PHOENIX, Ariz. --- UC Irvine baseball finished off a weekend road sweep of Arizona State. 7-2, Sunday afternoon at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
ON THE DOUBLE
The Anteaters (10-1) got the offense firing right out of the gate with the first two baserunners reaching and
Caden Kendle doubling them in for a quick 2-0 lead. A
Chase Call RBI single made it 3-0 and chased starter Timmy Manning from the game.
A sacrifice fly to close out the first inning from
Abraham Garcia-Pacheco followed by a second-inning sacrifice fly by
Dub Gleed grew the lead to 5-0.
NICK THE QUICK
Fourth-year starter
Nick Pinto was back to regular form dicing up the Sun Devils (6-5) all afternoon. A two-out, second-inning single was the only baserunner he relented as he breezed through five innings on 64 pitches while striking out seven in just over an hour.
The bullpen followed suit in the form of
Cameron Wheeler allowing just a harmless eighth-inning solo home run in his three innings of work to keep ASU at arm's reach.
FINAL SCORE: UC IRVINE 7, ARIZONA STATE 2
Jo Oyama capped off the weekend with a ninth-inning solo home run, his second of the weekend, and
Sean Higgins and
Jacob King teamed up in the ninth for the final outs.
UCI's sweep at Arizona State produced a load of impressive numbers:
- 33 runs in all gives them just under nine runs a game for the weekend
- UCI is now 5-0 against the Pac-12 in 2023
- The 10-1 Anteaters are currently on a five-game win streak, their second of the year
- 'Eaters are 5-0 in true road games this year
"I think we're a really good team and there's room for us to get a lot better. There should be no lack of belief with our guys of how good we are and can be. Historically, this place is one of the best programs in American, and I'm not sure how many times in their history somebody's come here and won three games. For us to play as complete as we did all weekend, go on the road and be 10-1, it's a lot of good things and we know we can get a lot better."
Pinto's scored his first win of 2023 and his 11th as an Anteater.
Jo Oyama had three hits and three runs at the top of the order.
Anthony Martinez also had a three-hit game to put him at .386 on the year. Kendle's two RBIs give him 21 for the year remaining among the national leaders.
"We score first in that big inning, Pinto being healthy and throwing like this is a massive shot in the arm for us; he was really good and efficient," lauded head coach
Ben Orloff. "Wheeler was great, he's been really good against these guys for two years, and it was a complete win."
ON THE HORIZON
The week ahead starts at UC Irvine with a Tuesday night matchup against Loyola Marymount at 6:00 p.m. The pitching matchup is unknown while LMU features a pair of UCI alums as assistant coaches, Mitch Holland and Grant Palmer. The Anteaters travel again the following weekend to Gonzaga for a three-game set that begins Friday, March 10 at 6:00 p.m.
