IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball heads back on the road for a four-game series at Cal Poly from April 16-18. UCI is coming off its first loss at home this season ending the weekend in which it won three of four against its newest conference member, UC San Diego. Cal Poly split a series at Long Beach State to keep its Big West mark at 6-6 and remain above .500 halfway through the regular season.
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| Â Probable Rotation |
| UC Irvine |
vs. |
Cal Poly |
| Pitcher |
Year |
|
Stats |
Day |
Pitcher |
Year |
|
Stats |
| Trenton Denholm |
Jr. |
RHP |
(3-1, 3.11) |
Friday |
Drew Thorpe |
RS-Fr. |
RHP |
(3-3, 3.43) |
| Nick Pinto |
Fr. |
LHP |
(4-1, 3.30) |
Sat. G1 |
Andrew Alvarez |
RS-Jr. |
LHP |
(4-2, 5.45) |
| Michael Frias |
RS-So. |
RHP |
(4-0, 2.48) |
Sat. G2 |
Travis Weston |
RS-So. |
LHP |
(3-3, 2.60) |
| Peter Van Loon |
Jr. |
RHP |
(1-2, 6.54) |
Sunday |
Bryce Warrecker |
Fr. |
RHP |
(1-1, 7.98) |
Around The Horn
34 -Â Head Coach
Ben Orloff is the youngest coach on the West Coast, 1 of 10 coaches in the nation under the age of
34
2nd - The 'Eaters ranks 2nd nationally in sacrifice bunts (29), triples (14), and hit by pitch (67)
6Â - The Anteaters had
6 graduate this past quarter - Castro, Damla, Peabody, Riddle, Vergara, van den Helder
#25Â - The Anteaters earned a #25 ranking according to Collegiate Baseball Newspaper this week
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LEADING OFF
+ UC Irvine baseball held onto their slim Big West lead winning three of four games at home against UC San Diego. It was the first meeting between the schools since 1985 and first time seeing UCSD as now a member of the Big West and Division I. UCI started strong with a 4-0 shutout Friday and run-rule victory in seven innings Saturday in the first game of the doubleheader, 11-1. Saturday's second game needed a comeback effort to lock up the series, 9-3, before UCSD scored their first-ever win over UCI on Sunday stifling the offense for the 5-2 final. UCI remains one game ahead of UCSB with a 13-3 Big West record, 19-10 overall.
+ Pitching made the biggest impact of the weekend allowing nine runs over four games. The bullpen allowed just two runs late in Sunday's loss.
Jacob King fired in three scoreless innings striking out five and adding his second career save.
Michael Stanford had his best performance as an 'Eater tossing 2.1 scoreless hitless Saturday to win Game Two for the first of his career. Others like
Josh Ibarra,
Dylan Riddle, and
Troy Wentworth making his return after a month off were effective as were
Gordon Ingebritson and
Tanner Brooks who each had a scoreless outing along with a run allowed on Sunday.
+ Starters were led by
Trenton Denholm with a season-high nine strikeouts over 7+ scoreless frames.
Nick Pinto earned his fourth wing allowing a single run over 5.1 innings.
Michael Frias hit a bump in the road allowing three runs in four innings, but still sits within the top 100 nationally in WHIP, strikeout-to-walk ratio, and 101st in ERA at 2.48
+ Offense continued to impress with nearly seven runs a game standing firm with a 7.2 average this year.
Nathan Church once again was among the team leaders with a hit in run in each game extending streaks to 18 games with a hit and 17 with a run. His seven hits, four runs, and .647 slugging tied or led Anteaters.
Connor McGuire hit well with five hits and a team-high five RBIs including his second triple of the season.
Mike Peabody added four RBIs and six hits to help the team hit .336 over the weekend and now .292 for the year, second in the conference.
Jacob Castro had two doubles Friday and was hit by three pitches.
Thomas McCaffrey made the most of his one game tripling and driving in three.
Jake Cosgrove also saw extended play and went 3-for-7 and stole his first base of the season.
Jake Palmer appeared as a pinch-hitter walking after missing 19 games with a leg injury.
