IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball finishes the regular season in Anteater Ballpark against the rival Cal State Fullerton Titans. The Anteaters enter the weekend one win or one UCSB loss away from a share of the Big West crown which would be its second Big West title in program history, and it would clinch the NCAA automatic berth for the conference via the tiebreaker with UC Santa Barbara. Cal State Fullerton looks to spoil UCI's chances by continuing its string of series wins at UC Irvine they done in all prior 12 matchups in Irvine.
Limited spectators will be in attendance in the form of UC Irvine player-guests and season ticket holders. No tickets will be available for purchase by the general public.
Prior to Sunday's game, there will be a ceremony for our UCI Baseball senior class. Families, fans, and spectators will not be allowed onto the field due to county, university, and department guidelines.
Face coverings still required at UCI
Although the CDC's latest mask guidelines allow vaccinated people to go maskless in most indoor and outdoor settings, UCI is governed by Cal/OSHA and University of California rules, which still require masks on all UCI-controlled property. Please continue to follow UCI's executive directive on face coverings until further notice.
| Probable Rotation |
| UC Irvine |
vs. |
Cal State Fullerton |
| Pitcher |
Year |
|
Stats |
Day |
Pitcher |
Year |
|
Stats |
| Michael Frias |
RS-So. |
RHP |
(8-1, 3.10) |
Friday |
Tanner Bibee |
Jr. |
RHP |
(7-5, 3.22) |
| Nick Pinto |
Fr. |
LHP |
(6-3, 3.66) |
Sat. Game 1 |
Gavin Kennedy |
Fr. |
RHP |
(1-1, 4.70) |
| Trenton Denholm |
Jr. |
RHP |
(4-2, 5.19) |
Sat. Game 2 |
Landon Anderson |
Jr. |
LHP |
(2-1, 4.50) |
| Peter Van Loon |
Jr. |
RHP |
(4-3, 4.77) |
Sunday |
Kyle Luckham |
So. |
RHP |
(3-8, 5.40) |
Around The Horn
34 - Head Coach
Ben Orloff turned
34 in April; he's the 10th-youngest head coach in Division I baseball
2nd - UCI can claim its
2nd Big West title joining the 2009 squad with 1 win this weekend or 1 UCSB loss
14 - Sunday, UC Irvine baseball will celebrate its
14 graduates on senior day, 6 that graduated in Winter quarter
17 - UC Irvine finished with a 17-12 road record, 1 of 12 teams in the country with
17 or more road wins
LEADING OFF
+ UC Irvine baseball crept closer to a Big West title winning three of four games at CSU Bakersfield. A six-run first inning Friday paced the 'Eaters to an 11-5 victory. Saturday's doubleheader opened with a pitcher's duel that saw
Nick Pinto strikeout 10 to hold a 2-1 victory. CSUB took charge in Game 2 scoring eight times in three innings and holding an eight-run lead in the eighth before UCI closed it to an 11-9 defeat. Sunday, the Anteaters surmounted an early deficit breaking a tie thanks to a
Dillon Tatum HR and more brilliant pitching from
Peter Van Loon to win 7-4 and sew up a fourth road Big West series win.
+ The Anteaters lead the Big West by three games with four remaining. A win or UCSB loss will give UCI a share of the Big West title and the NCAA automatic postseason berth via head-to-head tiebreaker. The title would be the second conference title of any kind for the program joining the 2009 Big West champions that finished 22-2 and were a No. 6 national seed in the postseason.
+ For the second time this season, UC Irvine swept the weekly Big West awards with Field Player of the Week going to
Mike Peabody, and for the second time this season,
Nick Pinto claimed Pitcher of the Week. Peabody had hits in each game extending his streak to 14, and led the team with 10 hits, a home run, and six RBIs to give him a Big West-leading 51 this year. Pinto served up his third straight quality start allowing one unearned run in 7.2 innings for win No. 6. He also struck out 10, his second straight 10-strikeout game. The 'Eaters now have four of each award for eight total in 2021.
+ Anteater offense hit .311 against the Highlanders hitting five home runs from five different players.
Justin Torres launched his second, both against UCR, while leading all Anteaters with eight hits and a .500 average.
