MONDAY

UC Irvine Anteaters (32-16, 13-11) vs. Arizona Wildcats (27-22, 10-17)
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark - Irvine, Calif.
Tuesday - 6:00 PM | ESPN+ | KUCI | Live Stats

Gameday Page
Game Notes
Scout Pack
 

PITCHING PROBABLES

Monday: UCI RHP Andre Antone vs. ARIZ LHP Jackson Kent

AROUND THE HORN

9th - The Big West is the 9th-best conference in the nation to this point in the 2023 season with a non-conference winning percentage of .540
8-0 - The Anteaters have one final matchup against a Pac-12 opponent taking on Arizona Monday. UCI is currently 8-0 against the Pac-12 to go with 10-2 vs. Power 5 opponents and 17-7 away from home
40 - UCI has the national lead in sacrifice flies with 40. Four Anteaters have five or more, the team has recorded as many as 3 in a game 4 times, and UCI has registered one in 6 of its last 7 games
.408 - Anthony Martinez is hitting .408 entering the week. Only 3 Anteaters have ever hit over .400 for a season (Keston Hiura, Tom Spence, Mike Nagle) and is currently 20th in the NCAA
 

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS

The Wildcats are coming off a big weekend at No. 4 Stanford losing the first two before surviving a 21-20 victory in extra innings on Sunday

The 2023 squad is 27-22 overall with big wins over ranked Tennessee, West Virginia, and Arizona State squads and a loss to Fresno State, but have scuffled in Pac-12 play at 10-17 having been swept at Arizona State, at UCLA, vs. Oregon, and Oregon State

The offense is dangerous standing top 10 nationally in batting (.318), doubles, triples, hits, and slugging averaging 8.5 runs a game. Some gaudy numbers come from junior trio Chase Davis (.373, 17 HR, 58 RBI), Mac Bingham (.360, 9 HR, 47 RBI), and Kiko Romero (.354, 15 HR, 74 RBI) while the team is near the bottom in stolen bases

Pitching has made due with a 5.95 ERA to this point while allowing over 10 hits a game. The staff walks just 3.54 batters a game and has a solid defense behind them among the nation's top 50. Lefty Jackson Kent gets the start, his fourth with a 6.43 ERA, and arms like Dawson Netz (28 G, 3.33) and Trevor Long (27 G, 4 Sv) waiting
 

ALL-TIME SERIES

Arizona and UC Irvine meet up for the first time since 2006 after each added the matchup to their schedules from March postponements. Arizona has the 15-7-2 all-time lead in the series. The 'Eaters went 1-2-1 against the Wildcats as a Division II program in matchups in 1971 and 1973. Since 2002, UCI is 5-7-1 having won three of the last four, and is 3-3 all-time in home matchups winning twice in 2005
 

DOWN THE LINE

UCI continues its week with three days rest before traveling to UC Davis for the final road series of the season. UC Irvine returns home the next week with a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series at Anteater Ballpark against UC Riverside in the regular season finale