IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball opened a three-game series with CSUN Friday and played 14 innings in Anteater Ballpark before eventually losing, 7-5.
COMEBACK #1
The night started off with offensive fireworks as both sides put up runs in the first two innings. The Matadors (14-10, 3-4) pummeled UCI starter
Michael Frias in the first inning forcing him to throw 48 pitches including 12 fouls balls with two strikes to extend at-bats. Frias was pushed to the brink loading the bases, but got two outs without allowing a run. Joey Kramer ruined Frias' thoughts of escaped by lashing a single over the leaping
Taishi Nakawake to plate two and give CSUN the 2-0 lead.
UC Irvine (15-9, 5-2) countered quickly with a leadoff triple in the first that scored on a sacrifice fly to now trail just 2-1. CSUN immediately regained their two-run advantage on a safety squeeze in the top of the second, but the 'Eaters would even the score getting a two-out, two-run single of their own by
Ben Fitzgerald for a 3-3 deadlock after two innings.
COMEBACK #2
The tie ballgame was short lived as Gabe Gonzalez led the third inning off for CSUN with a home run to go up 4-3.
That lead would stand for the next five innings as CSUN's Blaine Traxel settled into a groove holding the Anteater bats silent. On the other side, UCI dipped into its bullpen to start the fourth inning and kept it a tight game shutting out the Matadors for the next seven innings.
UCI nearly ran out of time, but found another tying run as the eighth inning started. Traxel's 134th pitch of the night was left out over the plate for
Justin Torres to punch off the center field wall and end Traxel's night. A couple batters later, he would slide under the tag at home plate off a
Dub Gleed sacrifice fly to knot things up, 4-4.
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COMEBACK #3
The game bled into extra innings for the fourth time on the year for UCI despite a chance to win in the ninth leaving the winning run in scoring position. The Matadors would make the first move however in the 11th inning. A two-out single kept things alive, and a steal attempt moved the runner to third after an errant throw. Back-to-back singles help bring in the go-ahead run and continue the threat, but reliever
Troy Taylor held the game at 5-4 for the Anteater bats.
UCI would get right to work in the bottom of the 11th as
Luke Spillane shot a double into the right field corner.
Taishi Nakawake pounded his third hit of the night into left center to score Spillane and cinch things back up at 5-5 and on to more extra innings.
FINAL SCORE (14): CSUN 7, UC IRVINE 5
The game continued on through the 12th and 13th innings with UCI able to get runners into scoring position in each inning, but could not find a winner. The 14th innings, things fell apart again after the first two hitters singled, a sacrifice bunt was laid down to move them along, but instead
Tanner Brooks uncorked a wild throw to first allowing a run to score and give CSUN its fourth lead of the night. The Matadors added an insurance run to lock up the lead and the win putting UCI down quietly in order in the bottom of the inning.
A tough start from
Michael Frias saw him last just three innings on the night. The bullpen was as good as they could be going seven scoreless allowing three hits until the 11th, and allowed two earned runs in 11th total innings Friday.
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The offense was neck-and-neck with the Matadors nearly all night pounding out 13 hits with Nakawake and Spillane accounting for three each.
Ben Fitzgerald led all players with three RBIs. The offense was stifled striking out 18 times to tie a program record.
The series continues on Saturday with another 6:00 p.m. start.
Nick Pinto takes to the mound in search of his first win of the year going against CSUN's Blake Sodersten.
Postgame Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
"It was a battle. You'd hate to lose, hate to lose an extra-inning game. As a whole, for most of the game that's as good as we've played in a long time. We pitched really good out of the bullpen, we played really good defense for the majority of that game. The offense to answer them in the first couple innings and tie things at 3-3 and then in the eighth and 11th; we did a lot of good things and just not enough to win."
"All those guys pitched it really, really good out of the bullpen. 11 innings out of the pen and nothing until the one in the 11th and then the two in the 14th. We were great out of the bullpen and especially
Cooper Robinson was really good."
"We battled and we had chances to win. We gave ourselves opportunities to win the game and didn't get the big hit when needed it. That happens, and their guys made big pitches when big pitches were required."
