IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball could not fend off Cal State Fullerton Thursday night in a 9-7 loss to opening the weekend series in Anteater Ballpark.
- UCI's offense put the 'Eaters in front three different times on the night with the visitor Titans having an answer each time
- James Castagnola ripped a double to score UCI's first run in the second inning. Rowan Felsch added to it with a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 UCI lead after two
- The Titans got back even with a two-out rally in the fourth inning to score one run, and then a leadoff single in the fifth came around on a groundout knotting things up, 2-2, in the fifth
- The Anteaters answered swiftly in the form of a four-run bottom of the fifth inning
- Colin Yeaman doubled and stayed at second until UCI found their hits with two outs
- Anthony Martinez doubled him home to snag the lead back, 3-2
- Alonso Reyes brought him around with a two-out single to get UCI's two-run lead back, 4-2
- Castagnola came through once more smashing a double into the gap plating two and making the lead 6-2
- CSF waiting until the seventh inning, but unloaded on Anteater ace reliever Ricky Ojeda
- A one-out double off the glove of a leaping Rowan Felsch brought home the first run to make it 6-3
- A two-out shot up the middle and by Ojeda brought home another run for a 6-4 ballgame
- The next hitter deposited a pitch deep and out to left field to bring things back to a 6-6 tie
- The bullpens took over down the late innings, but UCI found a way to get their third lead of the game in the eighth inning
- A leadoff infield single by Felsch started things off, and he got to second and third on a sacrifice and a groundout
- An intentional walk to Yeaman and a pitching change brought things to Jacob McCombs whose end-of-the-bat hit fell just in front of a diving center fielder for the 7-6 lead
- Fullerton answered right back with just three outs remaining in the ninth inning
- A one-out double put things in motion followed by a single and a groundout to tie the score up again, 7-7
- The Titans got a favorable roll on a cue-shot up the third base line and fair to plate the go-ahead run, 8-7
- An insurance run came home on a slow chopper that was fumbled and thrown away making it a 9-7 deficit for the 'Eaters too much to overcome
- The loss puts UCI at 38-12 overall, and still searching for their outright regular season title with a 23-5 Big West record
- UCI's bats pounded out 14 hits including a three-hit night from Anthony Martinez with a run and an RBI
- Castagnola finished with two of UCI's five doubles and drove in three
- Penso reached three times scoring twice while Reyes had two hits, two runs, and drove one in
The sides pick things back up with game two of the series Friday, May 16 at 6:00 p.m.
Trevor Hansen takes the mound for UCI against Fullerton's Jayden Harper
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