THE SERIES

UC Irvine Anteaters (32-17, 13-11) at UC Davis Aggies (17-31, 7-17)
Phil Swimley Field at Dobbins Stadium - Davis, Calif.

Friday - 2:30 PM | ESPN+ | KUCI | Live Stats
Saturday - 1:00 PM | ESPN+ | KUCI  | Live Stats
Sunday - 1:00 PM | ESPN+ | KUCI | Live Stats

Gameday Page
Game Notes

 

PITCHING PROBABLES

Friday: UCI RHP MIchael Stanford vs. UCD LHP Bryan Green
Saturday: UCI LHP Nick Pinto vs. UCD RHP Kaden Hogan
Sunday: UCI TBD vs. UCD RHP Nate Freeman

LEADING OFF

+ UC Irvine is sixth in the Big West at 13-11 with six games to go. The Anteaters sit four games behind first place Cal State Fullerton.
+ UCI's at-large hopes hinge on their resume with an RPI at 45, 10 wins against Power 5 opponents, 10 wins in their last 14 games, a strength of schedule rated 63rd, and one of the last four in the tournament according to D1Baseball.com. UCI is receiving two votes in the College Baseball HOF poll.
+ Away from Anteater Ballpark, UCI is 17-7 and 9-3 in April and May. The team is hitting .307 led by a .500-mark from freshman Anthony Martinez (52 H, 33 R, 8 HR, 29 RBI)
+ The 'Eaters finish 9-2 in midweek matchups. In those games, the team is hitting .307 while the staff has a 2.70 ERA with 110 strikeouts in 100 innings. UCI also went 8-1 against the Pac-12 outscoring them 81-42 and 10-3 overall against Power 5 teams. Under coach Orloff, UCI is 30-16 against the conference over the past five seasons.
 

BATTING AROUND

+ The 'Eaters have 40 sac flies now leading the nation
+ UCI is also top 25 nationally sitting fourth in HBP, 11th in least BB per 9 innings, 15th in sac bunts, 20th in K-to-BB ratio, 23rd in on-base percentage, 48th in winning percentage, and 49th in ERA and shutouts. Anthony Martinez ranks 10th in hits per game, 12th in hits, and 19th in batting
+ Big West leaders include Anthony Martinez in hits, hitting, OBP, and RBI, Will Bermudez in HBP, Chase Call in BB, and Caden Kendle in runs. The team tops the Big West in runs, BB, HBP, OBP, SF, SH, 2nd in AVG, and 3rd in SB
 

SEEING IT WELL

+ Anthony Martinez is hitting .407, tops in the Big West, and picked up his second Big West Field Player of the Week. He now has 11 HR, two streaks of three or more games with a homer. His splits have him hitting .500 away from home, .388 in Big West, .431 with 2 outs, and .373 with RISP
+ Auggie Gutierrez is hitting .393 in May snapping a 10-game on-base streak and 7-game hit streak Tuesday night
+ Dub Gleed had a career high five RBIs Saturday giving him 17 in May alone along with his second career 4-hit game
+ Luke Spillane leads active Anteaters with 160 games played and became the 19th Anteater with 30 career steals. He sits three runs from 100 and six RBI from 100.
+ Caden Kendle has reached in 48 of 49 games this season. He's reached in 37 straight games, 1 of 7 'Eaters sporting an on-base streak of 10 games or more, and he has a hit in 12 straight games and a run scored in 10 straight
+ Will Bermudez committed his first error vs. CSUB on his 148th chance. His .994 fielding percentage is tied atop the Big West while ranking seven with 107 assists.
+ The offense has 29 innings of 4+ runs, 10 with 6 or more
 

FOUL TIPS

+ 14 Anteaters are playing pro ball with three in Triple-A and three in Double-A joining the two MLBers. Calvin Faucher with the Tampa Bay Rays and Andre Pallante with the St. Louis Cardinals were each on Opening Day rosters
+ Andre Pallante represented Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic this year in their run to the Quarterfinals
 

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 .547
17 - Nick Pinto retired the first 17 hitters on Sunday, perfect for 5.2 innings. Pinto added 11 strikeouts, one off his career high, helping him to win his 3rd career Big West Pitcher of the Week honor
150 - Head Coach Ben Orloff recorded win No. 150 of his career Sunday coming on the birthday of legendary head coach, Mike Gillespie. UCI also secured its 20th winning season in the last 22
6 - The Anteaters had their highest win streak of 6 games last week. They enter the week having won their last 6 road games
 

SCOUTING THE AGGIES

The Aggies are under new leadership in Tommy Nicholson in his second season now after a two-time team MVP at Texas and assistant coaching stints at Sacramento State and four years at Stanford serving the hitting, infield, and third base coach.

The 2023 squad is up to 17 wins after a six-win 2022 taking wins from UCLA, LMU, and Sac State. With a 7-17 Big West record, the Aggies have series wins at CSUB, vs. Cal Poly and UCR, and a home win off CSUN.

The offensive numbers don't look great hitting .252 averaging 4.7 runs a game and one of the lowest on-base percentages in the NCAA. The Aggies can easily get wins behind junior Alex Gouveia hitting .316 as the Big West doubles leader and the 21st-toughest player to strikeout nationally at once every 12.2 at-bats.

Pitching takes the brunt of it with a 5.59 ERA and near the bottom nationally striking out 6.5 hitters a game. The rotation is topped by Bryan Green (70 IP, 48 K, 3.73) with big contributors in Danny Carrion (26.1 IP, 1.71, 2 Sv) and Kaden Hogan (5 Sv, 4.67).
 

ALL-TIME SERIES

UC Davis and the 'Eaters get together for three games. The 'Eaters have a 42-13 lead in the all-time series and wins in the last 10 games between them. UCI is 20-8 at Dobbins Stadium with the last loss coming in 2018 in the final game of head coach Mike Gillespie's career. Since joining the Big West in 2008, UCI has a 33-10 edge. The last two series have featured doubleheaders including Saturday last season.

DOWN THE LINE

UCI finishes their regular season out with a three-game series at home starting Thursday vs. UC Riverside. The 'Eaters play Thursday night in a Salute to Heroes Game, followed by a Friday night matchup, and culminating Saturday afternoon in a Senior Day Celebration pregame