MIDWEEK
UC Irvine Anteaters (21-5, 11-1 Big West) vs. San Diego Toreros (6-21, 3-3 WCC)
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3.408) - Irvine, Calif.
Tuesday - 6:00 PM |
ESPN+Â |
KUCI 88.9 FM |Â
Live Stats
PITCHING PROBABLES
Tuesday: UCI LHP
Ricky Ojeda vs. USD RHP Jack Giordano
Â
THE SERIES
UC Irvine Anteaters (22-5, 11-1 Big West) at Oregon State Beavers (20-6)
Goss Stadium at Coleman Field (3,587) - Corvallis, Ore.
Friday - 5:35 PM |
KOIN.com |Â
Live Stats
Saturday - 1:35 PM |Â
KOIN.com |Â
Live Stats
Sunday - 12:05 PM |
KOIN.com |Â
Live Stats
PITCHING PROBABLES
Friday: UCI RHP
Riley Kelly vs. OSU LHP Nelson Keljo
Saturday: UCI RHP
Trevor Hansen vs. OSU RHP Dax Whitney
Sunday: UCI TBD vs. OSU LHP Ethan Kleinschmit
Game Notes
Â
AROUND THE HORN
#11 - The 'Eaters are ranked in all major national polls as low as 13th and as high as #11 by NCBWA. UCI was preseason #24 by Baseball America
10 - UC Irvine's 10-game win streak is the longest active streak in the NCAA, and is the sixth streak of 10 or more wins in program history
25 -
Chase Call homered Saturday to tie the UCI all-time mark of 25 career homers with Francis Larson.
Anthony Martinez is also close behind with 23
5 - 5 'Eaters are on Opening Day rosters, the most at one time in the MLB, with the addition of Christian Koss, the 14th MLB 'Eater when he debuts
LEADING OFF
+ UC Irvine is among the nationally ranked after seven weeks in 2025 with Baseball America moving them up from 24th in their preseason poll to now 13th. UCI's highest ranking is No. 11 from NCBWA in addition to a No. 12 ranking from D1Baseball.com, USA Today Coaches Poll, and Perfect Game USA. UCI remained nationally ranked the entire 2024 season finishing in the top 25 in all five major polls.
+ UC Irvine is 4-1 this season against ranked teams beating No. 24 Nebraska in the season opener, a one-run loss to No. 16 Vanderbilt on a neutral site, and now three wins over the weekend on the road against No. 21 UC Santa Barbara. UCI will host UCLA who is currently No. 24, and this weekend's series will be at No. 5 Oregon State.
+ The 'Eaters are winners of 10 in a row, the nation's longest active streak, and sixth streak of 10 or more wins in program history. 'Eaters also hold a seven-game road win streak and 11 straight in conference.Â
+ The Anteater offense added 53 runs to their season total last week and 41 runs over the weekend series including season highs in runs with 20 Friday and hits with 19 Saturday. UCI has scored at least eight runs in 20 of 26 games, and at least six runs in every weekend matchup. In the month of March, UCI hit .330 as a team scoring 10.3 runs a game:
ÞÂ
Colin Yeaman again was the offensive catalyst last week hitting .588 and went .625 in the weekend series. He currently has a 12-game hitting streak and 10-game run scored streak with a hit, run, and RBI in each of the three weekend games
ÞÂ
Frankie Carney returned to the top of the order going 9-for-19 (.473) with a team-best seven RBIs, scoring five runs, and reaching base four other times by BB or hit by pitch
ÞÂ
Chase Call reached rarefied air with a home run Saturday. It was his 25th as an Anteater tying the all-time record set by Francis Larson in 2010. He's also working his way up the all-time lists now ninth in runs (130) and third in HBP (49)
ÞÂ
Anthony Martinez continues to rack up the RBIs with nearly two a game this season. He's second in UCI history with 165, 24 away from the all-time mark, is two behind Call and Larson in the HR race, and is five hits from becoming the 19th 'Eater to reach 200
+ The Anteater pitching staff came together for four wins last week and handed out 40 strikeouts:
ÞÂ UCI weekend starters each earned a win with
Riley Kelly striking out a career high eight while allowing one run in five innings Friday.
Trevor Hansen reached a career high 10 strikeouts in Saturday's win just barely missing a quality start in 6.1 innings, and
Ryder Brooks earned his first weekend win gritting out five innings allowing four runs on four hits
ÞÂ
Finnegan Wall returned to form appearing in tough spots in two different games out of the bullpen and tossing five scoreless innings over the outings to record holds in each win
ÞÂ UCI closers came up with two saves in different ways.
David Butler went two innings Tuesday and after putting the first three runners on base in a one-run game, got the next three hitters without allowing the tying run to score.
Max Martin mowed through his six hitters Sunday needing just 15 pitches.
+ The regular season is halfway through and the 'Eaters are among the national leaders statistically:
ÞÂ As a team, UC Irvine is top 30 in triples (3rd), runs per game (9.9), hit by pitch (6th), on-base percentage (11th), runs (14th), batting average (15th), doubles (18th), slugging (21st), and hits (24th)
ÞÂ The pitching staff's notable numbers include 8.2 hits allowed per nine innings (41st), 9.9 strikeouts per nine innings (43rd), and 1.37 WHIP (47th) nationally.
