the season and bolsters their conference record to 8-0. The eight wins to start Big West play matches the team's best start set in 2015 when it swept a pair of three-game series over Hawai'i and UC Riverside and winning the first two against Long Beach State before dropping game nine.
Four Anteater hitters had four hits in the game led by Peabody who doubled twice, tripled, and drove in a career high five RBIs after entering the game with just four on the season.
Jacob Castro and
Connor McGuire also had four-hit games, the first of their careers, and four runs scored for Castro to lead all players. Each drove in two alongside two-RBI days from Tatum, Damla, and Nakawake.
Nathan Church increase his NCAA lead in triples with his fifth of the year as part of his three hits, three runs, and one RBI.
Hawai'i's offense had 12 hits of its own with Safea Villaruz-Mauai the only with two hits and two RBIs. Fogel and Kaler each had two hits and two runs scored, and Jacob Igawa reached three times scoring twice and knocking in a run.
Pitching was forgettable for each side on the day, but the best Anteater arm in
Tanner Brooks did earn his first career win from 1.2 shutout innings. Starter
Peter Van Loon was not in the decision, but struck out seven for the third time this year. Hawai'i used eight pitchers with seven allowing a run and only six recording an out. Trevor Ichimura drew the loss despite effective stuff over an inning and one run allowed. Three Rainbow Warrior errors helped the Anteater offense accounting for six unearned runs.
Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
"I've never seen one like that. We've talked about our guys' willingness to just continue to play regardless of circumstances and their will to win. A couple different games yesterday. Today you're up 8-1 and its easy to think the game's over and you blink and its 8-8 and then we're chasing runs, so just our guys' commitment to just play."
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"Peabody and Church could hit 1-2 for anyone in America. They're smart, they're tough, they can homer, they can steal a base, they're really good and we're getting to see it everyday."
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"Tanner was huge. We needed to get it stopped. We were unsure how the pen was going to go. Antone was going to be behind Brooks, but we needed to get him earlier then we liked to to get it stopped and a chance to score. He was huge, and if he didn't do what he did we may still be playing."
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ON THE MOVE
The next stop for UC Irvine is back on the road to CSUN for four games starting Friday, April 2. First pitch Friday will be 3:00 p.m. with a Saturday doubleheader starting at 11:00 a.m. and the finale Sunday at 1:00 p.m. as the Anteaters square off with their former coach, Dave Serrano, for the first time as a Matador.
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