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Matt Brown

'Eaters Take On Fresno State, LBSU Next on Homestand

April 03, 2023

By: Alex Roberts-Croteau

MIDWEEK

UC Irvine Anteaters (16-8, 4-5) vs. Fresno State Bulldogs (15-11, 7-4)
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. FS RHP Jaykob Acosta
Thursday: UCI LHP Nick Pinto vs. LBSU LHP Graham Osman
Friday: UCI RHP David Vizcaino vs. LBSU RHP Nico Zeglin
Saturday: UCI TBD vs. LBSU TBD

LEADING OFF

+ The Anteaters continue a nine-game homestand with Tuesday's meeting against Fresno State, currently 3-1 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 6-0 in Saturday games this year. Entering Tuesday, UCI is 3-1 so far in midweek matchups
+ UCI finished the month of March an even 7-7. Top performers included Anthony Martinez hitting .377 with 13 RBIs, Caden Kendle with nine extra-base hits from a .349 average, and Chase Call with 13 RBIs and three homers. Pitching was led by Michael Stanford's 1.76 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 15.1 innings followed closely by Cameron Wheeler (1-0, 2.19, 10 K) in six appearances and a 1.80 ERA in five appearances from Sean Higgins

SEEING IT WELL

+ Jacob Stinson broke out with a four-hit, four-RBI game Saturday, and started the week with a walk-off single
+ Will Bermudez is error-free through the first 24 games, and with 54 assists is 1 of 2 players with over 20 assists without an error in the Big West (Maddox Latta, CSF - 56)
+ UCI hitters are batting .299 with runners in scoring position. With 2 outs, UCI is hitting .271 with 66 RBIs
+ 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 (+13). UCI is unbeaten in 2023 when scoring more than five runs (13-0)

TOPPING THE CHARTS

+ The 'Eaters are second in the nation in sacrifice flies at 23 including 12 over their last eight games. Anthony Martinez is fifth in the NCAA with five and closely followed by Jacob Stinson's four and Dub Gleed's three
+ UCI is top 20 in triples (15th), walks allowed per nine innings (17th), and hit by pitch (18th) leading the Big West in all those categories. The team is also top half of the Big West in batting, ERA, fielding, and stolen bases
+ Caden Kendle leads the 1-2 punch atop the Big West in RBIs with 29 followed by Anthony Martinez with 28
+ Will Bermudez leads the Big West with 27 runs scored, nine HBP, and 1.23 runs per game
+ Chase Call is the conference walk leader and 15th nationally at 28 with a remarkable 17-game streak of drawing a walk along with a 21-game on-base streak.

WORTH A MENTION

+ 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 finished up last week. One Anteater, Andre Pallante, represented with 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

2 - There will be 2 Anteaters on Opening Day rosters
Andre Pallante - STL Cardinals
Calvin Faucher - TB Rays
12 others are on organizations in the minors

17 - Nick Pinto is approaching 200 career strikeouts needing 1 to be the 17th Anteater to reach the mark. His career numbers have him 13-13, 3.67, 216 IP over 42 career games and 40 starts

9 - UCI's 9-game homestand is the 3rd-longest in program history behind the 13-game stretch in 2002 (went 8-5) and an 11-game homestand in 2015 going 10-1

7th - The Big West is rated the 7th-best conference in the nation currently with a non-conference winning percentage of .574. The conference went 9-0 in midweek non-conference games last week

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS

The Bulldogs were 27-28 in 2022 finishing dead even in Mountain West play, 15-15, missing the conference tournament and a 16-16 home record

The 2023 club stands at 15-11 right now most recently winning two of three over UC Santa Barbara. Tuesday's game will mark the third of four straight midweeks against Big West schools having lost the previous two at Long Beach State and vs. Cal Poly

The offense has not been the strong suit with a .247 team average. The Bulldogs average 4.8 runs a game while sitting near the bottom nationally with the 14th-lowest home run total and 11th-lowest in steals and slugging. Travis Welker is one of their top hitters at .284 with just four strikeouts in 81 at-bats in addition to Ben Newton as the team leader with 25 hits, eight extra-base hits, and 15 RBIs

Pitching has led the way with a top-50 ERA at 4.62 and one of the lowest walk totals averaging three per nine innings and a 1.34 WHIP. The defense does its part as well at top 25 in the nation with just 20 errors. Five different arms have recorded their 10 saves including six from two-way player Tommy Hopfe (.264, 11 RBI | 5.79, 6 saves)

ALL-TIME SERIES

Fresno State is back at Anteater Ballpark for the first time since 2014 and the first time for a midweek matchup since 2004. The Bulldogs hold the all-time edge in the series at 36-11 with an even 7-7 since 2002. Fresno State has won each of the last two weekend series two games to one most recently back in 2020 in Fresno.

SCOUTING THE DIRTBAGS

The Dirtbags are coming off a 29-27 season and 17-13 Big West mark. They've consistently scheduled top opponents including a series win over reigning national champion Mississippi State to begin 2022

The 2023 squad in rolling with eight straight wins and 18-8 overall. They've won every weekend series including picking up a win over No. 9 East Carolina in a tournament and a midweek win over Fresno State. UC San Diego is the only side that's tripped them up sweeping the Dirtbags to begin Big West play where they're 6-3.

The offense is hitting .267 with 6.8 runs scored per game. The long ball is part of their game with 33 this year and nine players with multiple this year led by Jonathon Long's seven. He also paces the club with 27 RBIs, 17 walks, and a .340 average

Pitching again is a staple of LBSU and their 4.26 ERA. The rotation of Graham Osman (4-0, 1.54, 49 K), Nico Zeglin (3-2, 2.85, 57 K), and Myles Patton run the show on a staff that has just 87 walks and arms out of the bullpen like Jonathan Carlos (1-0, 2.70, 18 K), Dalton Ponce (2.84, 19 K), and Nathen Morris (2-0, 2.81) at the ready

ALL-TIME SERIES

Long Beach State returns to Anteater Ballpark for an Easter Weekend version of the Black & Blue Rivalry Series. The programs have already played 140 times with UCI ahead, 75-64-1, with a 40-31-1 advantage when the home team. Coach Orloff-coached Anteater teams have gone 6-4 against LBSU

DOWN THE LINE

UCI's nine-game homestand ends next week with Tuesday night's meeting against San Diego. Then an important trip to preseason conference favorites UC Santa Barbara commences April 14-16.

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