THE SERIES

UC Irvine Anteaters (14-5, 5-1 Big West) at UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (15-4, 4-2 Big West)
Caesar Uyesaka Stadium (1,000) - Santa Barbara, Calif.
Friday - 4:35 PM | ESPN+ | Live Stats
Saturday - 3:05 PM | ESPN+ | Live Stats
Sunday - 1:05 PM | ESPN+ | Live Stats

PITCHING PROBABLES
Friday: UCI Riley Kelly vs. UCSB Tyler Bremner
Saturday: UCI Trevor Hansen vs. UCSB Jackson Flora
Sunday: UCI TBD vs. UCSB Calvin Proskey

Game Notes

AROUND THE HORN
19 - UCI is in the midst of its longest road trip; 19 days between home games featuring 9 games, and a stretch of 14 of 18 games away from home
25 - UC Irvine's career home run record stands at 25 with two 'Eaters within reach: Chase Call - 23, Anthony Martinez - 22
53 - Will Bermudez set a UCI career record for HBP record on February 26, currently with 53. The team was hit 175 times in 2024 setting an NCAA record
.750 - UC Irvine's 9-spot in the order had a weekend batting .750 (9-for-12) at CSUN including 2 HR, 7 RBI, and 5 runs scored over the three wins
 
LEADING OFF
+ UC Irvine is among the nationally ranked after five weeks in 2025 with Baseball America moving them up from 24th in their preseason poll to as high as 18th, and now 20th this week. UCI remained nationally ranked the entire 2024 season finishing in the top 25 in all five major polls.
+ UC Irvine takes on its third ranked opponent of the season already with a win over No. 24 Nebraska and one-run loss to No. 16 Vanderbilt, both on a neutral site. UC Santa Barbara comes into the matchup ranked in each of the four major polls and as high as No. 15.
+ UC Irvine's pitching staff stepped up last week especially in the three-game sweep in an offensive-leaning park like CSUN allowing seven total runs holding their offense to a .232 average
Þ Trevor Hansen put up his second straight quality start allowing one run over six innings scattering seven hits. He is now 3-0 on the year and improves to 9-4 in his Anteater career
Þ UCI shuffled its starting rotation with Riley Kelly and Ryder Brooks making their first starts of 2025. Each pitched into the fifth inning allowing four runs between them allowing one walk while setting down 10 with a strikeout
Þ Ricky Ojeda was back on his game with five shutout innings out of the bullpen to earn his third win while striking out six
Þ Other bullpen contributors included Max Martin scoring his fourth save of the year in his hometown going 2.1 innings. David Butler pitched in his Big West-leading 10th game with his longest outing as an Anteater at 2.2 innings and securing his first UCI win. Andrew Grove made his collegiate debut Tuesday at UCLA tossing two shutout innings and picking up his first two strikeouts after battling back from a lost freshman season from ACL surgery
+ The Anteater offense stayed the course averaging 10.7 runs in the three wins while scoring 9.3 runs a game over the first 19 games. UCI has scoring at least eight runs in 15 of those games, and at least six runs in every weekend matchup this season:
Þ Blake Penso owned the weekend breaking out for a 7-for-8 performance driving in five, hitting his first two home runs, and scored three times raising his average 187 points
Þ Alonso Reyes joined him with a big week hitting .364 adding three RBIs and his first Anteater HR at CSUN. Together with Penso, the pair hit .750 out of the 9-hole in the wins over CSUN. He hit the go-ahead RBI double back on Saturday vs. LBSU as he's coming out from recovering from a broken nose in practice early in the year
Þ The Anteaters pelted the ball homering 10 times at CSUN. Colin Yeaman set a UCI record homering in three consecutive at-bats between Games 1 and 2 of the Saturday doubleheader. Jacob McCombs lifted his team-best sixth home run. Rowan Felsch and Zach Fjelstad hit back-to-back home runs in the 15-2 victory.
Þ Anthony Martinez got into the home run act hitting his 22nd career home run at CSUN. He sits one behind Chase Call, who doubled four times in three games, as they each are chasing the UCI career HR record of 25 held by Francis Larson. Martinez had his RBI streak snapped at 10, but continues to add to his total now at 19 in 13 games, and two more will draw him even with Hall-of-Famer Rod Spence at 154 in his career and second in UCI history
+ The Anteaters have put up some nationally recognized stats through the season's first 15 games:
Þ Anteater offense has been paced by McCombs notably 16th in the nation in total bases as he leads the Big West in slugging and hits per game at 1.63
Þ As a team, UCI's offense is near the top of the NCAA in hit by pitch (2nd), triples (4th), and is top 40 in runs per game (21st), total runs (29th), on-base (30th), HR (34th), and hits (36th)
Þ Other notable Big West leaders include Chase Call whose atop in runs scored and runs per game, and Rowan Felsch in walks drawn per game
Þ UCI set the NCAA record last year with 175 hit by pitch. They have 60 so far this year, 3.16 per game, which is second in the NCAA with eight from McCombs and Call. Will Bermudez set the program record earlier this year now with 53 in his career
Þ Pitching leaders start with Max Martin whose four saves have him atop the conference and David Butler tied for the most pitching appearances and seventh nationally. As a staff, UCI strikes out 9.8 hitters a game, second in Big West and 58th nationally, and the defense behind them are third in the Big West in double plays