SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball bounced back from Friday night's devastating defeat in a big way winning twice Saturday behind brilliant pitching to stifle UC Santa Barbara, 5-1 in Game 1 and 6-0 in Game 2, at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
GAME ONE
Left-handers
Nick Pinto and Rodney Boone were dealing early to start Saturday's baseball striking out nine between the two of them through three innings and allowing just three hits.
The Gauchos (30-15, 21-10) broke through on the scoreboard in the fourth inning. Pinto nearly escaped a jam after a leadoff double was tagged out on the basepaths, but McClain O'Connor doubled around a run with two outs for the 1-0 UCSB lead.
The 'Eaters (28-15, 20-7) were struggling to figure out Boone finally getting their first hit in the fifth inning off a
Thomas McCaffrey infield single. He continued to run through the Anteater batters facing the minimum through the next two innings with help from a double play to keep the 1-0 lead into the eighth.
FULL TURNAROUND
Boone was back for the eighth still just up 1-0.
Thomas McCaffrey was back for seconds leading off the inning by taking Boone deep on a 1-0 pitch to tie the game at 1-1.
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Connor McGuire laced a one-out double and finally chased Boone from the game. A pair of relievers would load the bases on a hit by pitch and walk, and now with two outs a fourth Gaucho pitcher in the inning came on in Clayton Hall back from his save the night before.
Mike Peabody strode to the play and flipped the game on its head with a double in the gap scoring all three runners for a 4-1 Anteater lead.
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Peabody came around for a fifth run in the inning off the bat of
Jacob Castro.
GAME 1 FINAL SCORE: UC IRVINE 5, UC SANTA BARBARA 1
The win evened the series and snapped a five-game skid at Santa Barbara for the Anteaters. Pinto's valiant effort went for a no-decision despite 6.1 innings, no walks, scattering seven hits, and a career-high nine strikeouts.
Josh Ibarra came on for wonderful relief shutting out UCSB over 1.2 innings and earning his second win.
Jacob King pitched a shutdown ninth to close things up.
McCaffrey's home run was his first in his collegiate career now reaching base in all 15 games he's stepped to the plate. Peabody added his three RBIs scoring
Jake Palmer who had a two-hit game along with McCaffrey.
GAME TWO
Pitching rode the momentum into game two as well as the ESPNU cameras were in attendance for the contest.
Michael Frias and Cory Lewis were dealing through the first two innings striking out five between them with just one hit.
The Anteaters made the first move this time taking advantage of an error to open the third. The offense eventually loaded the bases with one out, and Peabody again produced getting a run in on a groundball for a 1-0 UCI lead.
The 'Eaters continued to add with a clutch two-out triple from the nation's leader in triples,
Nathan Church, to bring a run home in the fifth and make it a 2-0 lead.
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The 2-0 lead remained in the seventh as UCI began the frame with a pair of singles.
Jake Palmer brought a run home with a sacrifice fly after Lewis was lifted for the bullpen. A couple batters later, it was Peabody that blew the game open hammering a ball out to left field for a three-run home run and a now 6-0 UC Irvine lead.
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FRIAS FRAME
The fourth-year Anteater was humming along all the while cutting down Gauchos one after another. For the second time this season, Frias had a no-hitter through five innings allowing his first hit to pinch-hitter Kyle Johnson to open the sixth.
Frias waded his way through that inning, and went about his way with a 1-2-3 seventh inning, and skirting danger in the eighth by stranding two runners in scoring position.
Frias was back out for the ninth inning where he allowed the second hit of the game with one out. Again, the Gauchos got two in scoring position, but a groundout sealed the complete game, shutout, and victory.
The righty tossed the program's first complete game of 2021 on 119 pitches. It's the first complete game and shutout since 2019 when teammate
Trenton Denholm completed four games in 2019 with a shutout mixed in. The win for him bumped his record to 7-0 while dropping his team-low ERA to 2.14.
Frias also finally made it over the hump striking out 10 hitters for the first time in his career after getting nine in a game four times this season. It's also the first 10-strikeout game for UCI this season. He also completed the two-hitter, the second for the team this year joining
Nick Pinto and
Michael Stanford who did so to UC Davis back in March.
GAME TWO FINAL SCORE: UC IRVINE 6, UC SANTA BARBARA 0
The shutout is the fourth for UCI on the year with all coming in Big West play. The team takes a slight lead in the conference standings over UC Santa Barbara, and can complete a series win Sunday and grow their lead in the standings.
The offense revolved around the top of the order with
Jake Palmer doubling twice, reaching a third time, scoring a run, and driving in one. Church following him had three of UCI's nine hits also scoring and driving in a run including his NCAA-leading eighth triple in the game. Peabody carried the load with four RBis on the game to take the team lead with 42 on the year adding his seventh home run of the season. Others contributing were
Connor McGuire who scored both times he reached base,
Justin Torres who singled and scored, and
Thomas McCaffrey added a hit late helping him reach base in all 16 games he's stepped to the plate.
UCSB managed just the two hits from Johnson and Broc Mortensen while four others reached one three walks and an error. Lewis pitching took the loss, now 4-3, but performed at his best striking out 11 without a walk.
Thoughts from head coach Ben Orloff
"It starts on the on mound. Pinto was huge. Their guy Boone has video game numbers, and it took a performance from Pinto and then Ibarra and King to win that game. Runs looked hard to come by, but Thomas hit the home run and jump-started us, we got a bunch of good at-bats in a row, but the ability to hang around and then have a big inning. So many games are won by the team that scores more in one inning than the opponent. We stuck around, got one of those big innings, and pitched it really good."
"That was special, a special performance. Frias continues to be magic. Multiple pitches for strikes, competitiveness, he wants the ball, nothing phases him, that's as good as he's been and it was special to see. On the offensive side, in series like this, you need your best players to step up and be really good, and I think that's what we got in this game. Palmer doubles twice, Church gets a couple hits and scores a guy with a triple, Peabody with the three-run home run, that's what UCSB did last night with Cummings and Sprinkle. But Frias was special, and our best guys were really good."
"All year we've talked about it, people that have seen us play have talked about it, just the resiliency of this team to move on to whatever is next. It was hard to lose a game that hurts more than last night especially when everyone knows what's on the line. The conference is not going to be won this weekend, but to lose the way we did is devastating. To come out today and play the way that we played, this group's special, and it's a fun team to be around. To come back from last night and sweep a doubleheader at Santa Barbara, it's just fun to be part of."
CAPPING THE WEEKEND
The series ends Sunday with first pitch at 1:00 p.m.
Peter Van Loon goes on the mound for UCI going against JD Callahan. The 'Eaters can win the series with a victory while UCSB will try to come away with a split.
