IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball were a couple outs from locking up a decisive win Friday night and series victory, but it all unraveled in the ninth inning at Anteater Ballpark dropping the game, 4-3, to Cal Poly.
ARMED AND DANGEROUS
Much like the Thursday night victory, UC Irvine (21-12, 9-5) dazzled on the mound led by starting pitcher
Michael Frias. The fifth-year Anteater allowed a baserunner in each inning he pitched, but stemmed the tide putting up zeroes all along the scoreboard. Cal Poly (21-13, 8-3) mustered just three hits and did walk four times including getting two on and in scoring position with one out to knock Frias out in the sixth, but
Gordon Ingebritson was up to the task punching out his first hitter and getting a grounder to keep the shutout going.
Ingebritson returned for the seventh inning and got two quick outs before a two-out single and giving way to
Tanner Brooks. After starting out with a walk, he got the groundball he needed, but it was booted at first base by
Ben Fitzgerald to load the bases. The very next play found Fitzgerald as he atoned for his error with a diving stop ending the inning and again preserving the slim lead.
HITTING THE JETS
The Anteater offense did enough to have the backs of their pitchers starting with two manufactured runs in the third inning. A bloop double by
Woody Hadeen dotted the right field foul line, and he would score after
Ben Fitzgerald added a double of his own.
Nathan Church then bounded a ball just barely through the infield to plate Fitzgerald for the 2-0 lead.
That score stood for a while as Frias and Mustang starter Travis Weston took center stage. UCI got a big insurance run in the sixth as
Caden Kendle scorched a shot to center field that Brett Borgogno laid out for but came up empty sending Kendle to the races as it rolled all the way to the center field wall and Kendle would slide in safely for the inside-the-park home run and a 3-0 UCI lead.
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THE NINTH INNING
The Anteaters had it all laid out nicely with the 3-0 lead going into the ninth inning and
Troy Taylor coming in to save things. He lost the leadoff hitter John Lagattuta for the ominous walk to start the inning. A single got Cal Poly on the board, but then a strikeout gave Taylor life and an out. A couple more singles brought home a second run and the tying run at third base still with one out.
Taylor looked to get a huge strikeout against Collin Villegas as home plate umpire Dax Upton stood up to make a strike-three call, but held off loading the count to 3-2. The very next pitch, Villegas sat on and drove to deep left center.
Luke Spillane made the long run ot the warning track, dove, and caught the baseball only to see it come free with the impact of the ground and score both runners and put the Mustangs on top, 4-3.
FINAL SCORE: CAL POLY 4, UC IRVINE 3
The 'Eaters got a wild 4-2-5-4 double play to end the frame and stay just one run behind, but the ninth inning came and went for UCI without a run dropping the heartbreaker on a Friday and evening the series.
Frias did not factor in the decision despite four strikeouts in his strong outing. Ingebritson and Brooks did enough to earn holds while Taylor drew his second loss on the season.
Nathan Church led all hitters with three hits on the night. Kendle added two hits including the home run giving him three now in his last four starts.
The series comes to a head on Saturday with a 1:00 p.m. first pitch.
Cameron Wheeler makes the start for UC Irvine with Cal Poly yet to announce their starting pitcher.
Postgame Thoughts from head coach Ben Orloff
"It was a well-played game. It was kind of like last night to the extent that there were two really good starting pitching performances, a close game, and when you lose, everyone remembers the ninth inning. In games like that though, it's an accumulation of everything, and we had chances for it to be 4-0 even 5-0 going into that last inning when we stranded some baserunners. Overall, a well-played game and they got some big hits there in the ninth inning."
"We put ourselves in a position to win a series on a Sunday which is kind of where you'd like to be at. I certainly would like to have won today, but as a whole, I think we played well. They're a good team. For us, the last two days have been positive in terms of how we've played and gone about stuff. I have no doubt in our resiliency and how we'll show up to play tomorrow and play well, win or lose."
