Season Notes

2021 Season Accolades
All-Americans: Mike Peabody, Nathan Church, Jacob King
Freshman All-Americans: Nathan Church, Jacob King, Nick Pinto
All-West Region: Mike Peabody
All-Stanford Regional: Jacob Castro, Connor McGuire, Mike Peabody, Nathan Church, Dillon Tatum, Michael Frias
Big West Coach of the Year: Ben Orloff
Big West co-Field Player of the Year: Mike Peabody
Big West tri-Defensive Player of the Year: Taishi Nakawake
All-Big West First Team: Mike Peabody, Nathan Church, Michael Frias, Jacob King, Gordon Ingebritson
All-Big West Second Team: Dillon Tatum, Justin Torres, Nick Pinto
All-Big West Honorable Mention: Connor McGuire, Jake Palmer
 
2021 Season Stat Leaders
G:  61 - Church / Nakawake
AVG: .369 - Church
H: 100 - Church
R: 62 - Church
2B: 24 - Church
3B: 8 - Church
HR: 15 - Tatum
RBI: 61 - Church
W: 9 - Frias
Sv: 8 - King
ERA: 3.36 - Frias
IP: 86.2 - Pinto
Games: 29 - King
Starts: 16 - Denholm / Pinto
K: 91 - Frias
WHIP: 1.04 - Frias

AROUND THE HORN
34 - Head Coach Ben Orloff is 34; the 10th-youngest coach in Div. I and 3rd-youngest to make the 2021 postseason
.300 - Offense hit .300 for the first time since 2010 with season HR (15 - Tatum) and H records (100 - Church) falling
40 - UCI Baseball produced its eighth 40-win season and third season with 40 regular season victories (1974, 2009)
6 - 'Eaters claimed 6 of the 11 All-Stanford Regional spots(Castro, McGuire, Church, Peabody, Tatum, Frias)
 
LEADING OFF
+ UC Irvine baseball's postseason run lasted until the regional final of the Stanford Regional. The program's ninth trip to the NCAA Tournament resulted in three wins, one against each team in the regional, needing to win Saturday night to stay alive, which they did with a come-from-behind effort, 8-4, to force Sunday's regional final - the team's 17th comeback victory of the 2021 and fourth win trailing entering the eighth inning. Host Stanford would claim the regional with an 11-8 Sunday victory knocking out the Anteaters. The 'Eaters hit .354 as a team including a season-high 22 hits in an 18-3 win over North Dakota State.

+ The Anteaters finished with 43 wins, fifth-most in a UCI season, including 40 in the regular season, something only the 2007 and 2009 Anteater squads have done. UCI also won 32 Big West games to set a record, and may never be duplicated due to this year's 40-game slate.

+ Six Anteaters were awarded with All-Stanford Regional recognition led by starting pitcher Michael Frias who made two starts including a complete game shutout of Nevada in the opener Friday night. Nathan Church set a program record for most RBIs in a postseason plating 14 runs while batting .500 to make the squad. Other 'Eaters included his fellow outfielder, Mike Peabody, and other brilliant regional bats Jacob Castro, Connor McGuire, and Dillon Tatum.

+ Many other honors have also been dished out including some All-American and All-Region honors. Mike Peabody is the only player to earn one of each scoring Second Team All-American honors from Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. He was also the only 'Eater named All-West Region from the American Baseball Coaches Association. He marks the eighth straight season with an Anteater represented. Nathan Church was also noted as a Third Team All-American from CBN. He claimed Freshman All-American honors from CBN along with two others, Nick Pinto and Jacob King, who all had marvelous campaigns. Lastly was Perfect Game USA that added Jacob King as a Third Team All-American to their list. Program marks rise to 32 All-American selections all-time and 12 Freshman All-Americans.

+ UC Irvine heads to the Stanford Regional to join the hosts, Stanford, an at-large selection out of the Pac-12 Conference, the Mountain West champions, Nevada Wolf Pack, and the champions out of the Summit League, North Dakota State. Among the 16 regionals, the Stanford Regional is 1 of 5 that contain three or more conference champions. The Stanford Regional is the only with a pair of conference champions that earned a bid through the regular season with no conference tournament. The 'Eaters met with Stanford earlier this season in a four-game series, and have met in eight games throughout their program histories. UCI and Nevada will meet Friday with their 30th all-time meeting, first since 2018, and UCI holds a 20-9 record in the previous games. Fourth-seeded North Dakota State has yet to play any of the other three regional teams previously.

ALL-BIG WEST HONORS
+ All-Big West honors were announced Wednesday with the Anteaters taking a number of major awards including head coach Ben Orloff's first Big West Coach of the Year award. Mike Peabody took home Big West Field Player of the Year in a joint effort with Cal Poly's Brooks Lee, and in a three-way tie, Taishi Nakawake shared Big West Defensive Player of the Year with Myles Emmerson and Denzel Clarke. Overall, a record 11 Anteaters earned accolades including five first-teamers - Mike Peabody, Nathan Church, Michael Frias, Jacob King, and Gordon Ingebritson, three second-teamers - Dillon Tatum, Justin Torres, and Nick Pinto, and two as honorable mention - Connor McGuire and Jake Palmer.

