Box Score LOS ANGELES, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball came through with their season on the line for an 8-3 win Saturday over Fresno State staying alive in the NCAA Regional at Jacke Robinson Stadium.
- Another scoreless first inning from starters Riley Kelly and Aidan Cremarosa without a baserunner set things up for the sides
- The second inning saw the Anteater hitters work their way on base with a hit by pitch and a walk setting up James Castagnola to pop a two-out fly to left field and just over the fence for a three-run home run and a 3-0 lead
- Jacob McCombs continued the momentum pelting the center field batter's eye with another home run to extend the lead to 4-0 in the third, and a fifth run came home on a double play ball in the fourth for 5-0 advantage
- Fresno State crawled back into the game slowly with an unearned run in the fourth, but Riley Kelly stopped the rally with a strikeout and two runners on base. A solo home run in the fifth made it 5-2 and ended Kelly's day giving way to David Utagawa
- Utagawa kept the door shut leaving the game after a leadoff single in the eighth for 2.1 shutout frames. Max Martin allowed that runner to score, but that was the lone blemish helping finish the game and the win, 8-3
- The Anteater offense put up 11 hits adding some insurance later in the game for the eight runs
- McCombs reached base four times on three hits and added an RBI along with his 12th home run on the season
- Anthony Martinez had a hit and drove in a run on a sac fly for the eighth run
- Martinez's sac fly was significant being the 16th of his career setting a new Anteater all-time record, and the RBI that came home was the 189th of his career tying him with Jeff Malinoff on top of the all-time list
- Castagnola had a two-hit game as did Colin Yeaman and Frankie Carney, all three scoring a run, and Yeaman posting an RBI along with three from Castagnola
- Utagawa takes the win to improve to 2-0 on the year and 5-1 as an Anteater winning his second career NCAA Regional game
- Riley Kelly did a brunt of the work without picking up the decision. He was one out from the minimum five innings allowing just one earned run with four strikeouts
UCI is now 42-16 with at least one more to play. Next up is a 3:00 p.m. elimination game on Sunday, June 1 as they await the loser of Saturday night's UCLA vs. Arizona State game. UCI will need to win that game to continue on to a second game tomorrow night following the first game and play the ASU-UCLA winner.
Ryder Brooks takes the mound for the 'Eaters.
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