IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball put up a furious comeback Saturday in the series finale with Cal Poly, but couldn't make it all up falling 7-6 to drop the game and series in Anteater Ballpark.

MAKING THE MOST OF IT
The Anteaters (21-13, 9-6) were stuck in neutral to star the game Saturday putting runners on base but not able to move them around. In each of the first seven innings UCI had a runner on base, but only pushed a man across in one of them. Cal Poly (22-13, 9-3) starter Dylan Villalobos had to exit in the second inning after allowing the game's first hit to Woody Hadeen, but Zach Button on to relieve help stifle that UCI attack. The 'Eaters had walks in the first and third innings and a hit by pitch in the fourth, but couldn't get anyone past second base and remained scoreless.

The Mustangs on the other hand capitalized on everything dealt to them early. Their first baserunner was a leadoff single in the third inning. A sacrifice bunt to move him up worked too well as Cameron Wheeler threw the ball away leading to a sacrifice fly and a 1-0 lead. The fourth inning saw the Mustangs start their rally with two outs from a single and walk punctuated by a two-run double to open up the lead to 3-0.

THE FIFTH INNING
Most of the game's scoring happened in one inning that took nearly an hour. Tanner Brooks newly in to the game got a strikeout to start things, but them surrendered five straight hits to plate four Cal Poly runs putting the Anteaters in a big hole down 7-0.

UCI's fifth inning bested Cal Poly's with help from Button's inaccuracy walking the first three hitters. A Nathan Church sacrifice fly got a run on the board, and the bases were quickly reloaded. Now with two outs, UC Irvine made its charge. With just one hit to this point, Thomas McCaffrey lofted a blooper just in front of the diving center fielder to plate two runs and draw to within 7-3. A throwing error plated another run and advanced the inning along again enough for Myles Smith, into the game earlier in the inning, followed McCaffrey's lead with a shallow fly ball landing in left field and bringing in two more runs.

UCI had the bases loaded for a fourth time in the inning trying to draw even, but reliever Noah Larkin shut the door keeping the 'Eaters down, 7-6.

FINAL SCORE: CAL POLY 7, UC IRVINE 6
That one run would hang for the next four innings as the scoring dried up from some immaculate bullpen work on either side to close out the game with a 7-6 Cal Poly victory.

UCI made the most of its four hits, but were lacking one or two key ones to put them over the top. Thomas McCaffrey had two on the day, and Myles Smith came off the bench with a hit and reached base in all three plate appearances. UC Irvine was issued 12 free passes from walks and hit by pitches on the afternoon.

Cameron Wheeler dropped his second straight weekend start going four innings and haunted by an unearned run of the three he gave up. Tanner Brooks had his first human outing of the season as well allowing four runs in his one inning while the bullpen after him picked them up with Andre Antone striking out the side despite loading the bases and Gordon Ingebritson again cruising with three scoreless frames and three strikeouts.

The series loss is a crushing blow to the Anteaters' Big West title hopes as they now sit in fourth place, a game and a half back of the Cal Poly and four back of conference-leading UC Santa Barbara. All they can do is watch the standings fluctuate around them next week as they play their final non-conference series traveling to Kansas State starting Friday, April 22.

Postgame Thoughts from head coach Ben Orloff
"We didn't do enough to win. We were gifted to be back in that game being the beneficiary of five free passes and an error in that fifth inning. We didn't play offense near good enough to win that game. The relief pitching gave us a chance down the stretch with our relief pitching, but we didn't have enough offense early to win even though it somehow ended up being a one-run game."

"We played well Thursday night and did some good things yesterday, but not enough to win. Today we weren't very good in any area. At this point, we had a chance to win a series at home against a good Cal Poly team, but we didn't do enough to win in any of the three phases."