SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball began the much-anticipated series at Cal Poly and Baggett Stadium on the right foot taking a 6-4 win Friday night.
- Things started rocky for the 'Eaters going down in order in the first inning, and quickly going down 3-0 on a three-run first-inning home run by the Mustangs
- Anteater starter Riley Kelly bounced back allowing one baserunner from the second to fourth innings which was picked off
- The offense meanwhile got on track in the third inning with James Castagnola starting it off with a home run to left field trailing, 3-1
- With one out, the Anteaters mashed four straight hits with a Colin Yeaman double that scored two and tied the game, 3-3, mixed in
- Chase Call completed the four-run inning with a sacrifice fly to put UCI on top, 4-3
- Kelly pitched through five innings, but not before the Mustangs doubled and singled to start the fifth to knot things back up at 4-4
- Ricky Ojeda came in for the sixth and allowed a Cal Poly baserunner in each of his first three innings, but stepped things up including strikeouts to end the seventh and eighth with a runner on second base in each
- The 'Eaters worked and got the lead back in the eighth inning
- Colin Yeaman walked to lead off the inning and made his way to second base with two outs
- Anthony Martinez smashed a shot up the middle with the Mustang shortstop positioned perfectly, but he was unable to make the play allowing Yeaman to score and take the lead back, 5-4
- Castagnola came up to start off the ninth inning and provided some insurance hammering his second home run of the game doubling his career total and pushing the score to 6-4
- Ojeda sealed the victory in the ninth getting the Mustangs in order capped by a Jacob McCombs catch in center field as he ran into the wall for the win
- Ojeda won his 10th game of the season, the first pitcher in the nation to reach double-digit victories, and sits at 10-0 with 63 strikeouts in 47 innings after putting up a scoreless four innings with no walks allowed
- Castagnola's performance was his first two-HR game of his career and the second of the team this year joining Yeaman
- He led all with three hits, and he drove in two and scored twice as did Yeaman
- Chase Call had the other multi-hit night adding an RBI
- UCI's win was its 30th on the year, now 30-9, and it moves two games clear of Cal Poly at 17-2 in Big West play
The series continues Saturday at 3:00 p.m. with
Trevor Hansen and Josh Volmerding going toe-to-toe on the mound.
Postgame Thoughts with head coach Ben Orloff
"Tonight was huge, and when you go down 3-0 in the first inning, you don't win a lot of those. Riley settled in and gave us enough length to get the ball to Ricky to finish. That third inning when we answered back with those four runs against Naess it was good at-bat after good at-bat. Castagnola got us started, and then he got us that big add-on run; that two-run lead is a big difference when you in the ninth."
"When you have Ricky Ojeda, that's a huge factor and as you can see can be the difference in a game like that. The depth of the offense, being able to score in multiple innings, that add-on run was huge. Martinez with his hard hit all play a factor. Playing really good defense too; Castagnola made a really good play late, McCombs to end the game, Penso with that ball in the dirt - when you play these guys it's going to come down to one or two plays and we answered the bell on a lot of those."
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