IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball scored a second win on the weekend against North Dakota State by the score of 7-2 Saturday afternoon in Anteater Ballpark.

• Thomas McCaffrey hit two home runs in the game, his second career two-home run game, and now has three homers through the season's first two games
• McCaffrey's first long ball ultimately gave UCI the lead for good just depositing a 2-0 pitch over the left field fence to give UCI a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning
• In the seventh inning, McCaffrey against left the yard to left field for his second two-run HR to seal the 7-2 win
• Anteater pitching held North Dakota State to two runs for a second time led by Riley Kelly's career-high six strikeouts through the first three innings
• Freshman Brandon Luu and transfer David Utagawa each made their Anteater debuts on the mound in relief; Luu picked up his first career win allowing a run in two innings, Utagawa locked down the UCI lead with four strikeouts across three innings where he did not allow a baserunner
• Myles Smith and Dub Gleed each had a hit, run, and RBI on the afternoon. Woody Hadeen stole two bases and scored a run. Caden Kendle extended streaks of 13 straight home games with a hit and 45 consecutive games on-base while snapping a 17-game streak with a run scored
• North Dakota State scored both runs on wild pitches including one in the second inning to tie the game at 1-1

The series wraps up Sunday at 1:00 p.m. with a pair of freshman starting on the mound - Trevor Hansen for UC Irvine will go up against Landon Koenig of the Bison.

Postgame Thoughts
Thomas McCaffrey - "For us, it's all about preparation. If you can prepare harder than the game, then a game is going to come easier. I think my teammates helped me out a lot with getting prepared. Our approach is different for every one of us, but we get really good scouting reports on our opponents. I knew there was going to be a lot of fastballs, I got a couple of them, and we were able to capitalize. Really, it's about Myles in front of me always getting on base, and if he keeps doing that, it gives me a good chance to help the team out."

"Being a great team, you've got to win all types of games, you can't blow out every team. Out pitching is really coming out and they've shown that they can be an important part of this team. If we only score a couple runs on offense, we know that we have our bullpen behind us and it's all about trust and belief that good things are going to happen."

David Utagawa - "I thought we battled really well. Obviously, this offense is going to give us a lot of support and a lot of runs. A good start out of Riley, and then Brandon Luu did a great job coming out in his first ever appearance as a freshman. It was just fun, you know, it's fun to watch the guys and it's fun to watch them score a lot of runs. I think we got a ton of good bullpen pieces to lock down that back half of the game."

"It was a lot of fun. It's fun to be on a winning team, and we played a good team like North Dakota State who's not going to give up especially if they're down and late in the game. I'm going to keep fighting."