IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball battled in a Friday night pitcher's duel with No. 25 UC Santa Barbara ending up on the losing end of a 2-0 ballgame at Anteater Ballpark.

ACE IS THE PLACE
The ESPNU, nationally-broadcasted contest was all about starters Nick Pinto and Cory Lewis on this occasion. The aces for the 'Eaters and Gauchos went toe-to-toe shutting down each other's offenses on the game with Lewis setting down UCI (27-16, 10-9) without a hit through three innings. Pinto wove through the UC Santa Barbara (32-10, 20-2) bats loading the bases in the second and putting two on the corners in the third, both times with two outs. He found what he needed each time though getting a big double play ball in the second and fielding his position twice in the third to navigate through two scoreless frames and keep it 0-0.

The 'Eaters found themselves with a big chance in the fourth getting a two-out triple, but it was also turned away as its first hit and only one until the ninth inning.

Lewis found a groove needing just five strikeouts as he pitched into the seventh, but mowed down 10 in a row before a leadoff walk in the eighth ended his night.

UCI was right there hanging with the Gauchos even down 2-0 as Pinto limited any damage despite five walks pitching into the seventh, and the bullpen of Jacob King, Gordon Ingebritson, and Tanner Brooks posted six strikeouts as a unit allowing just two baserunners to keep it 2-0.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
The game's only scoring came in the fifth inning for UC Santa Barbara started by a one-out single by Jordan Sprinkle. He would steal his way to third base and score on a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0. With two outs and a runner on first, pinch-hitter Aaron Parker made his presence known bashing a triple off the center field wall to score the second run for a 2-0 UCSB lead.

FINAL SCORE: #25 UC SANTA BARBARA 2, UC IRVINE 0
That was all the Gauchos needed pitching a two-hit shutout against the 'Eaters, and the hit with two outs in the ninth from Kendle helped UCI avoid just the second one-hit performance in program history.

Pinto again drew the hard-luck loss despite again lowering his ERA from 3.50 to 3.42. The bullpen kept it close with six of the nine outs coming via strikeout, and just a hit and hit batsman as baserunners.

The entire Anteater offense came from Caden Kendle who had his fourth-inning triple and recorded the team's second hit with two out in the ninth inning through the right side of the shift. He reached three times adding a walk as UCI walked five times on the evening but were shutout for the second time in its last four games.

The series continues Saturday with a 6:00 p.m. start. UCI's starter is yet to be determined to go up against UCSB's Ryan Gallagher.

Postgame Thoughts from head coach Ben Orloff
"As a whole we pitched it good. We pitched it good enough to be in the game in the ninth inning with two outs and no runs on the board. More free bases then we'd like to give up. We made some big pitches in big spots to limit runs, especially Pinto in those early spots."

"I think Lewis pitched tonight the way his stats look on the season. He really limits hits, there are some free bases in there which we got, but you can scatter a few walks if you don't give up any hits. Opponents are hitting .170 off him for a reason and made some good pitches again tonight."