HONOLULU, Hawai'i --- UC Irvine baseball finishes the weekend at Les Murakami Stadium on a high note with a 5-1 victory over Hawai'i

• Like the rest of the weekend, the hosts got things started with a run in the second inning driving in a leadoff walk with a two-out, two-strike single, 1-0
• The Anteaters got right to work in the third inning with two walks and a double to start and quickly tie the game, 1-1
  • Frankie Carney lifted a sacrifice fly to take a 2-1 lead
  • UCI loaded the bases back up with two outs and put a third run across on a Landon Gaz hit by pitch
• The offense continued to steadily add runs to their lead
  • Daniel Polasek singled Noah Alvarez home after a leadoff double to go up 4-1 in the fourth
  • Polasek scored in the sixth leading off with a single and Zach Doyle bringing him home, 5-1
• The pitching did a lot of the heavy lifting on Sunday beginning with Jack Ross who drew the start
  • He allowed the Hawai'i run in the second, but held things firm with one strikeout in his outing
  • Ricky Ojeda entered in the third and threw lights-out baseball for four innings
    • He did not allow a hit and danced around three walks while striking out five
  • Danny Suarez closed things out for the final three innings earning his second save
    • Suarez struck out one in three scoreless innings and got some great help from his defense
      • Zach Fjelstad made a diving backhand for the final out of the eighth
      • Earlier in the inning, Fjelstad and Noah Alvarez teamed up for a fantastic double play after a bunt single to lead off the inning
      • Frankie Carney made a big-time play in the ninth in foul territory down the right field line

UC Irvine 5, Hawai'i 1

• The win keeps UCI in sixth place in the Big West standings at 7-8; they're four games back of the conference leaders, UC San Diego, and one-half game back of fifth place CSUN
• Daniel Polasek guided the offense with three of the eight hits in his first game in the leadoff spot
  • He also drove in two and scored twice
  • Zach Doyle reached four times in the game that included a hit, an RBI, and two steals
  • Noah Alvarez reached three times scoring on two of those and doubling for his lone hit
• Back in the win column was Ricky Ojeda improving to 2-3 and collecting his 21st career win
• Tommy Farmer also made a brief appearance on defense for the final two innings after missing since March 28 with injury

Postgame Thoughts from head coach Ben Orloff
"Today was the good performance by us. We didn't know how the weather would work coming into the game. That changed a little bit how aggressive we were going to be with the bullpen. This was a good version of us tonight - we pitched it good, we were really good out of the bullpen, we made all the plays and some great ones. We did a good job handling the strike zone, got some big hits, Polasek had a great game, Doyle had a great two-strike hit, tonight was a good version of us."

"When you win on Sunday you feel great. The reality is coming here and winning is hard. These guys have a good pitching staff, their numbers show that. To leave here 1-2 is not the goal, but this sets us back a lot less than going 0-3 would. To play how we did today, to win, to win on a travel day, you feel pretty good overall."