+ Nationally, the 'Eaters are knocking on the door of leading some national categories. UCI is second in the NCAA when it comes to being hit by a pitch (67), laying down sacrifice bunts (29), and hitting triples (14) of which they have the national leader in that category in
Nathan Church with six. Elsewhere, UC Irvine continues to thrive sitting top 50 in on-base percentage (25th), shutouts (26th), fielding percentage (30th), batting average (30th), hits (37th), runs (37th), runs per game (47th), turning double plays (48th), doubles (49th), strikeout-to-walk ratio (50th), and ERA (50th)
+ Within the Big West Conference, UCI commands many of those categories as well leading all schools in scoring with an average of 7.2 runs a game, fielding at .978, on-base percentage just .400, and the categories in which they rank second nationally. They're on the cusp ranked second in the conference in walks, batting average, double plays, hits, total runs, and shutouts.
+ Church leads the national charge for 'Eaters in the rankings sitting atop the league in triples while also excelling in doubles (7th), runs (33rd), hits (34th), and hits per game (60th). Anteater categories near the top of the NCAA are there with help from those likeÂ
Thomas McCaffrey's five sac bunts that ranks 27th nationally,
Mike Peabody's 11 hit by pitch which leads the conference and sits 18th nationally, and
Luke Spillane average an RBI per game which is third in the Big West. Anteater pitching is flourishing as well. Along with all the marks
Michael Frias holds,
Nick Pinto is alongside him with four victories while alloing just 6.39 hits per game.
Jacob King has appeared in 16 games which leads the conference and is 26th nationally, and
Trenton Denholm continues to climb the Anteater records becoming the 16th UCI pitcher to reach 200 career strikeouts over the weekend.
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+ Some notable streaks continue this weekend starting with
Nathan Church burning it up with a 18 game hitting streak and 17-game run scored streak. He is 1 of 6 Anteaters with double-digit on-base streaks led by
Mike Peabody at 22 games.
Taishi Nakawake is one of those reaching in 12 straight on top of a seven-game hit streak.
Connor McGuire has scored in five straight, and
Luke Spillane enters the weekend with a nine-game road hitting streak.
+ Anteater career records are nearing for some student-athletes.
Trenton Denholm will make his 42nd start to move into a tie at 11th in UCI history. His 18th win on Friday pushed him into the Anteater top 20.
Adrian Damla will play in his 180th game entering the top 20 for Anteaters as well. He is the active leader in games along with hits (145), doubles (26), and RBIs (86)).
Mike Peabody was plunked for the 35th time in his career. He's nearing the top of the list occupied by his head coach
Ben Orloff at 43 where he is 1 of 3 Anteaters with 40 HBP all-time.
+ The season hit the halfway point after Saturday's doubleheader with UCI holding a 19-9 record. The 'Eaters have had a winning record halfway through the season now in 15 straight seasons. In the last 20 seasons, UCI has had two seasons not above .500 and just one below-.500 half coming in 2003. Even the 2020 season that stopped a 8-7 was above .500 and matched UCI's record after 15 games here in the 2021 season. The 2021 Anteaters are the eighth squad since 2002 to win as many as 19 games in the first half of their season which includes the 2019 squad starting at 21-7.
THIS WEEKEND
UCI looks to keep its winning ways going now with wins in three of four Big West series including a split on the road. The 'Eaters are 8-9 this year as a visitor as it travels to Cal Poly.
The Anteaters hold a small lead over the Mustangs all-time at 31-26. The teams are an even 6-6 in their last 12 and 9-9 in their last 18 with no sweeps in this series since 2012. UCI has won the two most recent series in the matchup. UCI has a slim advantage in Baggett Stadium as well at 15-12
UC Irvine baseball as a program playing in its 43rd season since 1970 scored all-time win No. 1,300 Friday vs. UC San Diego. The program is also approaching 1,000 all-time losses with 998 to begin the weekend.
For every Big West series this season, UCI's opponent will play UC Santa Barbara the following week. UC Irvine's opponent the next week will always be fresh off a series against Long Beach State.
Anteater baseball alum and grounds crew member, Edgar Ruvalcaba, completed his last day as part of UC Irvine and the grounds crew to start April. He will join up with former Anteater head groundskeeper, Scott Lupold, on the crew at USC.
