taishi-nakawake-uci-bsb-2021-washington-csu-bakersfield
Matt Brown
11
Winner UC Irvine UCI 34-15, 26-7 Big West
5
CSUB CSUB 19-17, 16-13 Big West
Winner
UC Irvine UCI
34-15, 26-7 Big West
11
Final
5
CSUB CSUB
19-17, 16-13 Big West
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
UC Irvine UCI 6 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 11 14 0
CSUB CSUB 0 0 0 1 3 0 1 0 0 5 8 1

W: Ingebritson, Gordon (5-1) L: Cordova, Noah (2-3)

Game Recap: Baseball | | Alex Croteau

First Inning Fuels Friday Victory at CSUB, 11-5

BAKERSFIELD, CALIF. --- UC Irvine baseball batted around in the first inning scoring six times as that stood as the difference in the game Friday afternoon at Hardt Field in an 11-5 win over CSU Bakersfield.

HOT BATS
The 'Eaters (34-15, 26-7) wasted no time getting on the scoreboard as a leadoff walk by Jake Palmer was followed by an Nathan Church single, and then Mike Peabody's perfectly-placed double made it a 1-0 lead three batters in. The Anteaters kept adding as Justin Torres singled up the middle to score Church and Peabody beat the throw home on Luke Spillane's sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.
 


Later in the inning, the 'Eaters had the bases loaded on two more walks resulting in starter, Noah Cordova, getting pulled for Cody Tucker. Taishi Nakawake stepped in to face him and greeted him with a double into the left field corner scoring everybody and stamping a six-spot on the first inning.
 
DISTANCING THEMSELVES
Trenton Denholm rode that momentum getting the first eight batters out and shutting out the Roadrunners (19-17, 16-13) through three innings. A leadoff triple would come around for CSUB in the fourth, but UCI had grown their lead to 9-0 on another sacrifice fly in the second by Jacob Castro, and a squeeze bunt executed by Nakawake in the third; two of the four run-scoring sacrifices for the 'Eaters on Friday. Castro came back with a triple to score Church for a third time already to make it 9-0 in the fourth.
 
The Roadrunners found some offense in the fifth getting to Denholm with run-scoring outs and then a two-out single to close the gap to 9-4, but Gordon Ingebritson stopped the rally and held the advantage at five.

FINAL SCORE: #20 UC IRVINE 11, CSU BAKERSFIELD 5
Ingebritson and Josh Ibarra cruised for the most part down the final 4.1 innings allowing just two baserunners, one on a solo home run, and striking out four to close out the win. Ingebritson is now 4-1 on the year winning three of his last four appearances, and he continues to shine now with 110 straight batters faced without issuing a walk. Denholm was responsible for four runs in 4.2 innings striking out three to move into 10th in UCI history for his career.

Offensively, Nakawake led the charge with four RBIs and a pair of doubles. Mike Peabody also double twice of his four hits, and he reached five time scoring once and knocking in two. Eight Anteater starters had a hit including Church and Spillane with two each. Church also scored three times and Palmer twice as seven Anteater starters scored a run. Castro added two RBIs to his triple.
 
Seven Roadrunner pitchers were needed with four allowing runs. Cordova was saddled with his second loss allowing six first-inning runs. Davonte Butler was the most effective pitcher allowing two earned runs in 3.2 innings.

The 'Eaters grow their win streak to eight games matching their longest of the season.

Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
"I thought it was a really complete win. That six runs in the first helps. I think coming out and being ready to play right from the first inning. Taishi with that big play that clears the bases and is the difference between three and six. I think we just kept playing offense, we scored in six of nine innings, we got zeroes early in the game which had been a struggle for us. Ingebritson and Ibarra were shutdown and really good."

"Those zeroes early in the game were huge, especially when we're scoring and they don't score. We would have liked to have him go deeper than we did, but we like our bullpen and we're aggressive going to it at times because of how good they've pitched. It's never a bad time to get Ingebritson in the game, and him and Ibarra were great."

"A lot of the sacrifices were on offspeed pitches, outside of the safety squeeze, and I think we did a good job of not just being outs to offspeed with runners in scoring position and not getting the runs home. I think staying in the big part of the field and getting the ball to the outfield is something we've always talked about, and we did a really good job of it today."

SATURDAY SECONDS
The sides meeting Saturday for a doubleheader starting at 12:00 p.m.. Nick Pinto and Aaron Charles meet up in game one with CSUB's game two starter yet to be announced against Michael Frias with a scheduled start for 3:00 p.m.. Both games will be shown on ESPN3.
 
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