MIDWEEK

UC Irvine Anteaters (24-4, 10-2 Big West) at USC Trojans (15-16, 9-5 Pac-12)
Page Stadium - Los Angeles, Calif.

Tuesday - 6:00 PM | Pac-12.com | KUCI | Live Stats

PITCHING PROBABLES
Tuesday: UCI RHP Tim Grack vs. USC RHP Garren Rizzo

THE SERIES

UC Irvine Anteaters (24-5, 10-2 Big West) at UC San Diego Tritons (21-10, 8-4 Big West)
Triton Ballpark - La Jolla, Calif.

Friday - 6:00 PM | ESPN+ | KUCI | Live Stats
Saturday - 2:00 PM | ESPN+ | KUCI | Live Stats
Sunday - 1:00 PM | ESPN+ | KUCI | Live Stats

PITCHING PROBABLES
Friday: UCI TBD vs. UCSD TBD
Saturday: UCI TBD vs. UCSD TBD
Sunday: UCI TBD vs. UCSD TBD

Game Notes

AROUND THE HORN
#11 - UC Irvine enters the week ranked in six polls with Baseball America coming in the highest at #11
15 - The 'Eaters enter the week as the only team nationally ranked top 15 in ERA, runs per game, and fielding %
45 - Caden Kendle was named 1 of 45 players to the Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List last week
3.62 - UCI's freshman pitchers have registered a 3.62 ERA accounting for 16 starts, 112 innings, and a 12-1 record
 
+ UC Irvine emerged from its biggest series to date with a victory winning 2 of 3 games vs. No. 23 UC Santa Barbara. The Anteaters are 24-4 at the midway point of the season and remain a game ahead in first place in the Big West standings with a 10-2 mark
+ The Anteaters are beginning to make a national name for themselves statistically. The 'Eaters enter the week ranked 15th with a 3.87 ERA and 15th with an offense scoring 9.3 runs per game, joining Oregon State and Florida State as the only programs top 15 in each. UC Irvine can claim the only program in the nation ranked top 15 in fielding percentage as well sitting at 10th.
+ UC Irvine stands among the national leaders in addition to their marks for ERA, fielding, and runs per game. Elsewhere, they are top 50 in hit by pitch (3rd), on-base percentage (5th), least hit batters (9th), sacrifice bunts (15th), doubles per game (20th), walks allowed per 9 innings (22nd), strikeout-to-walk ratio (24th), batting average (25th), runs (31st), WHIP (35th), and triples (46th)
+ Anteaters among the nation's best start with Caden Kendle's at third in hits per game, ninth in batting average, 12th in doubles per game, 25th in on-base, and 26th in RBIs per game, Ricky Tibbett ninth in saves, Nick Pinto seventh in wins and 21st in ERA, Jo Oyama 22nd in HBP and 28th in triples, Anthony Martinez 33rd in toughest to strikeouts (1 in 11.6 AB), 41st in hits per game, and 52nd in RBIs, and Woody Hadeen 11th in runs per game, 41st in hits per game, 46th in on-base, and 55th in batting average
+ UCI started 2024 12-0, the 'Eaters' longest win streak to start a season, and built an 18-game win streak dating back to 2023. It also had a separate eight-game win streak, and the 24-4 mark is the program's best through half a season.
+ Fifth-year Anteater starter Nick Pinto is 6-1 over eight starts this season delivering the 23rd win of his career Friday night. He continues to lead active NCAA pitchers with 54 career starts which is fourth all-time at UCI. After starting the year 10th on the program's career strikeout list, he's moved to fourth surpassing Trenton Denholm, Elliot Surrey, Justin Cassel, Andre Pallante, Brett Smith, and Gary Wheelock now with 283 in his career.
+ The Anteaters got team-wide contributions in their series win over UC Santa Barbara:
Þ Brandon Luu sewed up a series victory Sunday with a career high seven innings allowing a run, striking out four, and improving to 4-0 on the year
Þ Woody Hadeen reached base 10 times in 15 plate appearances scoring six times, adding two steals, and playing impeccable shortstop throughout
Þ Jo Oyama broke out hitting .500 with four extra-base hits. Three came Friday and added a first-inning HR Sunday. He scored five times in all and matched Caden Kendle and Will Bermudez who each at five RBIs
+ UC Irvine rose in the national rankings now at No. 11 by Baseball America. They're also 12th on D1Baseball.com, and three polls - USA Today, Perfect Game USA, and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America - place UCI No. 14.