PROGRAMMING NOTES
Spectators will return to Anteater Ballpark for the first time in 13 months this weekend. Full details on who can attend and protocols they must follow can be found on ucirvinesports.com. Limited tickets will be available to season ticket holders and UC Irvine player-guests.
Live streams of all home games are available this season, and beginning April 23, will be upgraded to an ESPN3 production. Mark Roberts is on the play-by-play simulcast all year on the live stream and KUCI 88.9 FM radio broadcasts. Live tweet updates and live stats will also continue to keep fans tuned in to all Anteater games to give the experience of being at the game all season.
Big West announced ESPNU to broadcast UC Irvine's Saturday matchup at UC Santa Barbara on May 8. It will be only for Game 2 of the doubleheader moving that start time to 7:00 p.m. Game One will now be at 3:00 p.m. with Friday at 5:00 p.m. and Sunday at 1:00 p.m.
The 2021 season represents one significant anniversary as it marks the 20th season of Anteater Ballpark. January 25, 2001 was the date of the groundbreaking of the new ballpark and the return of the program. While the 20th anniversary of that date passed last month, the 2021 season marks the 20th season UCI baseball. Since its erection in 2002, the 'Eaters hold a record of 358-184. The team won its first 11 games at home this year before Sunday's loss marking the fourth time in Anteater Ballpark the squad has begun the year 11-1 or better, and the second best start at home behind the 2011 squad's 16-0 start.
Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
Ben Postgame Friday, April 9 - "Trenton, I thought, that was the best he's been all year. The fastball in the high 80s, multiple pitches for strikes, this is an offense has some big guys with some big swings and I thought he threw the ball really well to them."
"Early in the game, we hit a lot of balls hard that they made some good plays on hitting it right at guys. That's a Friday night game—two good pitchers matching up, good defense, and you've got to find a way to scrap and win a low-scoring game."
"It's awesome, and we talked about it before the game how this is the first time in over a year that the fans and parents have seen a lot of their kids play. Season ticket holders it's the first time seeing the team play since last February so it was good to put on a good performance in front of them."
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Ben Postgame Saturday, April 10 - "It was another good day for us. It's tough to win and to sweep the doubleheader is really important. Two really different games—that first game, Pinto gives a pretty good start. Taishi makes that big play in the second inning going to his right with the bases loaded. We score six and I think in that game we had 12 hits, two triples, two stolen bases, two bunt base hits, so I think it was a complete offensive night."
"That second game, we go up two, they go ahead with three, and then we got five scoreless out of the bullpen. That's the name of the second game and we execute enough and get enough two-out hits late in that game to come up with the 9-3 win."
Ben Postgame Sunday, April 11 - "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."
On the 2020 cancelation - "I can remember the day the announcement came out and having to address the team. We were getting conflicting reports that week, but when it finally came out that the season got canceled and you have to tell the team, you see the hurt in guys' faces who may have played their last game at Irvine or last game ever."
On the UCI 2021 roster - "You just know over the course of the season, somebody is going to be unavailable or a group will need to be shut down, it's just inevitable. We will need lots of players with all the challenges, and we have a smaller roster in the Big West with 38. This year is also unique in the sense that there's so many guys that normally would not be here either from the draft or graduation."
On games without spectators in 2021 -Â "For the fans, I hope they continue to follow us. We're really excited about the schedule that we have. No midweeks, we still have 10 Pac-12 games, all the sacrifice that the kids have made to get to this point, we're looking forward to being one of those teams with players that are going to be a lot better from February to April."
On the 2021 Schedule - "We came out with a 56-game schedule, which, in a pandemic, has taken a lot of work and rework. We're not leaving the state and not getting on an airplane. Our league deciding to do four-game weekends is something I wanted a lot. Throughout this, I've wanted to play the most games and the most innings, and that's what we got. 56 games has a big significance because it could get canceled like we've seen with other sports. I think that's important for me, for our kids, and for the team. The quality of opponents is still really good. Especially during the pandemic, I'm really proud of the schedule that we have. We're looking forward to a lot of baseball. We're excited for the challenge, and we all want and love to play. I don't think we can have enough games or innings. Let's play."
