IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball celebrated its seniors Sunday at Anteater Ballpark, and the seniors returned the favor spearheading a 6-3 win over CSU Bakersfield to clinch the series.

SENIOR SALUTE
Prior to the game, eight Anteater seniors were honored - Nathan Church, Gordon Ingebritson, Jake Spillane, Troy Wentworth, Taishi Nakawake, Andre Antone, Justin Torres, and Ben Fitzgerald - along with team managers Sammy Martinez and Luis Islas.

The senior impact in the game was felt early on starting from Justin Torres who punished ball over the right field wall to make it 2-0 in the second inning.

UC Irvine (31-22, 15-12) took a 3-0 lead into the fifth inning, but the Roadrunners (18-31, 11-16) battled back for a three-run inning of their own knotting things at 3-3. Another senior Andre Antone was called upon in the sixth in the tie game. Antone striking out the first hitter he saw in the inning, and after a double when Luke Spillane couldn't complete a diving catch, he rared up to strikeout the final out of the inning. Again in the seventh, he got the first two outs of the inning before a single and stolen base again put a runner in scoring position, but another strikeout held the lead heading down the latter innings.

STEADY SCORING
While Antone was keeping the CSUB offense quiet, the 'Eaters were working to regain their lead which they did in the sixth. Luke Spillane singled to start things off, and never stopped running continuing out to second base after an error. Caden Kendle stepped up and drilled a ball up the middle and off a diving infielder's glove into center field to put UCI back up, 4-3.

UCI added another run in the seventh after a single and sacrifice hit set things up again for Torres who doubled around Dub Gleed for a 5-3 lead. The lead grew to 6-3 in the eighth starting from another senior, Taishi Nakawake, doubling to start the inning off and later scoring on Woody Hadeen's fourth hit of the day to seal the series-ending victory, 6-3.

FINAL SCORE: UC IRVINE 6, CSU BAKERSFIELD 3
UCI takes a second straight weekend series with a big Sunday win. The Anteaters scored six runs from six different players while pounding out 13 hits led by Hadeen's four and complimented by two-hit games from Nakawake, Torres, and Gleed. Torres drove in three of the runs while busting his seventh home run to tie him for the team high.

Antone on the pitching side picked up his second win of the week and third of the year. 'I've been here for a while and great to celebrate senior day with all the guys. I celebrated with most of the guys that I came in with last year as they graduated and moved on so I'm kind of the last of that bunch, but still to be here and get a win today with the team, it's just a good outcome for everyone." Antone struck out three in his two innings as he's now 4-0 in his career as an Anteater pitcher. "I just wanted to come in and keep the score there and then after my first inning Caden had a big two-out single that gave us the lead. My job after that is keep it there. Baseball works out so I get the win, but that's just a huge knock for the team to get the win."

Jacob King came through with the save, his first since March 1. Troy Taylor bounced back with a pair of strikeouts in an inning. Cameron Wheeler pitched five innings in his start picking up four strikeouts, all looking.

The season has come down to one final series as UCI will travel to Cal State Fullerton which starts Thursday, May 26, at 7:00 p.m.

Postgame Thoughts from head coach Ben Orloff
"Cam gave us a good start, and then the bullpen was really good with four scoreless out of the pen. Antone with two of those, played good defense, we were able to add on and shrink the game with good defense and pitching at the end. So that was a good one especially for us."

"Woody with four hits had a big day, and then the seniors with Antone and Torres and Taishi, it was good to see those guys, and especially in a last home game type deal here at Irvine."

"Heading into the final series, our goal is to play well, but I think the history of the two programs and of what Fullerton for a long time was in this league; when you get an opportunity to play against them and opportunities to win, I think that's, as somebody that follows college baseball closely, that means a lot to me. What we were able to do last year was really cool, and so I'm really looking forward to playing Fullerton at Fullerton."