SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball used a late surge to overtake No. 21 UC Santa Barbara Sunday at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium and win, 9-4, to complete the weekend road sweep.
- Things were not looking up for the 'Eaters who were soaring entering the game with a series win in hand and winners of five straight.
- UCSB starter Calvin Proskey was shutting the offense down allowing no hits through five innings with four strikeouts and just two baserunners allowed
- The Gauchos found their hitting shoes against UCI starter Ryder Brooks in the third inning with a four-batter rush on a single, RBI triple, RBI groundout, and solo home run to take the lead, 3-0
- UCI came to bat in the sixth inning and flipped the switch
- Frankie Carney broke up the no-hitter with a leadoff single to center field
- After a Will Bermudez double off the wall, Colin Yeaman hit a soft liner that was dropped by the second baseman to load the bases
- Anthony Martinez and Jacob McCombs each hit sharp grounders to the right side, one for a spectacular diving play by the same second baseman for the out, the other deflect for an infield single, and both scoring runs to make it, 3-2 Gauchos
- With the bases loaded and two out, a groundball up the middle by Landon Gaz seemingly looked to end the inning, but the second baseman was late in covering for the force and Chase Call beat him to the bag keeping the inning alive and driving home the tying run, 3-3
- That opening set the bats off as Blake Penso and Will Bermudez would answer with two-run singles to open it up to a seven-run sixth inning and take the lead, 7-3
- The Anteaters continued to add on with a pair of solo home runs from Jacob McCombs, in the seventh, and Colin Yeaman, in the ninth
- The pitching again was the story of the day starting with Brooks giving three solid inning allowing the three runs and striking out three
- Ricky Ojeda was called upon after 2.2 innings on Friday. He allowed one baserunner, a leadoff single in the sixth, and retired the other nine hitters with five strikeouts
- Closer Max Martin came in to start the seventh to shut the Gauchos down and did exactly that. He stranded two in scoring position in the eighth, and after an error brought home a run in the ninth, a lineout and a strikeout sealed the win, 9-4.
- Ojeda took the win to improve to 4-0 while taking the team lead with a 2.31 ERA and 34 strikeouts.
- Martin picked up his second save of the weekend and sixth on the year
- UCI needed just seven hits, five coming in the sixth, with two hit days from Bermudez and McCombs
- The pair also drove in two runs along with Penso while McCombs and Yeaman each crossed home twice
- An error in the ninth inning ended a string of errorless baseball for the Anteaters over 55 innings
The impressive sweep on the road of the preseason Big West favorite No. 21 UC Santa Barbara puts UCI at 8-1 in Big West play over the first three weekends and overall a 17-5 record on the season.
Next up is the last game of an eight-game road trip on Tuesday, February 25, against USC on LMU's Page Stadium. UCI will return home after that for a weekend series against UC Riverside starting Friday, March 28.
Postgame Thoughts with head coach Ben Orloff
"What gave us a chance is pitching: Ryder got those two zeroes early, then they score three in a four-hitter stretch. Ojeda coming in is what gives us a chance. I was just saying how he might be the most valuable pitcher in the country, at least one of them; going three two days after going 2.2 IP. Him getting those zeroes really gave us a chance, and it felt like we were three at-bats away from getting right back into it. Frankie breaks up the no-hitter which gave us all a little sense of relief. Bermudez hits with two strikes, we had nine two-strike hits yesterday, Chase beats that force to tie the game - there was a lot of really good things that happened in that inning."
"We've been trying to get Ojeda and Martin as much as we can, and we've really been trying to go for it on the weekends. It's big to win here, it's really big to win here. We were aggressive with them and went more than we probably usually would have went with them, but both of those guys have grown up. Max has really, really grown up and really wants the ball and has thrown the ball really well. We were really aggressive with them and they answered the call. We gave up runs in four of the 27 innings this weekend."
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