STANFORD, CALIF. --- UC Irvine baseball returned to the postseason with an emphatic 7-0 victory Friday evening downing Nevada at Klein Field at the Sunken Diamond.
MIGHTY MICHAEL
The story of the game was fourth-year starter
Michael Frias who returned to form Friday night on the mound. The righty was dialed in from the get-go getting the Wolf Pack (25-19, 22-9) in order in the first inning ended with a strikeout. He continued that string striking out a hitter in each of the first five innings and keeping Nevada off the scoreboard.
Frias let his defense do a lot of the work as well getting marvelous play from the left side of the infield,
Connor McGuire taking away a couple hits, and
Taishi Nakawake playing like the Big West Defensive Player of the Year with play after play at shortstop to pick up Frias including connecting with him on 1 of 2 double plays in the game.
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Frias cruised through to the ninth inning looking to go wire-to-wire, and after a leadoff walk, cut through the toughest part of the Nevada order to record all three outs and secure the complete game shutout on 112 pitches.
BATTING AROUND
The offense picked up Frias with the bats as well starting right off in the first inning.
Nathan Church crushed a double down the right field line followed by a bloop single from
Mike Peabody to quickly put UC Irvine (41-16, 32-8) ahead, 1-0.
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The 'Eaters continued to stack runs on their total starting with an opposite-field home run by Northern California-native
Justin Torres to make it 2-0 through four innings.
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After a third run in the fifth inning, the pitching took over until UCI manufactured a huge, four-run frame in the eighth put together by the bottom of the order.
Adrian Damla, who came on as a defensive sub, executed a perfect safety squeeze to plate pinch-runner
Woody Hadeen, and an error put Damla and
Thomas McCaffrey into scoring position. A fielder's choice by
Luke Spillane brought another home, and then RBI hits from
Connor McGuire and
Taishi Nakawake completed the frame and put the game out of reach.
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FINAL SCORE: [2] UC IRVINE 7, NEVADA 0
The win for the 'Eaters is their 41st in the postseason, 16th in the Division I tournament, sixth time in nine regionals opening with a win, and fifth all-time postseason shutout, fourth since 2007.
Frias added to his impressive season now 9-1 on the year with his second complete game shutout. Frias struck out five walking two against the Nevada offense ranked among the league's best. To top it off, he allowed just two hits for his second two-hitter this year as well. In two starts at Sunken Diamond this season, he's now allowed two total hits in 14 innings with wins in each.
The offense generated 13 hits of their own led by Nakawake who backed up his glove with three hits to lead all players, an RBI, and a run scored. Six different Anteaters contributed RBIs along with him including Church and Peabody who each had two hits including a pair of doubles from Church, and McCaffrey scored along with two hits.
Nevada had no answers for the 'Eater offense or pitching. Jake Jackson performed masterfully in a losing effort holding the 'Eaters down for seven-plus innings before they broke through. He finished with five strikeouts to no walks while responsible for all seven runs, six earned.
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach
Ben Orloff - "That was as complete a win we've had all year. We talked for a long time about we want to be a better team come June than in February, March, and April, and I think this is just another step along that journey. Pitching was magical. Defense was big time. The offense was opportunistic. Just a really complete performance and couldn't be happier with these kids. They've never played a postseason game before, so for us to come out here and play like ourselves was really fun to watch, and we're excited for tomorrow."
"Frias has been our best guy all year, and he threw this game for a reason. We switched him last week after throwing the second game of the doubleheader on Saturdays all year with the plan being he would throw this game for us tonight, and this was as good as he has been, but it doesn't come to surprise any of us. He loves the moment, it doesn't faze him, doesn't bother him. He pitched like himself tonight, didn't try to do anything special, but he was, he was the man."
"This has been a really good offensive group for us, and really as deep 1 through 9 as we've had ever. I think that was kind of exhibited right off the bat. It was huge for us to get the zero in the top of the first, and for Church and Peabody, two of the best players in the country, they take two good at-bats to lead to that first run. And then just contributions up-and-down the lineup - Taishi in the nine-hole got three hits,
Connor McGuire got two hits,
Thomas McCaffrey got two hits, so really up-and-down, we get contributions from guys and that makes it really tough for opponents to pitch through."
Michael Frias - "My focus was one pitch at a time, pitching with good height, and just really trying to be myself. That's what coach Orloff has preached all week is just playing like ourselves, so to go out there and do it and to get the result that we got was awesome, and it was nothing short of expected. We want to come out and do it in the moment."
WINNER'S BRACKET
The Anteaters are on to Saturday with a win, and face the other Friday winner in the host, Stanford Cardinal, after they defeated North Dakota State, 9-1. First pitch will be 6:00 p.m. with coverage on ESPN3 and KUCI 88.9 FM.
The winner of that game sets themselves up well for a Sunday night game at 6:00 p.m. with a chance to win the regional. North Dakota State and Nevada play Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in an elimination game sending the loser home, and the winner lives to play Sunday against the loser of the UCI-Stanford matchup.
Nick Pinto will go for the Anteaters against Stanford's Brendan Beck.
