NORTHRIDGE, Calif. --- After Game 1 lasted multiple days, Game 2 of the series lasted just seven innings as UC Irvine baseball responded fiercely with a 17-3 victory at CSUN and Matador Field Saturday afternoon to even the series.

FRANTIC FIRST
Both side made noise in their halves of the first inning with runs before recording an out.

The 'Eaters (15-8, 9-1) started with a bang walking on four pitches followed by an 0-1 home run by Mike Peabody long and deep to right field for a 2-0 lead. The offense continued to build scoring a third on a hit by pitch, balk, passed ball, and groundout by Dillon Tatum. Now with two outs, three straight singles brought home a fourth off the bat of Taishi Nakawake for 4-0 UCI lead.

CSUN (4-6, 4-6) loaded up the bases from an error, single, and walk before Sean Skelly singled to center and chop the UCI lead to 4-2. A one-out single made the game 4-3, but starter Nick Pinto beared down to hold the lead at 4-3 by getting the final two hitters of the first inning.

SECOND INNING SLAMS
The Anteaters started their second inning of in a similar fashion as Nathan Church extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a leadoff single. Peabody came up and lacing a two-strike ball out to left field for his second home run in as many innings to push the lead back 6-3.

UCI was just getting started scoring another run from a Jake Cosgrove double, but were quickly back to two outs after Dillon Tatum tried to score on a wild pitch.

A pair of walks would load the bases and end the day for starter Zuko Tillman making way for Dwayne Angebrandt. The first batter he saw was Connor McGuire who unloaded the bases doubling home all three runners to put UCI up 10-3.

The two-out 'Eaters quickly loaded the bases again with two outs on a walk and hit by pitch for Luke Spillane who had already scored twice in the game. He unleashed a blast to left field for a grand slam to complete a 10-run inning for the 'Eaters now leading 14-3.

FINAL (7): UC IRVINE 17, CSUN 3
The rest of the game saw the offenses quiet a bit, however Spillane wasn't done uncorking a second home run in the sixth inning, and McGuire singling home his fourth run of the day to complete the 17-run outing for the Anteaters.

Peabody and Spillane each produced their first two-HR games, and for Spillane it was the first two home runs of his career. The duo become the second pair of Anteater teammates to each homer twice in the same game joining Matt Anderson and Mark Wagner who each did it on May 1, 2004, also at CSUN. For the program, its just the sixth game with four home runs as a team in its history.

Spillane finished with six RBIs, first time for an Anteater since March 16, 2019 when Mikey Filia did it. That game was also the last time UCI had a 10-run inning which happened in the 10th inning of their 17-4 win at Utah Valley and featured the last grand slam by an Anteater, from Mikey Filia.

McGuire and Peabody added four-RBI days, a career high for McGuire while Peabody now has 10 RBIs in his last three games. Church who extended his hit streak also now has an 11-game run scored streak going 3-for-4 with a double and four runs scored, something Spillane also did with three hits and two hit by pitch. Jake Cosgrove also contributed for the second time this series with a double, two hits, two runs, and an RBI.

Pitching was mostly Nick Pinto who bounced back from another rough first inning to pitch five complete and record his third win. He allowed just two earned runs and only two hits after the first inning striking out four. Michael Stanford put up two shutout innings to complete the day striking out two of his own.

Zuko Tillman drew the loss, now 0-2, allowing 10 runs in 1.2 innings. Sean Skelly registered the only two-hit day for CSUN driving in two of the three runs.

Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
"It's tough to get walked-off on, but even in that first game, we earned the right to even be in that position late in that game so that happens. I'm really proud of how fast we moved on. It's tough to get walked-off on, and then for us to respond 40 minutes later. I felt like the offense in that first inning we were locked in and that set the stage for that game. We'd like to have the bottom of the first inning back, but outside of that it was a pretty good performance."

"We didn't help Pinto on the first play of the game on defense. But that's two weeks in a row he's struggled to get out of the first, but once he's done that he's pitched much better. I don't know if it's a concention factor, focus, feeling your way through, I don't know what it is, but he pitched good the rest of the way. For him to go five, we're really happy for that."

"Peabody and Spillane have been great for us the whole year and it's great to see them have big days. All those balls were hit hard. Peabody hits one a long way in the first and then opposite field line drive with two strikes. Spillane got two balls elevated and hit them far. Those guys have been in the middle of our offensive success, and hopefully there's more tomorrow."

"It's another Sunday where we have a lot of guys available. Different from other Sundays where we've only needed one game, but with this game only being seven innings and the guys that threw Friday getting today off, we're in a good start and we've got good numbers of guys and quality for tomorrow. We like where we're at for tomorrow."

SUNDAY DOUBLE DIP
The 'Eaters and Matadors will attempt to play two Sunday after the shift in the previous two days. First pitch of Game 1 will be at 11:00 a.m. with veterans Peter Van Loon and Blaine Traxel squaring off. Game 2 will happen 40 minutes after Game 1's conclusion with Michael Frias on the mound for the 'Eaters.