IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball fell Saturday against Kansas State of the Big 12, 6-4, at Anteater Ballpark.
This time around, UCI (22-13, 7-8) made the first move jumping on Kansas State (26-15, 9-6) starter German Fajardo with a single to leadoff hitter
Caden Kendle in the first and a towering home run just over the right field fence for a 2-0 lead thanks to
Jo Oyama.
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Fajardo would settle in and his offense helping close the gap and overtake UCI. A leadoff walk came around on a single punched the other way with two outs for the first K-State run. The next hitter would sky a ball to right field that was lost in the sun allowing the second run home to tie the ball game in the second inning, 2-2.
The game stayed that way and looked like it would through five, but the Wildcats burst out for three straight hits with two outs to go ahead with two fifth inning runs against starter
Danny Suarez.
The Anteaters would chip away getting single runs in the sixth thanks to a bases loaded fielder's choice by
Dub Gleed and then in the seventh as the 'Eaters loaded them again and got the game-tying run for free as
Abraham Garcia-Pacheco was plunked in the backside to tie everything up again, 4-4.
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Kansas State did what they do best in the eighth inning and walked twice to open the frame. A sacrifice bunt attempt forced an errant throw from reliever
Jacob King to load the bases, and despite a superhuman double play turn by
Will Bermudez and
Dub Gleed, the go-ahead run crossed again for the Wildcats making it a 5-4 game.
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The Anteaters had no answer even after loading the bases once again in the bottom of the inning, but a harmless flyout quashed the threat without any runs and eventually dropping the game and series.
Pitching was again up to the task with
Danny Suarez as the starter battling through five innings with seven strikeouts but four earned runs including the three-hitter stretch in his very last inning.
Nick Rincover put up another 1.1 scoreless frames, and
Cameron Wheeler was saddled with the loss allowing just one unearned run. The defense stepped up behind the arms with play-after-play to keep things close as well.
Jo Oyama led the offensive charge with his fourth home run of the season helping him drive in two runs and scoring twice to go with two walks. The six hits came from six different Anteaters while reaching 10 other times from walks or hit batsmen.
For a second straight year, the Wildcats take the series against the Anteaters, but the teams play Sunday to finish the set and a chance to salvage the series for UCI with
Michael Stanford on the bump to take on K-State hurler Collin Rothermel.
