2022 Baseball Season Review Notes

2022 Record: 32-24
Big West: 16-14 (6th)
Home: 19-9 | Away: 13-15
All-West Region: Gordon Ingebritson
All-Big West: Gordon Ingebritson, Justin Torres, Caden Kendle, Nick Pinto, Troy Taylor

11 - UC Irvine has had four players in the Majors in 2022 with three making debuts in Andre Pallante, Royce Lewis, and Calvin Faucher making it 11 Anteaters all-time to play in the Major Leagues
6th - UCI's non-conference schedule was the 6th-toughest in the nation with an RPI of 85 and a 7-6 record vs. Quadrant 1 teams at Oregon State, vs. UCSB, vs. USD, and twice vs. GCU and UCLA
19th - UCI secured its 19th winning record in the 21 seasons since baseball returned in 2002. In 44 years of Anteater Baseball, UCI has 31 winning seasons and a .569 winning percentage all-time
690 - The Anteaters welcomed fans back to Anteater Ballpark after limited attendance over the last 2 years with an average of 690 fans per home game; its largest since the 2015 season (757)
 
LEADING OFF                    
+ UCI celebrated eight seniors on Senior Day in Jake Spillane, Troy Wentworth, Justin Torres, Nathan Church, Gordon Ingebritson, Taishi Nakawake, Ben Fitzgerald, and Andre Antone, and team managers Sammy Martinez and Luis Islas.
+ The 'Eaters finished the regular season among the national leaders in sacrifice bunts (6th), walks allowed per game (14th), hit by pitch (16th), strikeout-to-walk ratio (20th),  triples (24th), and WHIP (25th) leading the Big West in sacrifice bunts. National leaders start with All-West Region First Team reliever Gordon Ingebritson who finished second in walks per game, strikeout-to-walk ratio, and WHIP, and fifth in ERA at 1.76 leading the Big West in each category while appearing 32 games, 18th in the NCAA. Taishi Nakawake's 15 sac bunts to ranked third nationally with Woody Hadeen right behind 30th nationally with nine and the most hit by pitch in the Big West at 19.
+ The UCI offense finished with a .260 average, seventh in the Big West, while posting the fifth-best slugging percentage and fourth-place on-base. The team leader in all three was Caden Kendle taking on a consistent role for the second half of the season to hit .328/.465/.533. He finished one home run behind Ben Fitzgerald and Justin Torres for the team lead with seven. Nathan Church had a lot of category bests with 67 hits, 46 runs, and tying with 38 RBI. He finishes his career hitting .341, 11th-best in program history. Dub Gleed posted an impressive freshman campaign hitting .271 with 38 RBIs to tie Church. Woody Hadeen added team highs with 31 walks, 19 hit by pitch, stealing 13 bases in 14 attempts, and avoided hitting into a double play in 235 plate appearances.
+ Pitching posted a 4.35 ERA, 40th-best in the NCAA, with Ingebritson leading the way out of the pen. He finishes with the fifth-lowest single-season ERA (1.76) and sixth-lowest career ERA (2.65) in UC Irvine history. His six wins led the team without a loss followed by David Vizcaino going 5-0. Nick Pinto started all 15 weekends adding a 3.23 ERA and team-best 82 strikeouts with 31 looking to lead the Big West. Four relievers were instrumental with 20 or more outings in Andre Antone (3-0), Jacob King and Tanner Brooks (24 games), and Troy Taylor (6 saves, 42 Ks).

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
+ UC Irvine finished 32-24 with its 19th winning season in 21 seasons since returning 2002. The program played its 2,400th game during the season, and sit at 1,357-1,028-19 all-time for a .568 win percentage.
+ The Anteaters finished sixth in the Big West with a 16-14 record with series wins over UCR, UCSD, UC Davis, and Hawai'i
+ The Anteaters finish non-conference at 16-10. UCI's non-conference schedule was rated the sixth-toughest in the nation including a 7-6 record against Q1 schools. Six opponents made the NCAA Tournament with UCI 8-8 against them.
+ UCI's highest scoring output was 16 runs in a 16-7 game at Kansas State where they tied a program record with five HR.
+ UCI went 19-9 at Anteater Ballpark making them 68-20 at home since coach Orloff took over in 2019.
+ Anteater Ballpark was back open at full capacity seeing its largest average attendance at 690 fans per game since the 2015 season. UCI welcomed 1,580 fans to the ballpark to watch an 8-1 victory over No. 23 UCLA—the largest attendance since 2015 and 27th crowd of 1,500 or more
+ UCI finished 4-4 against ranked programs with single wins at No. 13 Oregon State, vs. No. 25 UCSB, an two wins against UCLA when they were No. 13 and No. 23.

OPENING DAY
+ Four Anteaters have been at the Major League level in 2022 with Keston Hiura leading the way in his fourth season with the Milwaukee Brewers.
+ Andre Pallante made his MLB debut April 10 in St. Louis for the Cardinals as the ninth Anteater to reach the Major Leagues. Pallante is 1 of 8 players from the 2019 MLB Draft class to make a 2022 Opening Day roster. Hiura was the first player from the 2017 MLB Draft class to reach the majors.
+ Two more Anteaters got the call in May with 2017 No. 1 overall pick and UCI NLI signee Royce Lewis joining the Twins and another 2017 draft pick, Calvin Faucher, making his MLB debut with the Tampa Bay Rays. The brings the all-time number to 11 Anteaters to play in the Major Leagues.