IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball finished a whirlwind Tuesday night game against USC in Anteater Ballpark with a 5-4 walkoff victory in 10 innings.
The game-winning hit was a wild one with the 'Eaters (14-7, 2-4) setting the table in the 10th inning with a hit by pitch drawn by junior
Abraham Garcia-Pacheco.
Jacob Stinson stepped up and connected on the first pitch he saw shooting it through the right side for a single. USC right fielder Cole Gabrielson let the ball go under the glove and the race was on as Garcia-Pacheco rounded second and third. A couple of slips by Gabrielson and on the relay by the cutoff man allowed Garcia-Pacheco to slide in uncontested for the winning run. 5-4.
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"Stinny hit the ball pretty hard, and I'm looking at J.T. to see if he's going to send me. I look back to my right and see he missed the ball and just take and he gave me the signal and I never stopped."
Stinson hung in all night entering the 10th hitless but with a walk, a key sacrifice hit, and clutch with the glove.
"My dad's always getting on me about hitting the first pitch," Stinson said of the at-bat. "So I went up there, swung at the first pitch, got a little lucky there, and Bam took it the rest of the way."
The game was tight all the way through with the 'Eaters ahead or tied throughout. They entered the ninth inning with a 4-3 lead and closer
Jacob King on. A leadoff walk was sacrificed over, and a passed ball and wild pitch tied the game up and extended the night.
Garcia-Pacheco was a contributor early and often knocking home the first two runs in the third inning with a two-out single up the middle to make it 2-0. He would later double just inside the right field line and score on a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning to put UCI ahead at the time, 4-3.
"We've been struggling a little bit the past few games, just trying to get the offense going consistently," Garcia-Pacheco noted of his game reaching three times on the night. "Today, really finding any way to score runs was our pledge, to manufacture runs any way."
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"I'm so proud of this team, great effort when we needed something like this. We preach hit by pitch, getting our bunts down, whatever it takes to score in any type of ballgame. So Bam with the hit by pitch, that's usually how it starts so it's a gritty win."
The pitching held up as well with eight different arms going the 10 innings.
Michael Stanford busted out of the gate with four shutout innings allowing just two baserunners while striking out six.
Sean Higgins and
Andre Antone were clutch hanging zeroes with runners on base in tough situations, and
Max Martin was the beneficiary of the win earning his first in his collegiate career with a scoreless 10th.
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The Anteaters improve to 6-0 on the year against the Pac-12 finishing the season sweep of the Trojans. UCI now at 14-7 goes above .500 for the month of March, and finishes it out with a game Friday at 6:00 p.m. against Big West-leading UC San Diego in the first of a three-game series at Anteater Ballpark as the nine-game homestand continues on.
