BAKERSFIELD, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball edged out another win at Cal State Bakersfield at Hardt Field topping the hosts, 5-3, to secure a series sweep and clinch at least a share of the Big West regular season title.
- The win coupled with a Cal Poly win puts UC Irvine three games up on the second place Mustangs with three games remaining in the Big West season. UCI can at worst finish in a tie for first locking up at least a share of the regular season championship. UCI's series win over Cal Poly last month means it has secured the No. 1 seed in the Big West Championship in two weeks which will determine the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
- Sunday's game was a grind with the teams never separated by more than three runs
- Will Bermudez began the game putting the ball in play and reaching on an error. Later in the inning, Anthony Martinez busted a single with two outs to score Bermudez and take a 1-0 lead
- UCI doubled its lead in the third inning thanks to another error. Jacob McCombs got to third base on a misplay by the right fielder and later scored on an Alonso Reyes single for a 2-0 lead
- The Roadrunners got a run back in their half of the third inning helped by a steal of third to set up a run on a groundout trailing, 2-1
- The 2-1 score stood until the eighth inning as Blake Penso doubled to lead things off and scored on a Bermudez single to make it 3-1
- The Roadrunners got the run back in the bottom half of the inning on a single, but not before Penso and Max Martin cut down CSUB's baserunning tricks with 1 of his 3 runners caught stealing via a rundown in the eighth
- Penso then delivered another clutch hit, his third double of the day, with two outs in the top of the ninth to plate his 11th and 12th RBIs of the weekend and open up a 5-2 Anteater lead
- CSU Bakersfield never let up getting a two-out walk in the bottom of the ninth and singling him around to bring the tying run to the plate. Will Bermudez made a circus catch and throw to mercifully end the game and get the 5-3 win
- The offense again was driven by Penso with three doubles and two RBIs of UCI's eight hits. He also had his second game of the season where he caught three runners stealing
- Bermudez reached four times from the leadoff spot scoring twice and driving in a run
- Martinez had two hits for himself with an RBI. McCombs scored each of the two times he reached on the afternoon
- The pitching made a lot of noise starting with Ryder Brooks who gutted out five innings allowing two hits and striking out five to collect his sixth win of the year
- Ricky Ojeda was called upon for two innings dancing around three baserunners while holding the lead in shutout ball
- Max Martin picked up after David Butler was unable to record an out and stifled CSUB enough to earn the save, his third of the week, 12th of the season, and fourth this week for the team
UC Irvine enters the final week of the regular season with a mark of 38-11 and a 23-4 Big West record. The final week is at Anteater Ballpark starting Thursday night, May 15, at 6:00 p.m. in a three-game set with Cal State Fullerton.
Postgame Thoughts with head coach Ben Orloff
"It was great. All three games were really tough, and it felt like we were clutch when we needed to be. Ryder goes five innings, two hits, gave us a chance to be able to get to Ojeda and Butler and Max, and that's huge for him. Some big-time defense late in that game; that first-and-third strikeout, delay, stop, dealing with that rundown is a championship type play."
"It was grind-it-out, find a way to score, runs were really hard to come by for us. Penso was huge, two more RBIs, three doubles, he really carried us. To go along with throwing out three guys, what he means to this program and what it means to him, we do not get out of this weekend with three wins without him going crazy offensively."
"It's special and really hard to win a conference championship, be the best team in the league over the nine weekends so far, so it's really special. The first year of this conference championship, the 1-seed gets the best draw, it's the first time we've had to talk about that. Getting the 1-seed, I'm just really proud of the guys. To be best team in such a tough league to this point, that's a really big accomplishment."
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