BAKERSFIELD, CALIF. --- UC Irvine baseball erased an early deficit to get a Sunday win and series victory over CSU Bakersfield, 7-4, at Hardt Field.

FIRST INNING FIREWORKS
Out of the gate, both sides had the offense working. UCI (36-16, 28-8) managed a first inning run as Mike Peabody stood at first with two outs from a single. Justin Torres was hit by a pitch setting the table for freshman Thomas McCaffrey singling up the middle and scoring Peabody for a 1-0 lead.

CSU Bakersfield (20-19, 17-15) got its first two runners on via singles. Both moved to scoring position, and Tyler Jorgensen turned the score around mashing a home run to right field for a sudden 3-1, CSUB lead after one.

MAKING A MOVE
The 'Eaters found their offense again in the third as Jacob Castro reached on a one out walk. Again, CSUB gave UCI's baserunner a free pass to third base throwing a wide pickoff attempt. Torres would double home Castro, and then McCaffrey produced another run-scoring hit to tie the game, 3-3.

Two pitches later, the Anteaters got their lead back off the bat of Dillon Tatum launching his 13th home run of the season to complete the four-run inning and give UCI the 5-3 lead.

VAN LOON-ATIC
As the 'Eaters roared back in front, junior starter Peter Van Loon found his groove. He got the Runners in order in four innings and stranded leadoff singles in two others to shutdown the CSUB offense through his second straight seven-inning outing.

Van Loon finished with six strikeouts, scattered six hits, and for his third straight start did not issue a walk spanning over 17 innings. He handed it over to Josh Ibarra in the eighth who bent allowing a run on a wild pitch, but did not break. Jacob King finished off the win getting the Roadrunners in order in the ninth.

FINAL SCORE: #20 UC IRVINE 7, BAKERSFIELD 4
Van Loon scored his fourth win of the year and has a win in each of his last two starts. King picked up his eighth save. The 'Eaters are now 36-16 with a three-game lead in the Big West at 28-8 with four games to play.

The offense flowed through Thomas McCaffrey going 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Torres also drove in two with a pair of doubles. Tatum's home run gives him back the Big West lead with 13 on the year as he also drove in two runs. Seven Anteater starters had a hit along with Adrian Damla coming off the bench to double and score as one of the six 'Eaters to score a run.

Bakersfield starter Roman Angelo lasted just 2.1 innings allowing five runs on six hits and two walks.

The 'Eaters have now won seven and split two of their nine Big West series. They finish the regular season with a 17-12 record away from home.

Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
"After that first inning, for Peter to come back and pitch the way he did it shows a lot of toughness, maturity; that was probably even better than last week after the first. For him to get it stopped and pitch how he pitched was critical to this one."
 
"It's so fun to see how many guys are contributing. We don't have Palmer today but still - McCaffrey gets three hits, Tatum hits a HR, Damla comes off the bench to play defense and gets a 2-out double, McGuire and Torres with 2-out RBI hits, so it's really fun that everyone's contributing, and to score seven from a bunch of different guys was really good to see."
 
"We're just trying to get better, we're trying to improve. I'm sure the team is aware of what's at stake because of the internet, but we want to play for a while and beyond next weekend, and in order to do what we want to do, we've got to keep getting better. We're trying our best not to scoreboard watch, we're really trying to worry about ourselves, get better, and put together a really good weekend performance against Cal State Fullerton. We're not worried about who beats who."
 
REGULAR SEASON FINALE
The 2021 regular season commences at Anteater Ballpark with a four-game set against Cal State Fullerton starting Friday, May 28. The 'Eaters have a chance to lock up their second Big West title but are also looking for their first-ever home series win against the Titans in program history.