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UC Irvine Hosts No. 17 Oregon State This Weekend

March 18, 2026 | By: Alex Roberts-Croteau

THE SERIES

Coming Up This Week

The Anteaters return home playing just a three-game weekend non-conference series against Oregon State during Finals Week on campus
UC Irvine plays its fifth ranked team of 2026 posting neutral-site wins over No. 22 Vanderbilt and No. 24 Oregon and recently losing at No. 20 USC and No. 1 UCLA. No. 17 Oregon State is the first home ranked opponent for UCI who hosted just one in 2025 - No. 15 UCLA. Oregon State was No. 11 in the road matchup last season

Storylines

UC Irvine enters its Big West bye week currently 1-5 in Big West play. The 2023 Anteaters started Big West play 2-5 and rebounded to finish 19-11 in fourth place in the standings.
UCI's winless week featured the No. 1 UCLA Bruins and Cal State Fullerton all on the road. Two UCI losses featured tough starts allowing nine runs in the first inning of Tuesday's 11-1 defeat and seven runs Saturday in a 9-5 loss. The other two losses featured a tie game (3-3 on Friday) or lead (5-2 on Sunday) with the game in the seventh inning or later only for the 'Eaters to allow a big inning late and drop each contest
The offense picked things up in the hits department out-hitting Cal State Fullerton, 33-31. Landon Gaz led the charge with six and hitting .500. Other solid performances came from Zach Fjelstad and Alonso Reyes who each had five hits and a home run, Auggie Gutierrez with a four-hit game, and Zach Doyle pounding four hits
Pitching got another quality start from Trevor Hansen and six strikeouts, Finnegan Wall throwing shutout ball Sunday before leaving after 4.1 innings, and effective relief from Tyler Foster (4 IP, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K) and Danny Suarez (3 IP, H, K)
Collegiate debuts were back in the mix with two last week. Second-year catcher Michael Podstreleny debuted Tuesday at UCLA and then started Saturday against the Titans as a DH. On Sunday, freshman Lucas Schermer made his NCAA debut starting at third base, getting a hit on the very first pitch he saw, and adding an RBI on a walk

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS

Oregon State is back to its old tricks; winners of nine in a row, ranked No. 17 in the nation, and a 14-4 record for the top independent program. They bounced around early-season tournaments in Arizona and Texas earning wins over Arizona, Baylor, and Houston, losses to Southern Miss and Alabama, and a split with Michigan. Since, they've added a win at Oregon, four-game sweep vs. Xavier, and a road sweep over San Diego, before falling Tuesday vs. Portland
The Beavers and Anteaters have made it a yearly thing playing regular season series in three of the last five years and meeting in a regional in one of the others. All-time, Oregon State has a 9-7 edge in the series including 4-1 over the past two years, but UCI took the lone series in Anteater Ballpark in 2021 with all three games decided in the final at-bat.
The offense is hitting .255 with a deep lineup that's hard to strikeout. Jacob Galloway leads the way hitting .338 with 22 hits and seven doubles. He's also struckout just three times and are joined by Easton Talt (13 BB, 10 K) and AJ Singer (12 BB, 8 K) who have walked more than struck out. Talt also tops the squad with 15 runs and 16 RBI with other notable hitters that including Bryce Hubbard (.321, 4 HR, 13 RBI) and Jacob Krieg 4 HR, 12 RBI)
Pitching is typically the Oregon State standard and is once again posting a 3.37 ERA along with 12.6 strikeouts per game. Dax Whitney is a top prospect wielding a 0.92 ERA in five starts including 54 strikeouts over 29.1 innings. Seven others sport an sub-4.00 ERA over 5+ appearances, notably starter Eric Segura (1.59, 22.2 IP, 26 K) and closer Albert Roblez (6 Sv, 7.1 IP, 14 K)

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