Box Score SACRAMENTO, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball made an Opening Day-statement behind the pitching efforts of
Trevor Hansen and
Ryder Brooks producing a 5-0 win Friday night over Sacramento State at John Smith Field.
- The third-year Anteater ace was on it from the get-go striking out the side in the first inning even as he went to a full count with each hitter
- Hansen kept it going strong with two strikeouts in the second inning around a one-out walk
- The no-hitter was broken up with one out in the fourth, but Hansen powered through adding at least one strikeout in every inning including two each in the fifth and sixth innings
- The junior piled up 11 strikeouts, a career high, and third time he's had at least 10 in a game
- Hansen finished the sixth inning on 90 pitches, but was still in the middle of a 0-0 game.
- The offense finally made a move after Sacramento State went to the bullpen in the sixth after starter Ethan Lay struck out eight of his own
- A hit batsman brought up Landon Gaz who belted a home run to left-center, the first of his career, for a 2-0 lead
- The offense started back up loading the bases with two outs as Rowan Felsch swatted a ball into the right field corner to plate two and make it a 4-0 game
- Tommy Farmer smashed a ball that hit an umpire for a single followed by a walk to Noah Alvarez to force home his first RBI as an Anteater to lead 5-0
- The lead in hand, Ryder Brooks came out from the bullpen looking to close things out
- Brooks continued Hansen's trend of a strikeout per inning with one in the seventh and two in the eighth
- He walked a batter in the ninth for his only baserunner allowed, and surrounded that with three strikeouts for his first career save
UC Irvine 5, Sacramento State 0
- UCI improves to 30-17-1 all-time in season openers and 6-2 under coach Orloff
- The shutout is the sixth to open the season in UCI history and second under coach Orloff joining a 2023 shutout of Tulane, 3-0
- The one-hitter is the 10th in program history is the first for the Anteaters since 2019 when they threw two in the span of a week behind Trenton Denholm-Taylor Rashi and then Andre Pallante-John Vergara-Kaz Akamatsu.
- The 16 strikeouts by the pitching staff are the 14th time in program history. The 'Eaters have done it at least once in each of the last six seasons including a 17-strikeout performance in 2025
- Gaz launched his first career home run as the eventual game-winning runs after coming off the bench
- First-time Anteaters included Tommy Farmer who reached three times, twice via singles, and stole two bases
- Noah Alvarez made his debut reaching once on a bases loaded walk, and making a pair of fine defensive plays
- Efren Ortega scored the game-winning run in his debut after reaching on a hit by pitch
- Daniel Polasek debuted as the designated hitter in the 9-hole before leaving with an injury
At the conclusion of Friday, the sides were still scheduled to play one game Saturday with a first pitch at 2:00 p.m. between pitchers
Ricky Ojeda and Kurt Marton.
Postgame Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
Overall thoughts on the season opener: "I thought it was a good performance by us. It's not easy playing on Opening Night when you're sitting around the hotel watching the other games being played. I think it's similar to playing that first game of a regional where emotions could be high, so far us to come out and play pretty well - we got some good stuff out of Trevor, I started out with a lot of three-ball counts but won most of those 3-2s, Ryder Brooks came in and pitched it good, and we did a good enough job of winning some pitches and getting to the bullpen, able to string some together, and getting the big inning."
Today's offensive recap: "Lay is good, he had a 3.35 ERA last year, he's good, throws strikes, multiple pitches, I felt like he made a couple big pitches in some big spots, specifically that big curveball he was able to land. I think when you have good discipline, it doesn't always show up early in the game but it shows up late when people have to get into the bullpen sooner than they like. That big inning was great, we get a hit by pitch, home run from a guy that doesn't start the game, a couple two-strike hits, another hit by pitch, we get a double on an offspeed pitch, then Farmer hits a rocket that robbed him of a couple runs. It was stringing things together, it was a lot of two-out production, and I think that seventh inning was a product of what happened all the innings before."
Diving into Trevor Hansen's outing: "Trevor goes 3-2 the first three batters of the game, but we were talking about it how its hard to play on Opening Day, but you have a guy that has 32 career starts and he doesn't have it in the first, but his competitiveness, you just have so much belief in the person that he's going to make the big pitch and settle in, we've seen it for two years, and you turn around and he goes six innings and we give up one hit and punch out 16, we were able to have some success. There's a reason he's starting on Friday nights and he was good tonight."
