IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball finished an important sweep of UC Riverside Sunday afternoon at Anteater Ballpark putting down a 9-1 victory.
MIDDLE RELIEF
The middle of the UC Irvine (33-15, 25-7) order came through in a big way Sunday starting with second baseman
Justin Torres. He turned around a 3-1 pitch for his second home run of the season for a 1-0 UCI lead in the second. With a 2-0 lead in the third, he popped a single into short left field driving home a second run for a 3-0 Anteater lead.
His sidekick on the day,
Dillon Tatum got into the action launching a home run of his own to left-center making it a 6-0 game in the fifth inning for his Big West-leading 12th home run of the season.
The pair were at it again in the seventh each reaching base on their third hits of the day to start the inning and coming around on a two-run double inside the third base bag by
Connor McGuire for a comfortable 9-1 lead.
PETER THE EATER
Delivering a wonderful performance on the mound was junior
Peter Van Loon for the Anteaters. He worked around a pair of hits in the first two innings, and piled up the strikeouts recording one in every inning he pitched Sunday to finish with a career-high 10 on the game. UC Riverside (14-29, 12-14) got an RBI double in the seventh to break up the shutout, but Van Loon matched a career high going seven innings allowing just four hits to secure his third win on the season.
PLAY OF THE DAY
With the 'Eaters hanging onto a three-run lead in the fourth inning, they were quickly put away on the first two batters in the inning before
Nathan Church reached on an infield single.
Mike Peabody strode to the plate and cranked a ball off the right field wall nearly caught on a spectacular attempt by Jacob Shanks. Peabody raced to third for a triple plating Church with two outs still in the inning. Peabody timed up starter Eric Marrujo, and on a 1-0 pitch he took off for the plate stealing home under the tag of the catcher and upping the Anteater lead to 5-0.
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FINAL SCORE: #24 UC IRVINE 9, UC RIVERSIDE 1
The Anteaters complete the four-game sweep of UCR after they took two of three off them at Riverside in March. The 'Eaters have extended their winning streak to seven straight games now, and continue to increase their lead in the Big West standings sitting four games ahead of second place UC Santa Barbara with eight games to play.
Van Loon evened his record to 3-3 on the year as now UCI starters have struck out 10 hitters in a game three times in their last six starts. The bullpen continued to hold their own as
Gordon Ingebritson,
Dylan Riddle, and
Josh Ibarra combined to retire the final six UCR hitters and allow just one run as a staff over the entire weekend.
Torres and Tatum carried the offense with three hits each. Tatum scored three times with an RBI while Torres scored twice with two driven in, and each added a homer. Peabody scored twice as well, and
Connor McGuire drove in a pair.
UC Riverside managed four hits with two from Anthony McFarland and Joey Nicolai's double plated the only run. Eric Marrujo went 5.1 IP as the starter allowing six of the runs on eight hits to drop to 2-4.
Postgame Quotes
Peter Van Loon - "I felt good. I was focused more on staying in the moment, not worrying about how late it was in the game. I just kept everything focused to innings of two. Didn't matter if it was the sixth of the second, kept that same focus."
"The strikeouts came from a lot of fastball height. Coach Bibona preaches in fastball height, and that's something I've been struggling with. I felt more on top today, and that just sets up everything else. As a pitching staff we're definitely tough to beat when we have good height."
Mike Peabody - "I feel good, I'm still trying to figure out some kinks in the swing right now. Coaches have been helping a ton and the whole team has been playing well, and it really helps when everyone else is getting hits when you're not so it makes it easy."
"We talked about the steal of home. We knew he was slow to the plate out of the windup. We took a strike to see, and then once that happened it was like alright let's do it."
FINAL ROAD SERIES
The 'Eaters embark on their last trip of the regular season next heading out to Cal State Bakersfield for four games starting Friday, May 21. Game one kicks off at 3:00 p.m. with all four games at Hardt Field able to be seen online on ESPN3.
