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Matt Brown

Anteaters On The Road to Sacramento State to Begin 2026

| By: Alex Roberts-Croteau

THE SERIES

UC Irvine Anteaters (0-0, 0-0 Big West) at Sacramento State Hornets (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
John Smith Field (1,200) - Sacramento, Calif.
Friday - 6:00 PM | ESPN+ | Live Stats
Saturday - 2:00 PM | WAC International | Live Stats
Sunday - 12:00 PM | ESPN+ | Live Stats

PITCHING PROBABLES
Friday: UCI RHP Trevor Hansen vs. SAC RHP Ethan Lay
Saturday: UCI LHP Ricky Ojeda vs. SAC RHP Kurt Marton
Sunday: UCI RHP Cade Castles vs. SAC RHP Carson Timothy

Game Notes
 
This Series
  • All-time, the Anteaters are 29-17-1 in season openers and 5-2 under coach Orloff.
  • The 'Eaters and Hornets were opponents in their final games of 2020 before the COVID shutdown. UCI won the series, but Sac State won the finale to it and the season
  • This is UCI's first trip to Sacramento since 2010. The 'Eaters are 6-2 all-time on the road winning both road weekend series
Storylines
  • Preseason awards were dished out with Ricky Ojeda prominent on the national scene. He was named to three All-American teams including First Team status from NCBWA and Perfect Game USA
  • Golden Spikes Award named Ojeda to their Preseason Watchlist, 1 of 55 amateur players. It's the 12th time an Anteater has made the list and Ojeda is the 10th different Anteater
  • D1Baseball was another publication to name Ojeda a Third Team All-American. They projected UC Irvine to finish first, and named Ojeda as Preseason Pitcher of the Year and Cade Castles and Preseason Freshman of the Year
  • The Big West unveiled its Preseason All-Big West Team with multiple Anteaters on it for a third straight season, Ricky Ojeda for a second straight year, and Trevor Hansen. The 'Eaters were projected third in the Preseason Coaches Poll earning 1 of the 11 first-place votes
  • The 2026 Anteater non-conference schedule was rated the No. 1-toughest in the nation according to PEARatings. UCI's non-conference schedule features three programs that were at the 2025 College World Series and UCI will play someone from each Power 4 conference
  • This is the first week UC Irvine is not ranked since the end of the 2023 season. The 'Eaters were in the top 25 every week of 2024 and 2025
  • UCI earned all three major Big West awards last year, first time a team had done since UCI in 2009. They also featured a program record 12 All-Big West honorees
SCOUTING THE HORNETS
  • Sacramento State starts the 2026 season off for UCI at their place. The Hornets are in the 16th season under head coach Reggie Christiansen who got the team to 32-26 in 2025 after only its second losing season under him in 2024.
  • The Hornets won the regular season in 2025, the program's third title and first since 2014. The 2026 preseason poll has them projected to finish fourth out of seven teams while earning two first-place votes, and the Preseason All-WAC Team did not feature any players despite two All-WAC returners
  • The series between the Anteaters and Hornets dates all the way back to UCI's first season in 1970 and they faced off twice in Division II postseason tournaments. Lately, the sides had met just once since 2012 and that came as the final series of 2020 before the season was shutdown. UCI won the series on a Friday shutout behind Trenton Denholm and quality Saturday from Peter Van Loon before Sac State pitched a shutout Sunday in a series that featured zero walks from Sac State pitching.
  • The Hornet bats hit .279 as a team scoring 6.4 runs a game. They were middle of the road in most ways with top returners Luis Pimentel-Guerrero (.351, 37 RBI) and Jakob Poturnak (.309, 13 HR, 52 RBI) leading the charge. 
  • Pitching is always at the forefront with the WAC's lowest ERA at 4.93 led again by a low walk rate of 3.33 per nine innings (12th in NCAA) joining by a top defense that was top-10 in the nation at turning double plays. Ethan Lay is the only returner from the rotation (5-3, 3.55) with a bullpen arm, Andrew Monson (29 G, 2-2, 2 Sv, 4.91), back for a fifth season
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