IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball completed the sweep of the opening series homestand Sunday afternoon in Anteater Ballpark with a 10-4 win over North Dakota State.

• The visiting Bison took their first lead of the weekend with a run in the first inning bringing home a walk with three singles to lead, 1-0
• The battle of freshmen starting pitchers waged into the third inning with Trevor Hansen and Landon Koenig holding the offenses at bay
• UCI's bats erupted in the bottom of the third as Anthony Martinez uncorked a three-run home run bearing down on the parking structure beyond the right field fence. Jo Oyama followed later in the inning with a two-run shot also to right field to put the Anteaters up, 5-1
• NDSU battled back with a pair of runs in their half of the fourth inning, but Ryder Brooks entered in reilef and squashed the rally keeping a 5-3 lead
• UCI would push their lead back to four runs with single tallies in the fourth and sixth innings, both off the bat of Caden Kendle who pushed across an unearned run on a groundout in the fourth and double home another in the sixth.
• A three-run rally in the seventh sealed the victory capped by Abraham Garcia-Pacheco's two-run single up the middle
• The Anteater bullpen calmed the nerves with four shutout innings between Brooks and Ricky Tibbett. Tibbett making his Anteater debut retired all six hitters he faced striking out four. Brooks went 1.2 innings with his first three career strikeouts and snagged his first career win as a result
• Two more Anteaters made their collegiate debuts with Trevor Hansen starting on the mound and striking out two while allowing two runs in 3.1 innings, and Tim Grack relieved him tossing an inning
• Four Anteaters had multiple RBIs on the game led by three from Anthony Martinez on his home runs

UCI looks to complete the season-opening homestand with a win Tuesday night against San Diego, first pitch at 6:00 p.m.

Postgame Thoughts
Head Coach Ben Orloff - "We're going to look back at the end of the year and North Dakota State's going to be good; a regional team from two years ago. I thought we played really well. I think the opening weekend is hard. You look at box scores around the country and opening weekend is tough. I was really proud. I thought we played exactly who we are. We pitched it good. We eliminated the free passes. We played really good defense, and I think one through 10 or 11 we were deep in the lineup and we win a lot of different ways and that was on display all three days."

"Trevor gave us a chance. I think he was up with a couple of pitches that maybe changes that outing. And again we got five-and-change with one run out of the bullpen. These guys are only going to get better and I like our pitching. I think the offense gets of lot of the praise but I really like our pitching. I think it's just figuring out the roles and getting these guys more experienced and I think we pitched it really well."

Luke Spillane - "Sweeping anybody in this country is tough. I believe we only swept three teams last year so we know the importance of Sundays as a whole and we come out with a high level of focus to play the game hard."

"I'm just trying to play my part, play my role. Everybody in the lineup has a significant role on the team and as long as we all come together at the right time, we're going to put up big runs."


 

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