SCOUTING THE TROJANS
USC and UC Irvine match up for the 73rd time on Tuesday, and first on a neutral site in LMU's Page Stadium. The Trojans are renovating their park and will play their home games at LMU, Irvine's Great Park, and even a couple at Anteater Ballpark in 2024 and likely 2025. They're 10-5 in their home away from home, but UCI has the series lead at 38-34 and have won five straight.
The Trojans are an historically good college baseball program, but have made just one postseason berth since 2005 with that coming in 2015. Andy Stankiewicz has taken over and won 34 games last year in his first season. The 2024 season started off terribly with the team 0-5 and 3-11 at points, but they've turned it around now at 15-16 winning series over Stanford, Oregon State, and Washington along with single wins over UCLA, Arizona, and Fresno State in their wake.
The offense utilizes its speed with triples, steals, and sacrifices as their strong suits. Austin Overn's five triples stand out along with his 34 runs and 11 steals. With the Trojans on the uptick, others have emerged like Jacob Galloway (.360, 5 HR, 28 RBI) and Ryan Jackson (.291, 9 2B, 25 RBI) as the Trojans come into the week hot and looking to get back to .500 with a Tuesday win.
Pitching has gotten the Trojans back in the right direction with a 4.76 team ERA and above average makrs in WHIP, strikeouts, hits allowed, and one of the better fielding Pac-12 teams. Garren Rizzo will start off the contest and has gone four or more innings on three occasions with a five-strikeout performance against Arizona and four strikeouts and one-run ball against Fresno State. Bullpen arms to back him begin with Xavier Martinez (2-0, 1 Sv, 2.52) and his 28 strikeouts in 25 innings, closer Josh Blum (2-0, 3 Sv, 3.31) with 27 strikeouts in just 16.1 innings, and four others with 10 or more appearances ready for midweek action.
 
SCOUTING THE TRITONS
UC San Diego and UC Irvine tangle as Big West members for a fourth time. UCI has won all three previous series, but the Tritons took one game in each of them. UCI's only trip to UCSD in 2022 they fell Sunday failing to earn a sweep. All-time, UCI is 18-3 in the series and 7-3 in the Division I era for either program.
The Tritons are no longer being overlooked as they are the reigning Big West champions from 2023 when they went 34-18 and 21-9 in Big West play. Unfortunately, the reclassification rule kept them from postseason play, and will do so in 2024 in the final year under that. The 2024 Tritons are still 21-8 overall beating teams like Missouri, Nevada, and defending Mountain West champs San Jose State three times. They've also won series over Cal State Fullerton, UC Riverside, and at Long Beach State while dropping a road series up at UC Davis.
The offense for the Tritons lies in the upper half of the Big West in pretty much every mark with slugging percentage as one of their better numbers. Their star Matt Halbach has been on the shelf the last few series with the team missing his .408 average and 18 RBIs. The rest of the lineup has come through with the emergence of bats like Michael Crossland (.327, 28 R, 14 RBI, 10 SB) and Nick Costello (6 HR, 14 RBI, 26 R, 9 SB) pushing the tempo with the usual suspects like Emilliano Gonzalez and reigning Big West Field Player of the Week Brock Kleszcz still producing.
Pitching has set UC San Diego apart with dynamite 3.40 ERA behind a host of arms led by weekend starters Anthony Eyanson (4-1, 2.72), Zack Ernisse (1-1, 4.91), and Matthew Dalquist (5-0, 3.15). Izaak Martinez returns for a fifth season and maybe his best allowing 23 baserunners in 37 innings to go with 42 strikeouts, a 0.49 ERA, and seven saves. The bullpen as a unit gets games to Martinez with a team WHIP of 1.16, and the defensive numbers are as good as the Anteaters (21 errors in 29 games).