Â
| Â Probable Tuesday Starters |
| UC Irvine |
vs. |
San Diego State |
| Pitcher |
Year |
|
Stats |
Day |
Pitcher |
Year |
|
Stats |
| Michael Stanford |
RS-Jr. |
RHP |
(1-0, 1.80) |
Tuesday |
Hunter Cranton |
RS-So. |
RHP |
(0-0, 0.00) |
Â
| Â Probable Weekend Rotation |
| UC Irvine |
vs. |
Oregon State |
| Pitcher |
Year |
|
Stats |
Day |
Pitcher |
Year |
|
Stats |
| Michael Frias |
RS-Sr. |
RHP |
(2-0, 5.73) |
Friday |
Cooper Hjerpe |
So. |
LHP |
(2-0, 0.82) |
| Nick Pinto |
RS-So. |
LHP |
(0-1, 3.18) |
Saturday |
Jacob Kmatz |
Fr. |
RHP |
(2-0, 2.16) |
| Danny Suarez |
Fr. |
RHP |
(0-0, 4.00) |
Sunday |
TBD |
|
|
 |
Around The Horn
0.11 -Â The nation's leader in WHIP so far is
Gordon Ingebritson at
0.11 allowing 1 hit in 9.1 innings. He retired all 19 hitters he faced vs. Grand Canyon, and has retiring his last 21 hitters overall
40 -Â The 2021 Anteaters were 1 of 10 teams to finish top
40 in ERA (3.80) and batting (.300) posting program records for team runs scored (443), and pitching strikeouts (524)
6 -Â Sunday snapped the string of
6 straight games to start the season where both teams held a lead in UCI's games; 3 of those games featured the team to score first losing the lead before winning
17 -Â UCI has
17 wins against the Pac-12 since coach Orloff took over, more than two Pac-12 schools and would
be the fifth-best winning percentage in the Pac-12 at .567 (17-13)
Â
LEADING OFFÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
+ Through the first two weekends, UCI is 4-3 with one series win and one series loss having faced a pair of reigning conference champions - Louisiana of the Sun Belt and Grand Canyon of the WAC.
+ Anteater pitching holds the 75th-best ERA at 3.69, 69th-best WHIP of 1.26, and 72nd-best K-to-BB ratio at 2.83. It's allowed four runs or less in five games and a high of seven.
+
Gordon Ingebritson leads the NCAA in WHIP at 0.11 - 1 baserunner through 9.1 innings. He's among 40 players to not issue a walk and has retired 21 straight hitters.
+ Tied atop the Big West are
Michael Frias with two wins in two starts and
Jacob King with two saves.
+ UCI's defense has played errorless baseball in 4 of 7 games; their .984 fielding percentage in 29th in the NCAA
+
Ben Fitzgerald has settled in with two of the team's three HRs, and is third nationally with two triples. As a team, UCI leads the conference and is 10th nationally with five triples
+ UCI's eight sacrifice bunts rank fourth in the nation, and
Taishi Nakawake has three to rank him sixth in the NCAA
+ The reigning Big West champions were projected to finish second in the preseason Big West Coaches Poll behind Long Beach State. The 'Eaters earned 3 of 11 first-place votes.
+ Big West Coach of the Year from 2021
Ben Orloff returns for his fourth season. He stands eight wins from 100 in his career earning 37 wins in his first year of 2019, eight in the shortened 2020 season, and 43 a year ago finishing top two in the conference in each season.
LAST WEEK
+ UC Irvine went 3-1 in four home games. They won the home opener Tuesday vs. San Diego State, 13-3
+ The Anteaters won their first series taking two of three against 2021 WAC Champion, Grand Canyon
+ UCI and GCU played three similar games centered around pitching and defense with all three decided by one or two runs and the winning side scoring four runs in each. UCI used hits to drive in just four of the 11 runs vs. GCU
TUESDAY AT SAN DIEGO STATE
+ The Anteaters and Aztecs match up for the second time in a week and final time in the regular season
+ UCI's 13 runs are the most in the matchup since scoring 14 in the 2009 Irvine Regional. The 10-run margin is the largest in the series since 2013 when SDSU won by 16.
+ The meeting will be the 98th all-time with SDSU leading the series , 57-39-1, and 28-19 at SDSU.