On practicing in the fall and prior to the season - "In the fall, we had 18 days with small groups. We played no inter-squad games, just eight 4-to-5 person pods. It was very skill-based, not much team stuff. In January, we were in small groups until we pulled the tarp off the field on January 28. That was the first time the whole team has been on the same field together, before that we had to try and get creative. Since the 30th, we've been as a team having normal-ish practices. We've played eight inter-squads, and they have been telling for the stuff we haven't practiced and game-type stuff that comes up. We still have a lot of ground to cover before opening day, and once we get playing, keep learning and trying to get better."
On leadership roles - "It's been really hard these past months because we've only been a team for two weeks, but you see some of the older players really trying to help some of the new guys get stuff. Position players like Palmer and Peabody are trying to help the new guys get it, and Denholm on the pitching side. It's been much needed because of how little we've been on the field. In a year like this, the smart teams that know what they're supposed to do and can handle the situations even with a lack of practice time, those are the teams that do well. The teams that get better once the season starts, you'll look up in April and they'll have a better record than the other guys."
On the rotation - "The first weekend will be how we planned to finish last year – Denholm-Van Loon-Pinto. They've been the best guys, especially Van Loon has taken the biggest jump forward. He's a lot more physical, his stuff has ticked up a bit. He had an arm injury that ended his sophomore year at junior college so he's just kind of continued to distance himself from that. He's been really good, and probably on the whole team has taken the biggest improvement from last year."
On bullpen depth - "It Takes All Of Us - I joke with our guys about that NFL slogan, but we're going to need that depth once we get to four-game weekends. The guys at the end of the game will be the same in John Vergara and Josh Ibarra. One of the guys that's emerged that will pitch a lot is Jacob King. He's developed a slider that's made him a lot better and will be one of the best guys out of the bullpen and pitch a lot. Gordon Ingebritson is in the mix, Troy Wentworth is improved, Michael Frias has looked good the last few weeks after missing the fall. Andre Antone is now a pitcher-only. He went through Tommy John in high school right when he was starting to get good, but still never got to focus on pitching being a two-way guy. Now, that's all he's focusing on, and he's thrown the ball decent. In terms of pitching, what's different about the schedule is no Tuesday games so I think the lack of opportunity that some guys might get in the first three weeks of the season will be there."
CAL POLY MUSTANGS
Cal Poly is next up for UC Irvine traveling to Baggett Stadium this weekend. CP is 16-12 after starting off losing a home series to Nevada before series wins at USC and home vs. Utah Valley and ranked UCLA. CP began Big West winning at CSUN before UCSD upended them at home. CP then beat SJSU at home before splitting at Long Beach State to hold a 6-6 conference record.
The 2020 Mustangs were 5-12 early through a tough slate that included home wins against Baylor, BYU, and No. 5 Michigan in addition to wins over UCONN and No. 1 Vanderbilt in a season-opening tournament in Scottsdale.
The series between the programs favors UCI slightly at 31-26 all-time, but the sides have split the last 12 and last 18 games evenly. Neither side has swept the series since Cal Poly did in 2012, but UCI holds a slight advantage in Baggett Stadium all-time at 15-12
The offense begins and ends with second-year shortstop Brooks Lee who elected college ball over a high draft selection. The son of coach Larry Lee, who is the all-time winningest Big West head coach, is considered a top-three prospect in the nation and top amongst shortstops. He is hitting .363 thus far with 15 doubles, six home runs, and 33 RBIs among the many categories he heads. The team is hitting .272 overall as it is near the top in most categories including walks while also being one of the toughest teams to strikeout. The Mustangs have not run well with just five stolen bases on the year in 10 attempts
Pitching has been consistent with Drew Thorpe striking out 59 as the Friday starter, and lefties Travis Weston and Andrew Alvarez complimenting him on Saturdays. The team ERA of 4.48 is helped by a host of competent bullpens arms including closer Kyle Scott (11 G, 2.45, 3 saves), Dylan Villalobos (1.50, 12 IP, 15 K), and Bryan Woo (42 K in 28 IP) who has started as well.
