MANHATTAN, Kans. --- UC Irvine baseball couldn't find the offense again on Sunday at Tointon Family Stadium falling a couple long balls behind Kansas State in a 5-3 loss.
PITCHING PROWESS
The arms were at the ready to start the series finale with
Cameron Wheeler and Griffin Hassall allowing just a walk between them in the first.
UC Irvine (22-15, 9-6) started the scoring with help from an error and intentional walk in the second scoring on a
Luke Spillane sacrifice fly.
The home runs returned with each team trading solo shots; first from Brady Day in the second to tie it at 1-1, and
Ben Fitzgerald responded with his third long ball of the series in the third to make it a 2-1 Anteater lead.
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HOME COOKING
Kansas State (21-18, 3-9) slowly turned the game around with what they do best and launch long balls. Nick Goodwin launched a no-doubter with two outs in the fifth to grab the lead, 3-2. The next inning, another two-out blast extended their lead off the bat of Cole Johnson for a 5-2 advantage that they would hold on to to score the series win.
FINAL SCORE: KANSAS STATE 5, UC IRVINE 3
Abraham Garcia-Pacheco cut the lead down with a pinch-hit RBI single in the eighth, but the bats couldn't put anything else together leaving 10 on base on the afternoon.
Dub Gleed provided some offense with the team's only two-hit game. Fitzgerald provided a hit, run, and RBI by way of the home run.
Thomas McCaffrey, after three home runs in the first two games, was neutralized issued a pair of intentional walks.
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Cameron Wheeler had his best weekend start to date going 5.2 innings allowing one walk with two strikeouts outside of the three decisive long balls.
The 'Eaters sit at 22-15 overall including 13-9 in non-conference matchups and 12-9 against teams outside of the Big West. UC Irvine looks to turn things as April comes to a close having lost three of that last four weekend series and heading into a big week finishing up their seven-game road trip at No. 13 UCLA Tuesday and a Long Beach State starting Friday, April 29.
Postgame Thoughts from head coach Ben Orloff
"I thought we played well. I don't think we did enough to win, but its one of those rare times where you get beat; you don't beat yourself and there's no self-inflicted damage. We would have liked to get a couple big hits in big spots with two outs but we didn't. We pitched well, we played defense well, and would have liked to have done a few more things offensively."
"Cam threw well and went about as deep as he's gone. He threw the ball well and so did Gordon, and Troy Taylor was really good, and those guys pitched good enough to give us a chance to win."
"It felt a little bit too much like last weekend where you'd like to take one inning back and you'd leave the weekend feeling a lot different. I told the guys I think we're playing better right now than we were earlier in the season when we were finding ways to win. We've got to continue to get better, find ways to win, get the big hit or make the big pitch. The margin for winning is small, and this week is going to be really important with UCLA and Long Beach State both on the road, it's good to have a good late April and still be playing for something."