Mike Peabody had a hit and RBI in each game leading with seven RBIs and six runs and provided an electric steal of home plate Sunday.
Jake Palmer reached base 12 times scoring six times as well while homering for the first time at UCI. The catching position of
Dillon Tatum and
Thomas McCaffrey went 7-for-15 as a duo scoring six times and producing a homer from Tatum, his Big West-leading 12th of 2021.
NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
+ The 'Eaters are nationally ranked high sitting second in hit by pitch and fourth in sacrifice bunts and triples. UCI is top 50 in stats like strikeout-to-walk ratio (16th), sacrifice flies (21st), hits (22nd), runs (25th), WHIP (29th), ERA (36th), fielding (37th), batting (37th), runs per game (39th), doubles (44th), and shutouts (49th). Within the Big West Conference, UCI commands many of those categories as well leading all schools in hit by pitch (104), runs and runs per game (7.1), sacrifice bunts (46), strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.10), triples (23), and WHIP (1.28). They're also a close second in walks, batting average, doubles, ERA, hits, on-base percentage, and least walks allowed per nine innings.
+ Church leads the national charge for 'Eaters in the rankings continuing to sit atop the nation in triples while also excelling in hits (11th), doubles (20th), hits per game (41st), total bases (47th), and runs per game (75th).
Mike Peabody continues to excel at getting hit by pitch 12th-most in the nation, and is also 41st in RBIs per game, 49th in total RBIs, 65th in on-base percentage, and 91st in runs per game.
Dillon Tatum is 53rd nationally after hitting his 13th HR, and is tied atop the conference.
Connor McGuire leads the conference with nine sacrifice bunts which also stands 15th in the nation. Pitching leaders include
Michael Frias who is still 26th in wins and 41st in WHIP.
Jacob King and
Gordon Ingebritson sit first and second in the Big West in games pitched and 25th and 37th, nationally. King also moved into 27th nationally in saves.
+ Anteater career records are nearing for some student-athletes.
Trenton Denholm will make his 48th start to tie Justin Cassel for eighth all-time. His next win would make him the 17th Anteater all-time to win 20 games in a career. His joined the top 20 all-time in innings pitched, and is 10th all-time in strikeouts at 229 looking to pass Dave Bladow with six more.
Adrian Damla stands one game away from 200 in his Anteater career game which would make him the 14th Anteater to reach the mark and tie 'Eater great, Jeff Malinoff.
Mike Peabody was plunked for the 42nd time in his career now just one away from tying the program's career leader,
Ben Orloff, at 43. He also enters with a 14-game hit streak.
Jake Palmer has scored 117 runs joining the top 20 in program history.
Dillon Tatum became the sixth Anteater with a 10-HR season against Oregon State. He's approaching rarified air sitting one behind Brandon Lewis and Cody Cipriano each with 14 in a season for the most in a UCI season.
Nathan Church's eight triples leave him two away from becoming the second player with 10 in a season that would match Jeff Malinoff in 1972. He's also scored the program's 23rd 50-run campaign, and is approaching 80 hits which would be the 22nd all-time and first since Keston Hiura in 2017.
Dylan Riddle pitched a scoreless frame at CSUB for his 72nd career appearance; he's the 15th Anteater with 70 games pitched in a career.
+ UCI finished non-conference against Oregon State finishing with an 8-8 record, 7-6 against Pac-12 programs. Under coach Orloff, UCI is 16-11 against the Pac-12, and have a 97-80 record against the conference since the program returned in 2002. UCI's non-conference strength of schedule is ranked seventh in the nation, and holds a non-conference RPI of 23 with four Quadrant 1 wins in 10 games against Quadrant 1 programs to this point. Overall, UCI's strength of schedule ranks 71st.
THIS WEEKEND
The regular season ends at home with UCI holding a 19-4 record at #TheCis. UCI needs one win to clinch its second Big West title and the conference's automatic NCAA berth. A four-game sweep would lock up the program's eighth 40-win season.
Standing in UCI's way is their long-time rival, Cal State Fullerton, who has dominated the all-time series at 89-42. The teams meet for the 132nd time Friday and play their 13th series in Irvine, a place where the 'Eaters have never won a series against the Titans and have lost seven straight games to.
