DAVIS, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball picked up the pivotal weekend road sweep at UC Davis and Dobbins Stadium Sunday afternoon by the score of 9-2 for win No. 20 away from home and bumping them to fifth in the Big West.
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Once again, the 'Eaters (35-17, 16-11) picked up a first inning run.
Jo Oyama clubbed a triple into the alley to lead things off but was still on third with two outs before
Dub Gleed chopped up a ball up the line that UCD third baseman mishandled allowing the 'Eaters to go up, 1-0.
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Andre Antone got the Sunday start and set the tone right with three up, three down in the first. Aside from a hit by pitch in the third, Antone was nearly spotless with a pair of strikeouts and got some help from the defense behind him for a three shutout frames and the win, his fifth of 2023.
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"Antone was huge, we needed somebody just to get the game stabilized from the beginning because we had enough guys. He got us off to a good start and just what we needed."
Head Coach
Ben Orloff and his staff were set up for this Sunday and rode their horses allowing just two runs, one earned in nine innings. Northern California natives
Cooper Robinson and
Jacob King locked down the final three innings together with five strikeouts in three scoreless frames.
Tanner Brooks made his first appearance of the weekend bridging the gap to them for two innings.
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The offense kept adding on with runs in seven different innings. Six of UCI's runs came with two outs, and the Anteaters used their usual gritty style needing just eight hits along with seven walks, six hit by pitch, twice reaching on errors, and five sacrifices.
"We didn't get the big inning, but a lot of walks, stolen bases, sacrifices, we did a good amount of that stuff for sure along with scoring in seven innings."
The offense was spread around with every hitter collecting a run or RBI.
Thomas McCaffrey drove in runs three times adding up to the only two-RBI day for UCI.
Anthony Martinez was held to one hit, but scored three times and reached two other times.
Jo Oyama at the top and
Will Bermudez at the bottom of the order had a hit, RBI, and run each including two sac bunts from Oyama and two hit by pitch for Bermudez for a Big West-leading 20 now.
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"Defense and pitching travels. When you do those thing sand enough on offense, that will help you win on the road. We needed a sweep here, it's hard to win and score runs, and to come up and get three, it's impressive."
The 'Eaters got the critical sweep they needed to stay in postseason contention. At 35-17, the team has got there largely from their 19-6 mark in road games and 20-7 away from home.
UC Irvine also improves to 16-11 in Big West play putting them squarely in fifth place. The regular season ends at Anteater Ballpark next week with the opener Thursday, May 25, vs. UC Riverside to begin a three-game set.
