LONG BEACH, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball put up a 7-1 win Sunday at Blair Field to take the Black & Blue Rivalry Series over the weekend from Long Beach State.
- The scoring began in the second inning with UCI putting five straight runners on base
- An Efren Ortega walk forced home the first run, 1-0
- Zach Doyle shot a single through the infield to plate two more and take a 3-0 lead
- In the third inning, an Auggie Gutierrez single moved Zach Fjelstad to third base. The throw went into the dugout allowing both Fjelstad and Gutierrez to score and go up 5-1
- Finnegan Wall sailed along allowing just a solo home run in the second inning, and aside from a walk and hit by pitch later in that inning did not allow multiple baserunners in any of his seven innings
- UCI continued to plate runs and cushion their lead
- Dylan Hillman mashed a double over the left fielder's head in the fifth for a 6-1 lead
- Hillman then walked in the sixth to force in another RBI and make it a 7-1 game
UC Irvine 7, Long Beach State 1
- Wall secured his second win of the season tossing career highs seven innings and 99 pitches
- Wall added four strikeouts, six total baserunners on five hits, and retired as many as nine in a row at one point
- Jack Ross came in for the final two innings allowing just two hits in shutout ball
- The offense busted out 11 hits with eight of nine players recording one
- Doyle had two RBIs to go with a two-hit game
- Fjelstad and Gutierrez each had two hits and scored two runs as well
- Hillman finished with two RBIs on his one hit
- Ortega had one of each while reaching three times in the game
The 'Eaters improve to 11-16 on the season and 3-6 in Big West play. They now prepare for a formidable week in Anteater Ballpark with No. 1 UCLA coming to town Tuesday night before starting April with three against UC Davis beginning Thursday, April 2
Postgame Thoughts from head coach Ben Orloff
"Today was the winning type of baseball we like. We get a good start out of Finn, we score early, get a big inning and add on. We get their starter out of the game after he had thrown complete games in back-to-back weekends. We earned some walks to get the pitch count up. We played good defense late and Jack Ross was good at the end."
"We try to not think about the big picture too much, but to win like we did last night coming back from down five and four, in extra innings, quick turnaround today, and to play well; that's the best we've play over a nine-inning stretch in a while. You win, and now there's a lot out there for us to get better and continue to improve."
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