RIVERSIDE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball scored early and often pulling away for the series-opening win Friday night at Riverside Sports Complex, 13-1, over the hosts UC RIverside.
STARTING STATEMENT
The Anteaters (27-20, 12-10) quickly went out in front with the third batter of the game,
Nathan Church, obliterating a ball over the right field fence for a 2-0 lead. UCI score another for a three-run first inning, and added on with runs in each of the first four innings to build an 8-0 advantage.
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Caden Kendle drove the offense from the leadoff spot getting on base in the first for Church's HR, doubling home a run in the second inning, and coming away with four hits, five times on base in six times at bat, and a pair each of runs and RBIs to boost him to the team lead in batting average now.
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Eight Anteater starters produced a hit along with Kendle.
Luke Spillane had a three-hit night with an RBI and two runs as one of five Anteaters to similarly fill up the statline, Church and
Dub Gleed each drove in three, and
Woody Hadeen crossed home three times.
TWIRLING A GEM
On the mound, the Anteaters were just as impressive starting with
Nick Pinto. The left-hander delivered his seventh quality start and the team's 12th of the year. He needed just one strikeout using his defense and scattering eight hits over seven innings with just one run allowed to pick up his second win.
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With the game out of reach, the bullpen still handled business between
Jacob King and
Cooper Robinson who together struck out five hitters in two innings and caught the sixth out stealing on the basepaths to close up the Friday night win.
FINAL SCORE: UC IRVINE 13, UC RIVERSIDE 1
UCI's 13 runs are the ninth time the offense has reached double digits on the year, and the 12-run victory is UCI's largest of the season. Kendle's four-hit game is a career high for him, and is the sixth four-hit performance for an Anteater this year. Five different Anteaters have reached the mark with Church doing in twice.
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Pinto continues to add to his Big West lead even with just one strikeout, it did come looking to give him 28 on the year that tops the conference.
The win marks head coach
Ben Orloff's 115th of his career as he surpasses Dave Serrano now standing all alone in third all-time in UCI history for wins and doing it in his 177th game.
The series rolls on to Saturday with a 6:00 p.m. matchup between
David Vizcaino and UCR's Jeremiah Priddy
Postgame Thoughts from head coach Ben Orloff
"We did well; it was nice to win a game on offense and see them break out like that. We scored in the first four innings, playing with that big of a lead is good, getting good length by Pinto to help us win a series tomorrow."
"Caden was on base five times with four hits, Church got on base four times, and I think Woody, Taishi, and Spillane each got on three times. Dub drove in some runs with a double so up and down the lineup there was a lot of production which was nice to see."
"It was huge to get that length from Pinto on a Friday night. When you score that many like we did early, you want to get length out of that starter and not have to use as many relievers to be in position to win the series. That hasn't really happened for us, so to get seven innings out of him and really save the bullpen puts us in a really good position tomorrow."
