FULLERTON, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball delivered an all-out offensive attack to seal the series at Cal State Fullerton and Goodwin Field, 18-4, on Sunday
- UCI pounded out 25 hits with all nine starters registering one and eight producing multiple hits. All nine starters also picked up a run scored and an RBI
- Myles Smith led the charge with five hits driving home three including a ninth-inning home run that gave UCI five on the game tying a program record
- Dub Gleed had one of those home runs as one of his four hits
- James Castagnola made his first start in nearly a month and rattled off three hits while scoring twice
- Jo Oyama got the party started with a two-run home run in the second that gave UCI the lead for good as part of a two-hit, four-BB afternoon and added a steal to improve to 9-for-9Â this year
- Anthony Martinez had a crushing blow in that second inning doubling home three runners with two outs and added a home run in the eighth for a four-RBI day
- Martinez and Woody Hadeen made some history among all the fireworks
- Martinez's big hit in the second drew him even and surpassed the single-season RBI mark for the program previously at 65 held by Jeff Malinoff since 1972
- Woody Hadeen broke two Anteater records in the first two innings
- A walk in the first inning broke a tie with Brady Anderson for the all-time single-season walks record with his 53rd
- Hadeen later scored in the first and scored once again after a walk in the second giving him 70 runs on the season to set that all-time program record held by Caden Kendle and Taylor Holiday
- Hadeen finished with four runs on the day scoring each time he reached base
- The pitching also had an exemplary day starting with Tim Grack. He allowed three runs, but left five runners on base picking himself up with help from six strikeouts
- Riley Kelly took over in the fifth and eventually took the win. After a walk, HBP, and RBI single to start his day, he snapped into form retiring his final six hitters including three strikeouts
- Ricky Ojeda was nearly immaculate getting all six outs via strikeout in two innings allowing just a hit by pitch and a batter to reach on an error
- David Utagawa stormed through the ninth getting all three hitters and adding the staff's 16th strikeout of the day
- After breaking the NCAA record for hit by pitch on Saturday, the team added to their record with three Sunday, one that drove in a run, to up the total to 156 on the season
The Anteaters take the series and improve to 41-11 on the year. At 20-7 in Big West play, they are exactly three games back of UC Santa Barbara with three games to go. The Gauchos have clinched a share of the conference title, but UCI can still take the automatic NCAA berth with three wins in the final three games and three losses from UCSB because of the head-to-head tiebreaker. UCI will attempt to complete their end of the bargain with the regular season series finale starting Thursday, May 23 against CSUN with a 6:00 p.m. first pitch
Postgame Thoughts with head coach Ben Orloff
"Today was a lot better. That 5-run second inning took a little bit of the edge off. We pitched it really good out of the bullpen and were able to run away with it late so it was a good win and good series win for us."
"Tim did a good job of getting through four. We were fortunate to give up that one in the first and one in the third, but he's competitive and got good stuff and he's able to pitch around it. Same thing for Riley, he's able to pitch out of problems and minimize, so those were good at managing that."
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