WEEKEND SERIES AT OREGON STATE
+ The 'Eaters and Beavers reprise their series from last year in Irvine where all three games were decided in the final at-bat and UCI won 2 of 3
+ Both schools reached the 2021 postseason, but were unable to advance losing on a Monday elimination matchup
+ UCI returns to Corvallis for the first time since the 2014 Regional where UCI upset the No. 1 National seed Beavers defeating them 2 of 3 times. All-time, UCI holds a 5-3 lead in the all-time series including 3-1 vs. the ranked Beavers
Â
+ The Anteaters entered the 2022 season ranked nationally in every major poll. After finishing 2021 anywhere from 13th to 21st in all the polls, the 'Eaters were as high as 14th anywhere to 20th from D1Baseball.com. The 'Eaters have dropped from nearly every poll since except for Perfect Game USA which has UC Irvine at No. 22 this week.
+ UC Irvine's weekend opponent Oregon State enters the week ranked 13th via D1Baseball.com. UCI has 85 wins all-time against ranked programs in 193 games winning 48 games away from home and a 23-30-1 mark against Pac-12 programs.
Â
SAN DIEGO AZTECS
San Diego State and UCI played twice in a seven-day span after missing out altogether in 2021. Tuesday's matchup will be the 98th meeting, the fifth-most of any UCI opponent and second-most non-conference rival behind USD. SDSU holds the all-time series lead at 57-39-1 including playing in one of the early matchups back in 1970. At SDSU, the Aztecs hold a 28-19 advantage.
The 2021 season saw SDSU go 30-16 with a 22-14 record in the Mountain West just getting overtaken for a postseason spot by Nevada. The Aztecs went 19-6 at their home field
SDSU is coming off their annual Tony Gwynn Legacy Classic with Tuesday's matchup vs. UCI the fifth game in five days. Monday night, SDSU plays another Big West foe in Hawai'i to finish up. It held its own over the weekend defeating Hawai'i to start, 7-1, and split two games against Utah losing 4-0 before winning in seven innings, 4-3, to put them at 3-4 overall in 2022.
The stat leaders through seven games are Caden Miller with 10 hits, a .385 average, and two steals. Poncho Ruiz and Brian Leonhardt each have a home run and five RBIs. Anteater from a year ago,
Shaun Montoya, has joined the club and is 2-for-6 with an RBI early on.
Last week's matchup was tight early on as SDSU took a 1-0 lead in the second which UCI quickly tied in the bottom half. The 'Eaters scored in each of the next three innings to slowly build the lead to 6-1 before ending all comeback thoughts with a seven-run seventh inning to win 13-3. Jonny Guzman made his first start since 2020 and was effective striking out nine 'Eaters in 4.1 innings, but drew the loss allowing four earned runs. Four bullpen arms dished out the other eight runs while on offense Cole Carrigg and Brian Leonhardt had multi-hit games and Charlie Rhee came off the bench for a two-run single late in the game.
OREGON STATE BEAVERSÂ
Oregon State is back in the Anteaters' line of vision after an electric series in Anteater Ballpark last season with all three games decided in a walk-off or extra innings or both. UCI returns to Goss Stadium for the first time since UCI upset the top national seed Beavers in the 2014 Regional. All-time, UCI leads the series 5-3 meeting four times each in the regular and post season
The 2021 season ended with Oregon State in the postseason once again falling much like the Anteaters in the final game of their regional to Dallas Baptist. The Beavers won 37 games a year ago with 16 Pac-12 wins to finish in fifth.
The Beavers have been met with little resistance in 2022 at 7-0 so far winning by an average of 7.4 runs a game. All seven games have been played in Surprise, Arizona against the likes of New Mexico, Gonzaga, and Xavier.
The offense is scorching hot hitting .379 so far with the return of Jacob Melton who was injured shortly after the series at UCI to missed the rest of 2021. He is hitting .536 (15-for-28) with two doubles, triples, and homers driving in 16. Wade Meckler is also hitting well at .417 with 13 runs scored. Other notables are TJ Wheeler (.350, HR, 12 RBI) and Justin Boyd (.385, 3 2B, 10 R, 8 RBI).
Pitching returns some big names including Cooper Hjerpe whose allowed one run in 11 innings so far with 17 strikeouts. Jake Pfennigs is back as well tossing seven shutout over two starts to date. The prolific bullpen touts returners like Mitchell Verburg and Reid Sebby teamed up with a lot of faces new to the Anteaters that have allowed 21 total runs in seven games thus far while striking out 70 batters to just 23 walks.
