IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball had a tall task looking for a series sweep and trailing by 10 nearly pulling it off Sunday at Anteater Ballpark before falling to Iowa, 12-10.

STARTING SOMETHING
The Anteater (10-6) bats started early on Sunday after a pair of five-hit games prior with three first-inning hits. The third came from Thomas McCaffrey flipping a two-out single to right field for a 1-0 'Eater lead. The inning continued with a pair of walks including a bases-loaded walk to Connor McGuire to leave the first inning ahead, 2-0.

HAWKEYE HITTING
Iowa (7-7) looked to make a move in the third inning from a leadoff Kyle Huckstorf double. UCI starter Danny Suarez got the next two hitters for two outs in the inning, but the Hawkeye hitters had other plans starting with a single the other way by Anthony Mangano for the first run. Three-hitter Peyton Williams smacked a double high off the right-center wall to take the lead from the Anteaters, and then Iowa turned on the jets with a pair walks, another double, and a two-run single to shoot ahead with a seven-run inning.

The visitors continued to build on their lead with two runs in the fifth on three straight doubles to start the inning, and then a three-spot in the sixth inning to go up by a 12-2 score.

NOT SO FAST
With a 10-run deficit in the sixth inning, the 'Eaters had a long way to go, but got started on a comeback in the bottom of the inning. A Woody Hadeen triple would bring home the first run, he would score on a Nathan Church, and much like Friday night, would manage to score from first base on a wild pitch and two errors to draw within seven.

The next inning started with an error and Ben Fitzgerald single that came home on a Dub Gleed double and later a bases loaded walk, but only the two runs while leaving the bases loaded. The offense would leave them loaded again in the eighth after three more runs came home thanks to two walks, two hit by pitches, and a Luke Spillane two-run single.

FINAL SCORE: IOWA 12, UC IRVINE 10
Despite the 'Eaters slowly cutting into the deficit down to two runs, they weren't able to come all the way back stopped by Iowa's sixth pitcher of the day, Luke Llewellyn, picking up his first save of the season and avoiding the sweep for the Hawkeyes.

The 'Eaters matched a season high with 12 hits on the afternoon completing the weekend with the winning team out-hit by the losing team in each of the three games. Church led the way with four hits driving in a run and scoring twice. Ben Fitzgerald had two hits and two runs while Woody Hadeen drove in two with two hits. Luke Spillane also had a two-RBI day while Dub Gleed drove in two while coming off the bench.

Anteater pitching had its roughest outing as seven pitchers allowed UCI's first opponent to score double digits. Danny Suarez allowed seven runs in 2.2 innings drawing his first loss.

UC Irvine had its five-game win streak snapped on the afternoon,but completed its only five-game week of the season with a 4-1 record.

Next up is the opening week of conference play as the 'Eaters stay home to host UC Davis. The weekend will start with a doubleheader on Saturday, March 19, with the first game beginning at 1:00 p.m.

Postgame Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
"This was the first time that we struggled on the mound after pitching really good for 15 games. Good example of minimizing and staying away from the big inning. It's crazy how many games are decided by three runs or less even when it doesn't look like it's going that way."

"I think we did a good job of playing nine innings and not getting caught up in the scoreboard and just playing. A bunch of different guys got in there, and to be down 10 and have chances to win, you can take some consolation in that."

"I think for us to be 10-6 after who we've played and where we've played them specifically this last week when we had won five in a row, all by one run, we've done really well. I'm glad we have no midweek game this week, chance for us to get some really good practice time which we've missed out on the last couple weeks as conference schedule starts Saturday."