Home Baseball Begins vs. San Diego State, California

Wednesday, February 18

Irvine, Calif.

6:00 PM (Moved from 2/17 Postponement)

UC Irvine

San Diego State

Photo by: Matt Brown

Home Baseball Begins vs. San Diego State, California

February 16, 2026 | Baseball

Game Notes Media

By: Alex Roberts-Croteau

THE SERIES

UC Irvine Anteaters (3-0, 0-0 Big West) vs. San Diego State Aztecs (3-0, 0-0 Mountain West)
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3,408) - Irvine, Calif.
Tuesday - Postponed
Wednesday - 6:00 PM | ESPN+ | KUCI | Live Stats

UC Irvine Anteaters (3-0, 0-0 Big West) vs. California Golden Bears (2-1, 0-0 ACC)
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3,408) - Irvine, Calif.
Friday - 6:00 PM | ESPN+ | KUCI | Live Stats
Saturday - 1:00 PM | ESPN+ | kuci.org | Live Stats
Sunday - 1:00 PM | ESPN+ | KUCI | Live Stats

Game Notes

PITCHING PROBABLES
Friday: UCI RHP Trevor Hansen vs. CAL RHP Oliver de la Torre
Saturday: UCI LHP Ricky Ojeda vs. CAL RHP Ethan Foley
Sunday: UCI RHP Cade Castles vs. CAL RHP Gavin Eddy

Coming Up This Week

UCI opens its home slate starting Tuesday vs. San Diego State. It's the beginning of the team's longest homestand of the season, six games vs. SDSU, California, and Grand Canyon
UCI and SDSU match up for the 103rd time and first midweek game since 2023. UCI has won six straight in the series dating back to 2020
California comes in for UCI's first weekend series. UCI faces them for the first time since 2015, their first visit to Anteater Ballpark since 2013, and it marks the second ACC program to visit Anteater Ballpark since Virginia in the 2009 Regional

Storylines

Pitching stole the show in the opening weekend allowing five total runs and a 1.00 ERA at Sac State. Trevor Hansen and Ryder Brooks combined on a one-hitter Friday behind Hansen's career high 11 strikeouts, and Ricky Ojeda followed with six shutout innings in a win. The bullpen allowed one earned run in 12.2 innings of work
The bats did enough to sweep the series scoring more runs (18) than producing hits (17). They did it by 22 free passes, five sacrifices, and reaching three times on errors
Anteater leaders come from Frankie Carney with his four hits, Zach Fjelstad with four runs, and Landon Gaz and Rowan Felsch each driving in three including Gaz's first career home run
UCI had 10 first-time 'Eaters play, six making collegiate debuts, and the return of Tim Grack and Auggie Gutierrez who missed 2025 with injuries
The Anteaters have played the ACC 11 times going 3-8 against schools like Virginia (1-4), Clemson, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, and NC State. Adding in California and Stanford, UCI is 25-33 all-time against current ACC members
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

SCOUTING THE AZTECS

San Diego State is in back with another first-year head coach Kevin Vance. He's retooled the roster with 19 college transfers including 13 from Power 5 programs like Oregon State, Arizona State, and Arizona.
The Aztecs welcomed Vance with a sweep on opening weekend hosting LIU by scores of 12-11, 12-5, and 6-5. Their schedule features seven Big West schools that includes UCI and names like Washington, BYU, Saint Mary's, San Jose State, and UConn along with the usual midweeks and Mountain West foes. The Aztecs finished fifth a year ago and are projected to be seventh of nine teams this year.
The series between the Anteaters and San Diego State will see its 103rd matchup on Tuesday. It's the first midweek meeting since 2023 after the sides didn't meet in 2025 and played a weekend series in 2024 with UCI winning all three in their final at-bats. UCI has also featured a new Aztec on their side in each of the last three years with grad transfer Ricky Tibbett in 2024, Jacob McCombs in the outfield in 2025, and this year closer Peyton Rodgers
The Aztec bats hit .330 as a team to start and scored 10 runs a game against LIU. Boston College transfer Adam Magpoc had the pop with six hits, a home run, and eight RBIs and was complimented by the Oregon State trio of Jabin Trosky (6 H, 3 2B), Dawson Santana (5 H, HR, 6 RBI), and Tyce Peterson (4 H, HR, 6 RBI)
Pitching rode on the backs of their rotation pitching 13 innings and collecting 20 of the team's 46 strikeouts. Recognizable names including new co-captain Isaac Araiza and junior Evan Miranda who each had a scoreless frame vs. LIU

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN BEARS

California is off to a 2-1 start losing the opener against Santa Clara before battling back to take the series lead with the fourth and final game Monday night. The sides haven't met since 2015 and Cal visits UCI for the first time since 2013. UCI holds the all-time lead, 20-16, and 13-9 at home, but Cal won the 2015 series, 3-1.
The Golden Bears are in the second year as a member of the ACC after going 9-21 in conference play and finishing 24-31 overall. They're in the ninth year of head coach Mike Neu bringing in 28 newcomers to the roster, 14 pitchers and 14 position players with 18 newcomers as freshmen
The bats hit .263 as a team and was a doubles machine hitting 10. Grad student Daniel Murillo hit four including a walk-off winner Saturday, Hideki Prather had the other walk-off and three RBIs, and LF Carl Schmidt hit two solo homers
Pitching settled in during the first weekend after being blitzed for 13 runs on opening day. The starting trio of Oliver de la Torre, Ethan Foley, and Gavin Eddy did allowed just three earned runs over their 11 innings of work, and bullpen names like Jett Wright (2.2 IP, 0 R) and Cole Clark (2 IP, 0 R) were effective