+ The 11 All-Big West honors is a program record as is the five first-teamers. Coach Orloff's first Coach of the Year honor is the fourth conference accolade for the program joining Mike Gillespie in 2009, Mike Gerakos in 1987, and Steve Hertz in 1980 for the SCBA. It's the second time the 'Eaters have had a hand in three major awards joining the coach, player, and pitcher of the year trio in 2009 of Gillespie, Orloff, and Daniel Bibona.

+ Mike Peabody's co-Big West Field Player of the Year honor is the fourth for the Anteaters. Most recently, Keston Hiura won in 2017 as did Taylor Sparks in 2013 and Peabody's coach, Ben Orloff, in 2009.

+ Taishi Nakawake's tri-Big West Defensive Player of the Year honor also marks the fourth time an Anteater has won it and second consecutive UCI shortstop. Christian Koss took it home in 2019, and before that, UCI won it consecutively in 2011 by Brian Hernandez and 2012 with D.J. Crumlich.

NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
+ The 'Eaters are nationally ranked in some team stats including 2nd in hit by pitch and sacrifice bunts and 3rd in triples. They also rank top 50 in hits (7th), doubles (11th), walks allowed per nine innings (11th), runs (15th), shutouts (15th), on-base percentage (16th), strikeout-to-walk ratio (16th), sacrifice flies (17th), winning percentage (18th), batting (21st), WHIP (22nd), ERA (24th), runs per game (27th), double plays (32nd), fielding percentage (40th), and walks (48th). Within the Big West Conference, UCI commands many of those categories as well leading all schools in walks (244), batting average (.300), doubles (125), hit by pitch (123), hits (627), on-base percentage (.400), runs (443), sacrifice bunts (56), runs per game (7.3), shutouts (6), strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.05), triples (25), WHIP (1.28), and winning percentage (.705). The Anteaters led all teams in the tournament hitting .325 in their five games and averaging three doubles in them.

+ Church finishes as the nation's leader in triples with eight. He represented the 'Eaters in many national rankings including hits (3rd), doubles (5th), total bases (7th), hits per game (11th), runs (24th), RBIs (29th), batting average (67th), and toughest to strikeout (142nd). His postseason performance was memorable recording the third-most RBIs of anyone in the tournament at 14 averaging a tournament-best 2.80 RBIs per game and setting a single-season postseason mark for UC Irvine while also not striking out once. Mike Peabody joins him in many categories including hit by pitch (2nd), RBIs (48th), runs (48th), on-base percentage (49th), runs per game (50th), and hits (81st). Dillon Tatum is 48th nationally in HRs and second in the Big West. Connor McGuire had 10 sac bunts to lead the conference and finish 14th nationally. Luke Spillane's six sacrifice flies rank him 25th in the NCAA. Pitching leaders include Michael Frias at wins (22nd), WHIP (56th), complete games (65th), and strikeouts (95th). Nick Pinto and Trenton Denholm are each tied for 13th in starts. Jacob King and Gordon Ingebritson sit first and second in the Big West in games pitched and 21st and 33rd, nationally. King also moved into 41st nationally in saves with eight.

+ As a team, UCI impressed hitting an even .300, first UCI team hitting .300 since 2010. The 2021 Anteaters will go down as the highest-scoring team in program history with 443 runs scored just beating out the 1974 squad who scored 433 averaging 7.7 runs a game. The squad finished with 45 home runs tying the all-time season mark with the 1974 club, and added the second-most doubles in a season with 125. The team's .448 slugging percentage ranks fourth in program history. On the pitching side, UCI's staff finished with a 3.80 ERA including a 3.44 bullpen ERA. The 524 strikeouts from the staff is a program record with just the second squad with over 500 in a season joining the 2008 squad.

+ Anteater career records fell in droves in 2021 starting on the offensive side. Dillon Tatum broke the long-standing season home run mark with a pair of homers in the regional. His 15 HR on the season surpassed Cody Cipriano in 2007 and Brandon Lewis in 2019 with 14 each. Nathan Church went on a tear to reach 100 hits in a season shattering the previous record of 94 set in 1988 by Jeff Oberdank. He finished with 271 at-bats, second-most in an Anteater season behind Oberdank's 273, and finished the fifth-most runs scored in a season (62), third-most RBIs (61), fifth-most triples (8), and tied the all-time doubles mark at 24 alongside Taylor Holiday in 2006 and Keston Hiura in 2017). Church and Taishi Nakawake each played in all 61 games making 28 Anteaters all-time with a 60-game season. Mike Peabody climbed into the rankings with the 11th-most runs (57), 10th-most RBIs (57), and setting the hit by pitch mark at 27. His 51 HBP stands as a career record, and he also stands 18th all-time with 12 home runs along with his nine this season, seventh-most for an Anteater. Other career records that shifted began with Adrian Damla playing 207 career games ranks him seventh in UCI history. Jake Palmer lands among the top 20 with 29 career HBP, seventh-most walks at 93, and his 117 runs scored sits 14th.

