IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball improved to 6-1 in midweeks matchups following a 7-3 victory Tuesday night over Loyola Marymount in Anteater Ballpark.
FROM THE TOP
The Anteaters (20-11, 8-4) led with
David Vizcaino on the mound Tuesday night just nine days after making his Anteater debut now on the bump for his first career start. The redshirt freshman worked through the first two innings with ease posting three strikeouts along the way, and retired the first eight batters before giving up a two-out single.
"I haven't' thrown over two innings in a while so it felt good but definitely still need to work on some things and keep getting after it."
He avoided any trouble after that, but was back into a jam in the fourth inning allowing another single and walk with two outs only to capture the final out and get him through four innings without a run.
"The comfortability of competing and getting after it, especially when we have guys on our team that can have your back no matter what, it's really comfortable knowing that you can go out there and throw strikes and have your defense come out behind you and make plays."
Vizcaino departed with a lead before handing it over to
Finnegan Wall in the fifth. The freshman strolled through his first inning, but found himself in trouble in the sixth, again stemming from two outs where the LMU Lions (11-20-1, 8-4) hit consecutive singles to score a run, and then a double drew the score to 3-2. A walk ended Wall's night in favor of
Nick Rincover, and after loading the bases with a hit by pitch, he got a soft grounder and a fantastic play by
Taishi Nakawake to end the threat and keep the 3-2 lead.
After that rough sixth inning, Rincover returned to get a strikeout in the seventh before handing the ball off to
Cooper Robinson who added two strikeouts of his own and surrendered an unearned run before seeing
Jacob King finish the night off with a dominant ninth inning.
"It's great. We have a really deep bullpen since the start of the year. We have a lot of trust in all of our guys, and they're all capable of doing what one another has done already so it's really nice knowing that we can rely on other guys, have them come out and compete, and do well."
MEN AT WORK
The offense came through as well even as Vizcaino was matched pitch-for-pitch early on by LMU starter Jimmy Galicia retiring his first seven hitters. The first Anteater to get to him was
Chase Call making his first career start in just his third appearance with the Anteaters drawing a walk. He aggressively went first-to-third on a wild pickoff attempt allowing him to stroll home on
Ben Fitzgerald's two-out RBI single for a 1-0 lead in the third.
Justin Torres quickly doubled the lead in the fourth inning starting the frame off with a booming home run high off the right field light tower to up it to 2-0.
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Call was back in the mix in the fifth inning following
Caden Kendle's infield single with one of his own that actually ended up in right field after it deflected off the glove of the pitcher for the first hit of his collegiate career. UCI would tack on their third run on
Taishi Nakawake's double play ball.
FINAL SCORE: UC IRVINE 7, LOYOLA MARYMOUNT 3
The 'Eaters slowly put some distance between them and the Lions with runs in five consecutive innings. One hit would do the trick in the sixth inning to score two runs thanks to multiple walks including one to
Luke Spillane with the bases loaded, and
Caden Kendle smashing a sacrifice fly.
The seventh inning saw a little more pop as Nakawake raced around reaching on a walk, stealing a bag, and then scoring on
Nathan Church's RBI triple. He later came home on another sacrifice fly to complete the scoring on the night for the Anteaters.
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UCI only needed six hits for their seven runs with all six coming from different players. The only crooked numbers came for
Justin Torres with two RBIs and
Nathan Church who crossed home plate twice.
Vizcaino earned the win from his four scoreless out of the gate improving his record to 2-0 in just four career appearances. The five arms on the night finished with 12 strikeouts, and Rincover and Robinson were rewarded for their efforts recording holds.
UCI returns to the win column now with five in their last six games and three straight at home. The road doesn't get easier now with just one day off before a battle with Cal Poly sitting at 7-2 in Big West play. The action starts Thursday at 6:00 p.m. with
Nick Pinto and Drew Thorpe squaring off.
Postgame Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
"Vizcaino was really good. You get four shutout on a Tuesday in his fourth appearance ever and threw the ball really well. Offensively, we scored in five straight innings while giving up three runs on a Tuesday using five different pitchers, striking out 12 guys with two walks."
"This team should be fun. We've gotten a lot of different contributions from a lot of different guys. Cooper Robinson bounces back from a bad outing, Vizcaino doing what he's done after not pitching for two months, Chase Call's first collegiate hit and scoring a run; there's lots to like."
"Call was great - he gets a hit and a walk and was part of that first run. He's right in line with guys like Blake Penso getting his first hit last Tuesday night. We get the pitching we did when we know we're not going to use Ingebritson or Brooks or Taylor and to get pitching like that was really good."
