IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball finished a weekend sweep of UC Davis at Anteater Ballpark by coming from behind to thump the Aggies, 12-6, Sunday to start Big West play off 3-0.
DOWN EARLY
Right out of the gate, UC Davis (0-9, 0-3) was on the ball with singles by each of the first three hitters for a 1-0 lead. After a mound visit, Anteater starter
Danny Suarez regrouped to strikeout the next three hitters and strand runners on the corners in the first.
UC Irvine (13-6, 3-0) bounced back to tie the score in the second inning behind consecutive doubles by
Justin Torres and
Luke Spillane for a 1-1 game.
The Aggies didn't let that discourage them getting things going again in the third with two more singles to start the inning. James Williams III sent a double inside the first base bag scoring one, and an errant throw to home allowed a second to score to put UCD back up, 3-1.
LATE LIFE
The Anteaters looked to answer again and got started in the fourth with a hit by pitch of
Connor McGuire. Torres followed with his second double of the game to put the tying runs in scoring position. Spillane again came up big singling through the infield to bring home two and tie the game. A stolen base and a sacrifice bunt put him at third. A drawn-in infield looked to cut down the go-ahead run.
Woody Hadeen hit a hard shot right at shortstop Nick Leehey, but his sights turned to home to quickly and he missed the ball letting it through and Spillane to score the go-ahead run.
UCI would continue in the inning finishing with five runs to go up, 6-3. UC Davis scored again the next inning to draw within two, but the Anteaters responded again and did so through the remainder of the game scoring in each of the past five innings to slowly take control of the game.
FINAL SCORE: UC IRVINE 12, UC DAVIS 6
The Anteaters finished out their sweep with 30 runs over the three weekend games. UCI put up a season-high 16 hits behind
Nathan Church's five on Sunday. Torres had a four-hit game of his own with three doubles. Each of them score twice as part of five 'Eaters in all. Spillane led the Anteaters with four RBIs joined by
Woody Hadeen's two along with a triple.
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The pitching held up its end of the bargain as well. Five pitchers allowed five earned runs and each recorded a strikeout for 17 on the afternoon, one short of a program record.
Danny Suarez was a big piece of that registering a career-high 10 strikeouts in just four innings. He did not factor into the decision as
Gordon Ingebritson again scoring the win, his second of the weekend and fourth this year.
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UCI is now 13-6 completing their eight-game homestand with a 7-1 mark. UCI improves their win streak over the Aggies in the series with 10 straight now. The Anteaters join Cal Poly and CSU Bakersfield as Big West schools to finish the opening weekend of conference play 3-0.
The next series sends UC Irvine to Hawai'i for three games starting March 25. Before that, the Anteaters will travel to USD for a midweek matchup Tuesday night at 6:00 p.m.
Postgame Thoughts
Ben Orloff - "Today it was big in those first and third innings to minimize the damage and get out of there only down 3-1 because it could have been worse. After that, Suarez settled in and threw the ball well. The bullpen did good again, and it's important. Whoever is going to win this conference, when you've got a chance to sweep you need to sweep so it was an important first week of conference for us."
"Because of how we pitched and played offense yesterday, we were able to have a full bullpen today. We wanted to be aggressive getting our really good guys into the game. We thought that coming into the game if we could get five inning out of Ingebritson, Brooks, and Troy Taylor if we needed it. So with their top hitters coming up in the fifth for the third time and Ingebritson available, we went to the pen quick and threw the ball well as a whole."
"Torres had a really good weekend. Spillane had a really good weekend and I don't think he got rewarded for it yesterday, but he took his best at-bats of the season. Church every week starts looking more and more like the Church that we all know. So a lot of good weekends but those three guys specifically."
Justin Torres - "I thought it was a good team win. Coach Orloff always emphasizes the sweep factor and how teams that are going to win the league are going to come out on Sundays when they're up 2-0 in the series, they're going to sweep. For us to do that today was big, and we just have to keep improving on the little things, some defensive things to clean up, but our pitching has been great. They show up every day and do what they do. So I thought it was a good weekend and proud of the way the team played on Sunday, coming out with a lot of energy and handed it to them."
"Yesterday, I got caught up in the speed of the game and didn't slow things down. I took a few deep breaths and said let's just do things the fundamental way and get back to it. I happened to make that catch after which was very cool and helped out Frias."