+ On the pitching side, Trenton Denholm's prestigious career finished with 50 total games pitched, 49 starts which ranks in a tie for fifth-most, 279.2 innings ranking 16th, the ninth-most strikeouts at 236, and 21 wins tying him with Andrew Morales, Brett Smith, and Jerry Maras for 12th-most. Jacob King's dominant season in the bullpen saw him appear in 29 games, 12th in program history, and his eight saves rank 15th all-time and 11th in a single season. Dylan Riddle who finished his career with a pair of saves in the final regular season homestand, pitched in 74 career games ranking 13th in UCI history.

+ UCI finished non-conference with an 8-8 record, 7-6 against Pac-12 programs. Adding postseason contests, UCI was 11-10 in non-conference games and 8-8 against the Pac-12. Under coach Orloff, UCI is 17-13 against the Pac-12, and have a 98-82 record against the conference since the program returned in 2002. UCI's non-conference strength of schedule is ranked sixth in the nation, and holds a non-conference RPI of 27 with four Quadrant 1 wins in 10 games against Quadrant 1 programs. Overall, UCI's strength of schedule ranks 109th with an RPI of 32. The Big West Conference rated as the 15th-strongest conference in the nation posting a record of 53-68 in non-conference action.

+ The 'Eaters finish 2021 nationally ranked at No. 21 according to D1Baseball and the NCAA. Other polls have UCI back in the among the top 25 including Baseball America (18th), Collegiate Baseball Newspaper (19th), USA Today Coaches Poll (20th), Perfect Game USA (20th), and the NCBWA (21st).
 
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.

The 2021 season represented 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. Since its reinstatement in 2002, the 'Eaters hold a record of 373-188. 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.

Final Thoughts from head coach Ben Orloff
"Firstly, congratulations to Stanford on going to the Super Regional and a hard-earned regional championship. I have a lot of respect for Coach Esquer and staff - Thomas Eager, Tommy Nicholson, Steve Rodriguez - so congratulations to those guys. Super Regional appearances aren't given away so this is a really good team that's going to be a tough out for anybody."

"I'm just really proud of our team. The seven-spot in the first inning makes it hard to come back from, but I think this game was kind of emblematic of our season, of our kids, just being able to play regardless of the circumstances. I think at 7:15 p.m. tonight, people wouldn't have thought that Mike Peabody would be the tying run in the ninth inning with a chance to extend the game. I think that's just special. They're special, and we've seen that all year. You hate to lose and take the uniforms off, but Big West champions, 43 wins, really proud of our team."

"This season was kind of like this game, the circumstances don't impact them, they are what they are. They just play it and it's going to serve really well in life. That's what we've seen this year. We've never spoken about, and we won't, the challenges or difficulties or what we could do or couldn't do. We just play and how resilient the group has been to be able to move on from some really bad things and not have it impact us like the first inning tonight. We had to deal with a lot of really, really, really good success and not having that cause complacency. That's what makes this group so special."

"Nathan Church is one of the best players in the country. We said that the other day and he finished the season with 100 hits, almost 40 extra-base hits, this guy's in his first full year of college baseball. It's a broken record, but if you're watching this, these games, he's as good as there is in the country and his just continuing to get better."

"Dillon Tatum had a huge year for us. He set the school record tonight for a single season in home runs in maybe 120 at-bats, and dealing with a calf injury from last week didn't help him out, but you don't see many JC guys in their first year of Division I put up the type of numbers that he has."

On the 2021 regular season - "I was looking at it and I think there's 10 or 11 teams in the country with 40 wins. In 2019, there was five teams on the entire West Coast with 40. To do it in a season like this, having to play four games each weekend. We'll be a Big West champion forever, 32 wins will be the record forever in the history of the Big West, so this is really an historic regular season, and we're really proud of the guys for playing.

On preparing for the NCAA Regional – "The experience of us being at Stanford, knowing what dugout we're in and how the field plays, I think that will help; maybe staying at the same hotel. What this team's done all along is be present, stay in the moment. We've had some devastating losses, and we've been able to move on to whatever's next. We've had exciting wins, haven't lost a weekend series since Stanford, gone 34-9 in that time, and sometimes winning can lead to complacency, but we haven't seen that out of our group. We're here now, this is what the kids have wanted to do. I think by Friday, we'll get a really good performance that will be in character to who we are in a great regional setting."

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 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.

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."