IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball started slow, but slowly cut away at a deficit to overtake CSU Bakersfield and win the weekend opener, 7-3, on City of Irvine Night Friday at Anteater Ballpark.

RUNNING START
Pitching took the reins in the early innings as starters Nick Pinto and Jaykob Acosta were on their games. Pinto struck out two in a 1-2-3 first while Acosta settled in after walking the leadoff hitter to retire the next nine hitters in order.

The Roadrunners (17-30, 10-15) banded together to ambush Pinto in the second inning starting with two hits and getting them into scoring position on a sac bunt. Angel Saldivar lashed a single through the box to score each of them for a 2-0 CSUB lead. Saldivar would come around later in the frame as the 'Runners jumped out to the 3-0 advantage with a five-hit inning.

STEP BY STEP
UCI (30-21, 14-11) began to wake up with the bats spurned on by a hit by pitch to start the fourth inning and quickly put runners on the corners. Despite a double play, the 'Eaters got a key hit from Justin Torres with two outs pummeling the outfield wall to score a pair and draw to within 3-2.

In the sixth inning, the Anteaters were right back on the attack putting runners on the corners with no outs. That quickly became two outs without a run home, so the baserunning element kicked in. Dub Gleed took off for second cutting down his steal attempt halfway, but that drew a throw which ended up in the outfield to score Nathan Church from third to tie it at 3-3. Thomas McCaffrey remained at the plate and fouled off a number of pitches before reaching out for a poked base-hit to right field to score Gleed and put UCI in front, 4-3.

A sac fly in the seventh would up the lead, and in the eighth really brought out the smoke and mirrors. A hit by pitch and a pair of strikeouts put a runner on with two outs, and that quickly became bases loaded after walk and another hit by pitch by two different Roadrunner relievers. With Caden Kendle at the plate and a 1-2 count, a ball in the dirt skipped away from the CSUB catcher enough for pinch-runner Connor McGuire to scamper home and score. The catcher retrieved the ball and in his haste to try and get McGuire threw it wide of home and Luke Spillane made the read to score as well. Again the ball was retrieved and thrown wide allowing Taishi Nakawake to try and score all the way from first on the wild pitch, but this throw was on the mark and nailed him to end the sequence and the inning. UCI scored twice on one wild pitch and in the inning without a hit.

FINAL SCORE: UC IRVINE 7, CSU BAKERSFIELD 3
The 'Eaters found a way to score seven and win despite being out-hit, 8-7. It marks the 10th UCI win this year with less hits than their opponent. UCI scored six of their seven runs with two outs and only four were batted in.

Justin Torres had two of them along with the only extra-base hit of the 15 in the game. Church had UCI's only two-hit game while scoring a run and driving one in. UCI also exceled on the basepaths with three successful steals in four attempts including Gleed and McCaffrey each getting their first of the year.

Lost in the offensive acrobatics was the Anteater bullpen that again was stellar. Tanner Brooks tossed two scoreless innings on 18 pitches to earn the win, his third of 2022. Gordon Ingebritson and Troy Taylor shut things down in the eighth and ninth with five of their six outs coming via strikeout and Ingebritson earning his team-best sixth hold. Nick Pinto was again unlucky in his outing with just one tough inning in five innings while striking out five, but avoided the loss after leaving trailing by a run.

The 'Eaters lock up another 30-win season, and at 14-11 move into a virtual tie for fourth in the Big West. The series continues Saturday with David Vizcaino and Benji Caggianelli going toe-to-toe on the mound starting at 6:00 p.m.

Postgame Thoughts from head coach Ben Orloff
"We weren't very good early in that game. I think Brooks came in and pitched really well, the bullpen was really good again tonight, and offensively it was kind of a grind-it-out, whatever it takes to win, not pretty game, but the value of the hit by pitch and the walk, and at moments some good aggressive baserunning to score some runs so it was a whatever-it-takes-to-win Friday."

"We had a good two-strike hit on a breaking ball the other way by McCaffrey, Church at two strikes on his sac fly on a breaking ball, Torres two-out double to score two; so there was some good things, but it was not the prettiest night offensively in terms of standing up there, swinging, and get a hit. On nights like this, you've got to be able to get a bund down or steal a base or get a two-strike flare and we were able to do enough."

"Good offensive teams can score in multiple ways, and we weren't scoring by traditional means so a good offense is able to do stuff like that. For the most part, we executed some of the situations and put pressure on these guys. One of their knocks is that they have not played good defense this year, statistically, so when we were able to put some pressure on it showed up a little bit."