caden-kendle-uci-bsb-2023-tulane-usd-uc-santa-barbara

Robert Huskey

Baseball Hosts USD, Heads Up to UC Santa Barbara

April 10, 2023

By: Alex Roberts-Croteau

MIDWEEK

UC Irvine Anteaters (18-10, 5-7) vs. San Diego Toreros (14-15-1, 7-5)
Irvine, Calif. - Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark
Tuesday - 6:00 PM | ESPN+ | KUCI | Live Stats

THE SERIES

PITCHING PROBABLES

Tuesday: UCI RHP Andre Antone vs. USD RHP Drake Frize
Friday: UCI RHP Tanner Brooks vs. UCSB RHP Matt Ager
Saturday: UCI RHP Danny Suarez vs. UCSB TBD
Sunday: UCI TBD vs. UCSB TBD

LEADING OFF

+ The Anteaters continue a nine-game homestand with Tuesday's meeting against San Diego, currently 5-3 in it. This is the third-longest stretch of home games since 2002 for the 'Eaters. UCI had a 13-game homestand to open the ballpark in 2002 going 8-5, and in 2015 went 10-1 in an 11-game stretch.
+ The 'Eaters are 7-0 in Saturday games this year. Entering Tuesday, UCI is 4-1 so far in midweek matchups
+ UCI's bullpen, who call themselves the #And1Boyz, has carried the pitching staff putting up a 3.37 ERA, a 12-4 record, and a 2.8-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio while throwing in 62% of the team's innings.

SEEING IT WELL

+ Thomas McCaffrey has exploded hitting .556 over the 8-game homestand with nine RBIs including his second career 6-RBI game Saturday, and is slugging 1.071 in April
+ Will Bermudez is error-free through the first 28 games, and with 61 assists is 1 of 2 players with over 20 assists without an error in the Big West (Maddox Latta, CSF - 63)
+ UCI hitters are batting .301 with runners in scoring position. With 2 outs, UCI is hitting .279 with 74 RBIs
+ Anteater shortstop Dub Gleed has reopened #ClubDub hitting .364 in the month of April while slugging .545.
+ The 'Eater offense have scored four or more runs in an inning 18 times and seven innings of six or more runs. UCI's best innings are the 6th (+14) and 3rd (+11). UCI is unbeaten in 2023 when scoring more than six runs (14-0)

BATTING AROUND

+ The 'Eaters are second in the nation in sacrifice flies at 25 including 14 over their last 12 games. Anthony Martinez is eighth in the NCAA with five and closely followed by Jacob Stinson's four and three by Gleed and Garcia-Pacheco
+ UCI is also top 25 nationally in walks allowed per nine innings, hit by pitch, triples, and strikeout-to-walk ratio. UCI hitters have drawn the most walks, struck out the least amount of times, and pitchers have issued the least walks among Big West schools
+ Caden Kendle scored seven runs in four games last week to take over the Big West lead at 32 this season. He also is tied atop the conference with 40 hits
+ Chase Call is the conference walk leader and 15th nationally at 31 with a remarkable 17-game streak of drawing a walk that ended Tuesday night vs. Fresno State

FOUL TIPS

+ Opening Day was Thursday with two Anteaters on big-league clubs. Calvin Faucher makes his first opening day roster with the Tampa Bay Rays joining Andre Pallante and his second with the Cardinals
+ UCI played its sixth Pac-12 game improving to 6-0 Tuesday, the first home game of the mix. Since 2002, UCI is 109-84 against the Pac-12 and 28-15 under coach Orloff.
+ World Baseball Classic featured one Anteater, Andre Pallante, representing Team Italy pitching in three games registering 4 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 6 BB, 2 K as Italy reached the quarterfinals for the first time losing to Japan.

AROUND THE HORN

2nd - Thomas McCaffrey had an historic performance Saturday in the 11-2 win over LBSU becoming the 2nd Anteater all-time with 5 hits and 6 RBIs in the same game
(Jeff Malinoff - 1972)
200 - Nick Pinto is approaching 200 career strikeouts needing 1 to be the 17th Anteater to reach the mark. His career numbers have him 13-14, 3.83, 216.1 IP over 43 career games and 41 starts
61 - UCI and UC Santa Barbara have met 122 times with each side winning 61 times in their all-time series
8th - The Big West is tied for the 8th-best conference in the nation to this point in the 2023 season with a non-conference winning
percentage of .562

SCOUTING THE TOREROS

The Toreros were unbeaten at 5-0-1 until UCI dropped them in February. After that, USD tumbled to 13 losses in their next 17 games. They've rebounded with five wins in their last six against Pepperdine, at UCSD, and at Gonzaga

The February matchup was back and forth early on with USD scoring twice in the first before UCI tied things up in the third. USD took a 3-2 lead into the sixth before UCI dropped consecutive six-run innings in the sixth and seventh. UCI was led by big days from Anthony Martinez (2-for-4, HR, 3 RBI, 3 R), Dub Gleed (3-for-5, 2B, RBI, 2 R), and Cooper Robinson (W, 4 IP, 3 H, ER, 0 BB, 4 K).

The offense has a similar lineup each game with six players posting at least 29 starts. A .271 average and 6.9 runs a game is driven by Kevin Sim (.292, 10 HR, 33 RBI) and complimented by Angelo Peraza (.322, 37 H) and Jack Costello (7 HR, 25 RBI).

Pitching comes in with a 5.91 ERA. Top arms out of the pen include the starter in the last matchup, Ivran Romero, and his 32 strikeouts in 25 innings, along with Ryan Robinson (3-1, 2.53) who is 1 of 3 Toreros to lock down a save.

ALL-TIME SERIES

San Diego and the Anteaters meet for the second time this year and 113th game in their all-time series, most among non-conference opponents for UCI. The 'Eaters took the game in February at Fowler Park, 14-6, as part of the Tony Gwynn Legacy.

SCOUTING THE GAUCHOS

The Gauchos are coming off their third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and 44 wins. The projected preseason favorites are looking to break through from a regional which they've done just once in 2016.

The 2023 squad is 19-9 entering the week in which they will play San Jose State twice prior to hosting the 'Eaters. After splitting the opening weekend tournament, UCSB won 14 of 15 games before dropping the past two series vs. Fresno State and at Cal State Fullerton.

The offense comes in scoring 6.7 runs a game as the conference leader in home runs, slugging, and one shy of the stolen base leader. Big names drive the lineup like Ivan Brethowr (.323, 7 HR, 26 RBI) and Jared Sundstrom (8 HR, 18 RBI, .780 slugging).

Pitching has a dynamic 1-2 punch in the Big West strikeout leader, Matt Ager (4-1, 2.82, 59 K), and ERA leader Mike Gutierrez (3-1, 1.62, 42 K). A stable of bullpen arms help the team rank ninth nationally in WHIP and strikeout-to-walk ratio, 10th in least hits allowed, 11th in ERA, and 21st in least walks allowed per nine innings

ALL-TIME SERIES

UC Santa Barbara hosts the Anteaters with each side winning 61 times in the all-time series. The teams have swapped series victories over the last four seasons including the road team winning the last two. The Big West champion has won this series in each of the last three years

DOWN THE LINE

UCI has a full non-conference next week starting with a road matchup at the ranked Bruins of UCLA on Tuesday, April 18, ending the week with a series at Anteater Ballpark against Big 12 school Kansas State

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