ÞÂ Anteaters making noise nationally include
Colin Yeaman,
10th in hits per game, 11th in triples and total bases, 17th in hits, 20th in slugging, and 25th in batting,
Jacob McCombs,
11th in triples, 21st in hits per game and total bases, 27th in hits, 41st in doubles, and 67th in batting,
Chase Call,
22nd in HBP and 35th in runs per game, and
Anthony Martinez unofficially 2nd in RBIs per game
ÞÂ Notable statistical pitchers start with
Trevor Hansen at eighth in victories, 89th in strikeout-to-walk ratio, 97th in strikeouts, and 99th in walks allowed per nine innings,
Max Martin fourth in saves,
David Butler,
21st in appearances, and
Riley Kelly ranking 101st in ERA, nationally.
ÞÂ UCI has the Big West's leader in batting, hits, runs, slugging, triples, total bases, tied for wins, and saves
Â
Â
SCOUTING THE TOREROS
San Diego makes the return trip after hosting the 'Eaters in early March. At the time, USD was 2-9 going through a brutal opening stretch vs. ranked TCU and Arizona. They are now 6-21 getting swept in a hard-fought series at Oregon State, a series loss to Columbia, midweek losses to Cal State Fullerton, and conference series losing two of three at LMU while recently winning two of three over Pepperdine.
The Toreros have dropped seven straight to the Anteaters in the series as UCI holds the all-time advantage, 66-50-1 and are 30-24-1 in home games. Tuesday will be the 118th meeting between the squads, the most UCI has seen any one non-conference opponent. The matchup earlier in the year was all Anteaters breaking a 0-0 tie in the fourth before going up 12-0 and eventually winning, 12-3.
Ryan Kysar was four shutout innings striking out seven of his old Torero buddies, and
Jacob McCombs had four hits and four RBIs
The offense was stifled until the ninth inning last game, and comes into play hitting .260 scoring 4.7 runs a game. Two-way player Austin Smith has done some damage with a WCC-best 12 doubles while Jack Gurevitch is second in the conference with a .386 average and .492 on-base adding 44 RBIs between them. Isaiah Lane completes the offensive trio threat with a .317 average, four home runs, and 11 RBIs
Pitching has much better numbers with a lot coming from the weekend rotation. They rank high with their 2.03 strikeout-to-walk ratio, allowed 4.65 walks per nine innings, and have picked up eight saves. The last outing saw 10 different arms with scoreless innings from their most effective arms David Horn Jr., Jamie Robertson, Fernando Palencia, and Aidan Gonzalez. Palencia as the numbers to back it up (1.74, 10.1 IP, 8 K) and likely to see a number of pitchers this time around like appearances leader Hayden Cody (1-3, 6.75, 13.1 IP, 10 K), and Dallin Harrison (1-3, 5.63, 16 IP, 15 K) who drew the loss last game after two scoreless innings followed by a four-run frame for the Anteaters in the fourth.
Â
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
Oregon State and UC Irvine rekindle their competitive matchups in the 2024 Corvallis Regional in the postseason. OSU is off to a 20-6 start in their first year as an independent. They're coming off a road series loss to another UCI friend, Nebraska, and have challenged themselves with opponents from all around the country and different conferences. Familiar foes include a home sweep of San Diego and winning two of three at Cal Poly in addition to the battle with the Huskers. UCI will be the second ranked opponent they face in addition to their win over No. 2 Virginia. Oregon State has the advantage playing at home where they are 9-0 so far this season and were 27-2 in 2024.
The Beavers and Anteaters have a brief but storied rivalry between the two. OSU all-time holds the advantage, 7-6, including a win at the 2007 College World Series on its way to a National Championship. UCI served up revenge in 2014 winning two of three to upset the No. 1 Beavers in the 2014 Corvallis Regional. The sides then had two regular season series including arguably the best and most entertaining series in program history in 2021 at Anteater Ballpark when UCI won 2 of 3 in a series that featured three wins in final at-bats, two extra inning games, and two walkoffs. UCI returned to Corvallis in 2022 losing two of three, but ending it on a 10th-inning
Thomas McCaffrey HR to win Sunday. And then the 2024 Corvallis Regional where Oregon State just came out on top with wins of 5-3 and 11-6. Goss Stadium entering the weekend has seen four wins for each side all-time
The offense is always formidable hitting .294 and scoring 7.5 runs a game. They draw quite a few walks while also hitting 39 home runs. Similar familiar faces return like Gavin Turley (.347, 8 HR, 29 RBI) and Trent Caraway (.302, 10 2B, 19 RBI) with plenty of complimentary bats like Easton Talt (.333, 30 BB), Jacob Krieg (8 HR, 21 RBI), and super transfer Aiva Arquette (.333, 7 HR, 25 RBI).
Pitching is the team's staple coming in with a microscopic 3.61 ERA and 1.26 WHIP and average 10.6 strikeouts per game with the 29th-best defense behind it. Freshman standout Dax Whitney has 50 strikeouts in 32 innings along with three wins and a 3.38 ERA. Sophomore Ethan Kleinschmit has impressed as well with 41 strikeouts, a 4-1 record, and a 2.87 ERA. A host of other names are also lurking like Nelson Keljo (2-0, 1.73, 26 IP, 26 K), AJ Hutcheson (2 Sv, 2.51, 14.1 IP, 14 K), and Matthew Morrell (1-0, 3 Sv, 1.04), and can't forget Eric Segura who started vs. UCI in the regional and was last week's Friday starter with 34 strikeouts in 21.1 innings and a 4-1 record.
