IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball secured a hard-fought Friday night victory in Anteater Ballpark holding off Louisiana, 7-4, to open the weekend series.
- The game started off with a bang for either side with home runs in the first inning:
- The Ragin' Cajuns for a two-out blast from Drew Markle to go up 1-0 in their half of the first
- Colin Yeaman answered with a two-run blast of his own to take the lead after one, 2-1
- The pitchers took the baton after the long balls settling in and commanding the following innings:
- Danny Suarez went on a tear striking out the final hitter of the first and ringing up 11 of the next 12 outs he recorded as he left with a lead after five innings
- UL's Chase Morgan matched him with nine strikeouts through his five innings
- The offenses were opportunistic through all the strikeouts getting runs in against the pair:
- Louisiana tied things up in the third inning as Markle was there again to triple home a run with two outs to make it, 2-2
- UCI grabbed the lead back in the fourth with three straight hits including Rowan Felsch's opposite field double to lead, 3-2
- The bullpens came in with some success. Chase Call launched a home run to right on the first pitch he saw to grow the lead to 4-2
- Riley Kelly came in with two shutout innings to hold the lead until walking the first hitter of the eighth
- The Ragin' Cajuns took advantage as UCI brought in Ricky Ojeda and managed to steal their way to a two-out, seeing-eye single from pinch-hitter Trip Dobson and tie it back up, 4-4
- UC Irvine went to work in their eighth inning using hit by pitches and walks against UL reliever Matthew Holzhammer
- Will Bermudez stepped in for the huge two-run single under the dive of the th second baseman to put UCI ahead 6-4
- Max Martin came in to end the game on a double play and earn the save by a score of 7-4.
- Ojeda took home the win to go to 2-0. Suarez was the star of the show with a career high 12 strikeouts in just five innings. The staff as a whole earned 17 strikeouts on the night.
- The offense was a team effort with two-hit games from Call and Felsch, two-RBI games by Yeaman and Bermudez, and 10 walks or hit by pitch from the order.
The sides are back at it Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. first pitch as
Jack Ross makes his Anteater Ballpark debut against UL's Blake McGehee.
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