BAKERSFIELD, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball pulled out some late offense breaking a ninth-inning tie Sunday at Hardt Field to sweep CSU Bakersfield with an 11-7 win.
The sides entered the ninth inning in a 7-7 tie after both UC Irvine (27-13, 10-8) and CSU Bakersfield (14-25, 5-16) had traded the lead three times in the contest. A leadoff walk to
Thomas McCaffrey started everything and forced CSUB to bring in relief after Davonte Butler had shut down UCI's offense for 5.1 innings. Another walk to
Myles Smith was followed by a sacrifice bunt to put a pair in scoring position. An intentional walk loaded things up for pinch-hitter
Abraham Garcia-Pacheco who also drew a walk to push across the go-ahead run.
Jo Oyama jumped in with a single plating two more runs to add cushion, and
Caden Kendle lifted a sacrifice fly to cap off the four-run inning and sealing the victory.
The Anteater pitching staff threw another team effort into the win Sunday after starter
Michael Stanford was knocked around for six runs and seven hits before being lifted in the second inning.
David Vizcaino, fresh off five innings and a win Tuesday night, calmed the Roadrunner bats and putting in 2.2 more innings with just one run allowed, and the final four arms of
Max Martin,
Nick Rincover,
Tanner Brooks, and
Jacob King scattered three hits over the final 4.2 innings shutout inning to complete an important sweep for the 'Eaters.
UCI led after a 2-0 first inning, but allowed the 'Runners to tie it in the bottom of the first and add four runs in the second to put UCI behind, 6-2. A four-run third inning thanks to a
Caden Kendle solo home run and
Chase Call two-out, three-run home run knotted it all back up at 6-6.
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The win completes a pivotal sweep, UCI's third of the season and first since the two opening series of the year. The Anteaters are now 10-8 in Big West play jumping up to fifth place in the conference. It also gives UC Irvine its third win streak of five games this season as it finishing April with a record of 13-5.
"That what it was and that's what it's going to be the rest of the way," head coach
Ben Orloff reiterated about the all-hands-on-deck mentality for the team. "It wasn't the prettiest all the time, but it was a lot of gutsy performances by a lot of different guys that were asked to do a lot this weekend."
Some performances included
Jacob King and
Nick Rincover each appearing in their third game of the weekend. The catching duo of
Thomas McCaffrey and
Abraham Garcia-Pacheco came together to score the eventual winning run and reaching four times between them.
Anthony Martinez continued to mash the ball with his second four-hit game of the week and scoring twice.
Chase Call erupted from his slump to tie him with his eighth home run, and seventh that has tied or given the team the lead.
Jo Oyama scored in every game over the weekend and drove in two and had multiple hits.
Luke Spillane had his first four-hit game of the year to finish the week hitting .600.
"We have a really good offense and have been for most of the year. You've got to be able to win every type of game and games are like this. The pitching allowing one run in the last seven innings, and then last night you're up despite just four hits on offense for most of that game."
UCI comes back home for another important week starting Tuesday with the second matchup against UCLA before welcoming in Hawai'i for three games on the weekend.
