IRVINE, Calif. --- The first home game of the 2022 baseball season was a rousing 13-3 win Tuesday night with UC Irvine topping San Diego State at Anteater Ballpark.
SLUGGISH START
Inclement weather was forecasted to come at some point during the game Tuesday evening, but instead it reared its head right out of the gate showering the ballpark for the first inning of play.
The opening play was a looping ball landing inside the foul line between three Anteaters, but
Justin Torres was quick to it to throw out leadoff hitter Caden Miller and keep the rally away.
San Diego State (1-3) would post five hits in the first two innings off starter
Michael Stanford, but only could muster a run from an infield single to take an early 1-0 lead.
UCI (2-2) answered with a similar inning in their half tying things up on a
Connor McGuire sacrifice fly, 1-1.
HITTING THE JETS
The 'Eater offense was stymied a bit by redshirt sophomore starter Jonny Guzman who pitched into the fifth inning striking out nine Anteaters. UCI managed to slowly build a lead with an unearned run in the third, and then
Ben Fitzgerald popped his first home run as an Anteater just getting it beyond the right-center field wal to put UCI up 3-1 after four.
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UCI finally got into the Aztec bullpen in the fifth inning driving in a run in its first at-bat against it on a
Nathan Church RBI single, part of a three-run frame to grow the lead to 6-1.
The seventh inning broke the game wide open with seven runs scored.
Thomas McCaffrey and
Connor McGuire each muscled two-run triples in the inning as the offense knocked six of its 10 hits in the game to open up a 13-1 lead.
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WHEELING AND DEALING
With the offense finally in gear, the Anteaters also had some calm on the mound in the form of
Cameron Wheeler. He started the fourth inning and proceeded to retired the first nine Aztecs he faced to really put the 'Eaters at ease.
He left after allowing a leadoff single in the eighth that would eventually come around to score, but led all Anteater arms with three strikeouts in the game and was the recipient of his first career win.
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FINAL SCORE: UC IRVINE 13, SAN DIEGO STATE 3
The Aztecs posted a late two-run eighth inning, but the comeback would stop there as the game finished 13-3 to the 'Eaters to bring them back to a 2-2 record on the season.
Along with Wheeler were debuts from
Cooper Robinson with a run over an inning in his first college outing and
Troy Taylor closing things out with a scoreless ninth inning striking out two in his UCI debut. Stanford in his first UCI start went 2.1 innings scattering five hits to allow just one run.
The fielders had a pair of debuts as
Dub Gleed and
Chase Call were each called upon to hit late for their first collegiate appearances.
Offensive highlights were abound led by
Jacob Castro's three hit night scoring two and driving in two as well.
Nathan Church scored three times adding an RBI with two hits.
Taishi Nakawake and
Woody Hadeen each had a pair of runs. McGuire finished with a game-high three RBIs and
Thomas McCaffrey had two of his own.
The 13 Anteater runs nearly matched their total from the weekend of 14 at Louisiana. They even out-hit SDSU by just one, 11-10. UCI took advantage of the seven free passes scoring five of them.
Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
"Those first four innings were disappointing offensively. I think you got to give credit to Guzman who dominated us. Cam Wheeler came in and was awesome. That game was not in a good spot for us, and he came in and for him to do what he did gave us time to come back and figure it out and score. I think Wheeler was kind of the story of the game."
"We're going to have our hands full going into this weekend. We've got to get better in a lot of areas, and a lot of that was evident tonight. We're excited, Grand Canyon will be really good, and their were a lot of good things tonight obviously scoring 13 runs and holding them to three, but there's still a lot of room for improvement and Grand Canyon will be very good."
WEEKEND WITH THE LOPES
UC Irvine remains home for the weekend welcoming in Grand Canyon who is also 2-2. First pitch Friday, February 25 comes down at 6:00 p.m.
