IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball couldn't find the key hits Sunday losing 5-2 to UC San Diego for their first loss of 2021 in Anteater Ballpark.

OPENING REMARKS
For the first time in the series, UC San Diego (8-16, 5-7) got the jump on the scoreboard plating a pair in the first inning of UCI starter Peter Van Loon. A one-out single sat there until there were two outs, and cleanup hitter Blake Baumgartner lifted a ball off the center field wall scoring the baserunner for the first run. Tate Soderstrom followed that up with a single through the infield to quickly put UC Irvine (19-10, 13-3) behind, 2-0.

The Tritons added a run in the third inning as Paul Gozzo slipped a single between first baseman Adrian Damla and the bag scoring a run, but a second run tried to sneak in as well that Nathan Church denied throwing the Triton runner out at home to keep the deficit just 3-0 in the third.

BOBBING AND WEAVING
The game become a battle of bullpens as both starters were out by the fifth inning. Brandon Weed for UCSD went three innings allowing an unearned run before Izaak Martinez came on, and he held despite allowing two runners in scoring position in the fourth and two more runners to reach in the fifth.

Michael Mitchell relieved Martinez to thwart UCI's fifth-inning rally, and proceeded to shut down the 'Eaters for two more innings despite UCI getting a runner into scoring position in each of those frames.

Anteater pitching kept pace after Peter Van Loon was lifted after facing one batter in the fifth. He did field his position well making five outs including a great reaction to start a double play.
 

Right in his kitchen for 2 #RipEm pic.twitter.com/BwrNELGm71

— UCI Baseball (@UCIbsb) April 11, 2021

Dylan Riddle quashed that rally, and Gordon Ingebritson did the same in the sixth inning. The pen leaked a few runs as the Triton hit home a men in the seventh and eighth, but it still remained a three-run ballgame.

FINAL SCORE: UC SAN DIEGO 5, UC IRVINE 2
In the end, the Anteaters could not string together at-bats managed just two runs on seven hits as Triton close Luke Mattson shut the door with quality work for the second day in a row, and gave UCSD their first ever win over UC Irvine in its 15th try.

Mattson earned save No. 3 while Mitchell took the win to go 1-1 helped by six strikeouts in 2.2 innings of work. UCI starter Peter Van Loon did incur the loss, now 1-2, allowing three runs in 4.1 innings. Six Anteater relievers relinquished the other two runs adding five strikeouts to Van Loon's three. Josh Ibarra tossed a scoreless inning while Dylan Riddle did his job getting through 0.2 innings. Jacob King went a scoreless inning however did allow an inherited run to score.

The small supply of offense came mostly from the top of the order as Nathan Church and Mike Peabody each had two hits. Peabody and Luke Spillane accounted for the RBIs. Church kept his streaks alive now with a hit in 18 straight games and 17 straight with a run scored, and he registered a triple with thanks to the sun to push his national lead in triples to six on the season. Peabody reached base for the 22nd straight game, and was hit by a pitch for the 11th time to lead the team and 35th time in his career as one of four Anteaters to get beaned.
 

Any way you can get it #RipEm pic.twitter.com/PvSca9Bip5

— UCI Baseball (@UCIbsb) April 11, 2021

UCSD eclipsed its total from the series' first three games scoring five times. Michael Fuhrman recorded two of those joining Brock Kleszcz with three-hit days. Baumgartner drove in two along with two hits, and Soderstrom and Lucchetti added two hits and an RBI as well with both of Lucchetti's going for doubles.

Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
"They came out and scored 2 in the first. I felt like we did a really good job of minimizing. We gave up 13 hits, but only five runs and stayed away from the big, crooked number and gave us a chance to be in that game thought. Their guy threw the ball well early, we didn't make a lot of adjustments. We had a couple chances, but not enough."
 
"We weren't great hitting and it happens. It's hard to get hits every night. The biggest takeaway from this week was the pitching. We gave up nine runs in four games. Some of our relievers I thought threw the ball as well as they've thrown the ball all year. Some of them haven't gotten a lot of chances and were good this weekend. That's a big positive for us going forward."
 
"We'll start working on Cal Poly tonight, I think every game in his league is critical. Next week will be a guy, in my opinion, might be the best coach in the league and been really good for a long time. They've got a guy, his son, that's probably the best player in the league. It's a tough place to play, so that'll be a challenge like this week."
 
NEXT WEEK
The 'Eaters head back on the road to Cal Poly, April 16-18, with the first game Friday starting at 5:00 p.m.