IRVINE, Calif. --- A 12-inning Wednesday night ballgame at Anteater Ballpark was won on
Abraham Garcia-Pacheco's two-out single giving UCI the two-game sweep of Arizona State, 3-2.
"I was 0-for-4 on the night so I knew I was due for a hit, I knew it was coming."
The second-year Anteater catcher known as "Bam" exuded confidence even as he came up in the 12th inning. 0-for-4 with a walk and a hit taken away from him on a fortunate bounce way back in the second inning, , but he knew the mission all along and executed it to perfection.
"You've got to know it's a long game. We've got to stay pitch-by-pitch, trying to build off whatever good plays or good pitches we get from our pitchers to keep going forward. Not taking pitches off, keep moving forward."
Garcia-Pacheco's at-bat started with one out as freshman
Dub Gleed before him was intentionally walked to put two Anteaters (8-5) on base. During Bam's at-bats, Gleed and
Nathan Church on second base took off for a fake-bunt-double-steal with both reaching safely, but Church's overslid the bag by just enough to be tagged out leaving a runner on second with two outs now.
The very next pitch was laced up the middle into center field, and Gleed being waved around home and safe for the winning run.
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HOW WE GOT HERE
The first 11 innings saw an abundance of pitching and defense with the score never more than one run either way. The 'Eaters got on the board first in the first inning from singles by their very first two batters.
Jacob Castro would knock in the opening run on a double play ball for a 1-0 UCI lead.
UCI gifted Arizona State (5-9) the very next inning as
Taishi Nakawake made a pair of errors; first dropping a force out at second that could have ended in a double play. Two plays later, his throw on a two-out groundball was too high for first baseman Gleed and ended up in the dugout and a run scored for ASU tying things at 1-1.
MOUND PRESENCE
After the two early runs, the offenses took a backseat to
Cameron Wheeler for UCI and ASU's Jacob Walker on the mound. The pair matched each other setting down opponents and quickly allowing one baserunner between them for three innings.
"Early on, I was just trying to put up a zero in the first, something we struggled with last year," noted the third-year Anteater
Cameron Wheeler making his first career start. "Really wanted to set the tone right away and get the defense involved. The game plan was just not making any crazy pitches and let the defense work for me."
Aside from the unearned run on the defensive miscues in the second, Wheeler tossed a gem going six innings with three strikeouts. The Sun Devils got to him in that sixth with a pair of one-out hits followed by a sacrifice fly to bring one of them home and give ASU its first lead of the game, 2-1.
On the other side, Walker was matching him pitching into the seventh inning with just one run to his name before UCI got a
Connor McGuire-double and
Justin Torres infield single to knock him out. UCI had them loaded with one out as
Thomas McCaffrey emerged as a pinch-hitter and poked a sinking liner just in front of the diving right fielder to plate the tying run. UCI still could not find the go-ahead tally as the ASU bullpen froze the baserunners and preserve the tied.
DEFENDING HONOR
Plays from both defenses played huge parts in getting the game to extras and beyond.
Woody Hadeen picked up his fellow shortstop Nakawake after his errors with a diving play up the middle and throw from his knees to make the inning's final out and limit the damage. Garcia-Pacheco did his part in the ninth inning throwing out a basestealer to complete a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play and get the 'Eaters back in the dugout.Â
Justin Torres did the same in the seventh inning to rob a single to his left at second base, and nearly came back in the bottom of the inning ending it with the bat on the first pitch.
"Especially at night, this place is hard to score at. We saw that with the ball Torres hit to the wall, so it's about pitching and defense, and that's what kept us in a lot of games and given us a chance," noted head coach
Ben Orloff.
Arizona State came up with a play of their own in the ninth inning as left fielder Will Rogers cut down the game-winning run and
Caden Kendle at the plate for the second out of the ninth inning ultimately sending the game to extra innings.
FINAL SCORE (12 INNINGS): UC IRVINE 3, ARIZONA STATE 2
The win is UCI's third straight against Pac-12 competition; now 3-2 overall against the conference in 2022. It's also the second time in the last three games UCI needed extra innings to win.
A second straight night a UCI pitcher earned their first career win; this time it was
Cooper Robinson who tossed a scoreless 12th inning. The bullpen was the story of the night on both sides, but especially UCI which got six scoreless innings of two-hit baseball with big contributions by
Tanner Brooks striking out two in his first appearance of the season and
Gordon Ingebritson allowing one baserunner in 3.2 innings. The bullpen now has 11.2 scoreless innings in the last two nights, and the staff as a whole did not issue a walk.
Wheeler on the mound in his first start was also noteworthy allowing just one earned run in six innings. His counterpart, Jacob Walker, was charged with two runs as neither earned the decision despite quality starts on either side.
UCI had its largest hit output of the season in the game with 12 hits.
Connor McGuire and
Caden Kendle both enjoyed two-hit games with Church adding three hits of his own.
The Anteaters' week marches on with one day of rest before jumping into a weekend series with Iowa starting Friday, March 11 at 6:00 p.m.
Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
"We pitched it really good. We gave up five hits in 12 innings. Wheeler was really good. No walks in 12 innings as well. We made some really good defensive plays after not in the one inning. Really good win."
"Church did a good job with two strikes to get that 12th inning started. Fitzgerald gets down a good bunt. They walk Gleed; we double steal and are safe by come off the base, but we do that and still have a runner in scoring position. Then Bam gets the hit through the middle and Dub does the rest."