The 'Eaters rose in the national rankings as well now No. 17 according to D1Baseball and the NCAA. All other polls have UCI higher including Baseball America with UCI at No. 14 and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, USA Today Coaches Poll, Perfect Game USA, and NCBWA all slotting UCI No. 15.
PROGRAMMING NOTES
UC Irvine Athletics announced their 2021 Hall of Fame Class with two Anteater baseball members included with legendary head coach, Mike Gillespie, and brilliant pitcher and two-sport athlete, Jerry Maras. The pair join six Anteater baseball members already inducted - Gary Adams, Rocky Craig, Jeff Malinoff, Rod Spence, Tom Spence, and Gary Wheelock. The class will not be recognized until a date later to be announced in 2022 due to the pandemic still ongoing in 2021.
Spectators returned to Anteater Ballpark for the first time in 13 months starting during the UCSD series. 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 only. No tickets will be available for purchase by the general public.
Live streams of all home games are available this season with and now on ESPN3 for the remainder of the home schedule 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.
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 369-188. 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
Postgame Friday, May 21 - "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."
Postgame Saturday, May 22 - "It's tough when you go down as much as we did early, and we've been there before, unfortunately. Our bullpen from a bunch of different guys pitched really good to give us a chance to come back in that game. Offensively, we did what we've done all year and play until the 27th out. There were a couple opportunities early where we shot ourselves in the foot on the basepaths and left runs out there that become important when you lose 11-9. Happy with how we competed; going down how we did early, it could have been easy to roll over and we didn't."
"Pinto was really good. He's pitched well a lot this year, and this was up there with his best of the year. Their guy threw the ball well, early that game had the feel of a 1-0, 2-1 game. With how well they pitched, we had to match them to be in that game. Pinto and King were great; that double play at the end was massive. It's great, it shows the depth of this team; we can 11-5, we can win 2-1, and we can come back and almost win when down 8-1."
"We've played really well on Sundays. We want to get zeroes early in the game and play from ahead, and turn it over to the bullpen that has a lot of guys rested and compete to win. Hopefully, Peter can come out and pitched like he did last week - that was by far the best outing of his year and hopefully he can do that again."
Postgame Sunday, May 23 - "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."
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 - "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 STATE FULLERTON TITANS
Cal State Fullerton have had struggles of late uncharacteristic of the college baseball powerhouse. They are 20-31 this season on pace for their first losing record in a full season, and they sit ninth in the Big West standings at 13-19. Non-conference was a grind winning twice vs. Utah, USD, and Cal Baptist, but struggling against UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, and Arizona State winning once in eight matchups. Conference series have seen a split vs. UCSB, wins at UCR and UCD, another split at CSUN, and now four straight series losses in May at home to Hawai'i, UCSD, Long Beach State, and swept in four at Cal Poly.
The Titans and Anteaters have met 131 times with CSF taking 89 of those games including 46 at UCI. The last meetings came in 2019 when UCI won two of three at Fullerton followed by a non-conference midweek game at UCI that the Titans won. Cal State Fullerton narrowly finished 2019 with a winning record at 27-26, but were 4-12 in 2020 before the season ended.
The offense averages just 4.6 runs a game hitting .265 as a team. Caden Connor leads the offense hitting .333 with 27 runs adding 22 RBIs. Other leaders are Jason Brandow and his 23 RBIs, 12 doubles from Deylan Pigford, and four HRs each by Josh Urps and Austin Schell. The entire roster is in play with 15 players making an appearance in at least half of the 51 games and 17 with at least 10 starts. The offense does average over eight strikeouts per game and the defense has at least an error a game average.
Pitching comes in with a 5.90 ERA. Tanner Bibee is a strong arm as a starter coming in at 7-5, 3.22 including a complete game shutout, however did come out of the bullpen last week. Kyle Luckham is also solid at 5.40 and 3-8 in 13 starts. Ten other pitchers have started a game this season with arms like Landon Anderson (18 G, 2-1, 4.50), Michael Weisberg (18 G, 2-1, 6.12), and closer Cameron Repetti (4-2, 4.85, 5 Sv, 6 BB, 21 K) rolling in from the pen.
