NORTHRIDGE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball improved to 5-1 in Big West play from a three-game road sweep at CSUN and Robert J. Hiegert Field over the weekend winning Sunday, 6-2.
- Ryder Brooks got the start as Sunday's opener and went above and beyond pitching into the fourth inning and holding CSUN to one run and picking up four strikeouts
- The Matadors got the scoring started pushing a run across on the squeeze bunt in the second leading 1-0
- UCI answered right back with a Blake Penso solo home run to center field with two outs the next inning to make it 1-1
- The Anteaters jumped in front in the fifth putting runners on a scoring one on a double play ball. The next hitter Alonso Reyes came up with two out and nobody on and powered ball the other way for a home run, his first in a UCI uniform to lead 3-1
- UCI's pitching continued to make the big pitches with David Butler taking over for Brooks and getting out a multiple jams without any damage as he went 2.2 scoreless innings
- The bats continued to build onto their lead with RBI singles in the sixth by Chase Call, the eighth by Anthony Martinez, and the ninth by Will Bermudez to extend the advantage to 6-1
- Max Martin came on for the final 2.1 innings in his hometown and wrapped things up for his fourth save of the year. Butler claimed the win, his first as an Anteater.
- The offense ran behind Penso again going 3-for-4 on the day and finishing the weekend 7-for-8. He also scored two of the team's six runs and hit his second homer of the weekend
- The rest of the lineup had equal contributions all down it with Will Bermudez sticking out with two hits, a run, and an RBI
The Anteaters are winners of five straight in conference play and overall improve to 14-5. Next up is a weekend series at UC Santa Barbara starting Friday, March 21 with first pitch at 4:35 p.m. UCI will not play in the midweek with Finals Week coming up.
Postgame Thoughts from head coach Ben Orloff
"This weekend was probably the best we've played all year. We talked about it on Tuesday night that we've got to pitch and defend, and I think we gave up seven runs in three games, played really good defense, and I think that's where it starts. That was really encouraging, and if that's what we can be, we'll be really good going forward."
"We shuffled up the pitching a little bit this weekend. Riley gave us a good shot to start on Friday and Ojeda gives us five out of the pen, Hansen again gives us length, and then we opened with Brooks likely the longest outing of his career by innings and pitches, and then we got extended length out of Butler and Martin. There were a lot of really good things and it's exciting to see those good throw as well as they did and the capacity at which they did."
"The offense starts with Penso, he means so much to this program. Nobody's hating it more than him when he's struggling early in the season, but to stay at it and go 7-for-8 over the weekend over two games, got some big hits. On top of that was the depth of the lineup, Bermudez with two big hits today, Yeaman with three homers over the weekend, it was good offense up and down the lineup, especially those add-on runs in the eighth and the ninth were huge. It's easy to get excited about the home runs, but those came from big hits."
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
