LOS ANGELES, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball scored a big midweek victory on the road at No. 13 UCLA Tuesday night, 4-2, in Jackie Robinson Stadium.
DEALER'S CHOICE
The Anteater arms were present and making their pitches count starting with redshirt freshman
David Vizcaino. The first-year 'Eaters sat down the host Bruins (27-13, 11-7) through 4.2 innings leaving some key runners stranded on the basepaths. He did leave trailing 2-1 in the fifth inning, but
Jacob King made big pitches to come back from a 3-0 count to retire leadoff threat, Ethan Gourson, and strand more runners on base.
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The rest of the bullpen returned to their old form as well after King retired all four hitters he faced,
Gordon Ingebritson followed striking out the side.
Tanner Brooks got through his eighth inning unscathed, and
Troy Taylor, who like Ingebritson and Brooks, stared down runners in scoring position to retire the final out and save things in the ninth.
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KEY CONTRIBUTIONS
UC Irvine (23-15, 9-6) played a complete game around the mound as well both with the bats and defensively. It started in the first inning with a pair of runners on to start the game, and the opening run home on a groundout by
Dub Gleed for a 1-0 lead.
After surrendering that lead, the 'Eaters climbed back into it in the sixth inning after a single, hit by pitch, and wild pitch put runners in position for
Justin Torres to single them both home and swing the lead back to UCI, 3-2.
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Caden Kendle was a one-man wrecking crew in a different sense on the evening. The first UCLA run came on a sacrifice fly in the third inning, but only because Kendle went up and reached over the center field fence to bring back what would have been a three-run home run.
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Kendle did some damage of his own adding a towering insurance run in the ninth inning with a two-out solo home run to bring the game to its 4-2 final score.
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FINAL SCORE: UC IRVINE 4, #13 UCLA 2
The win is big for UC Irvine giving the Anteaters their second win over a ranked team this season and pushing their record against the Pac-12 to 4-2, and raise the team's record against the conference since head coach
Ben Orloff took over to .583. It's the seventh win over a ranked Bruins team, second in as many years, and fifth over a Bruins squad ranked in the top 15.
Jacob King's relief work earned him his first win of the season with holds going to Ingebritson and Brooks, their fourth and second of the season, respectively, and finished off with Taylor's fifth save of the season.
Kendle parked his fourth home run of the season, all in the month of April. Meanwhile,
Ben Fitzgerald and
Woody Hadeen each had two-hit nights and scored a run. Torres added his two RBIs to put him second on the club with 27 this year. Gleed knocked in his team-leading 28th RBI and became the sixth Anteater with multiple triples on the season.
The win takes UCI into the weekend with a 23-15 mark as it reenters Big West play on the road to complete the seven-game road trip at Long Beach State. The series begins Friday, April 29, at 6:00 p.m. on ESPN+
Postgame Thoughts with head coach Ben Orloff
"I think we played good in all phases of the game again. Vizcaino gave us a really good start, King came in in a big spot against maybe their best guy and comes back from down 3-0 to get Gourson and makes a good play on a PFP. Gordon leaves guy at third with Schrier up who got a big hit earlier in the game, Brooks strands first-and-third, and Taylor strands the bases loaded. We played some really good defense in that game, scored early in the first inning, add on with the Kendle home run so ti was a really, really well-played game by us."
"Kendle had a great game, and since we've started playing him more he's been really big for us. He brings some energy and some toughness and power, and he keeps getting better and better, and he's about all the right things so it's cool to see him have the success he's had."
