UC Irvine Treks to Play Big West Leaders UC San Diego

Friday, April 24

La Jolla, Calif.

6:00 PM

UC Irvine

UC San Diego

Photo by: Matt Brown

UC Irvine Treks to Play Big West Leaders UC San Diego

April 23, 2026 | Baseball

Media Game Notes

By: Alex Roberts-Croteau

THE SERIES

UC Irvine Anteaters (17-21, 8-10 Big West) at UC San Diego Tritons (16-20, 12-6 Big West)
Triton Ballpark (500) - La Jolla, Calif.
Friday - 6:00 PM | ESPN+ | Live Stats
Saturday - 2:00 PM | ESPN+ | Live Stats
Sunday - 1:00 PM | ESPN+ | Live Stats

Game Notes

PITCHING PROBABLES
Friday: UCI RHP Trevor Hansen vs. UCSD RHP Steele Murdock
Saturday: UCI RHP Finnegan Wall vs. UCSD RHP Trevor Rector
Sunday: UCI TBD vs. UCSD RHP Nic Gregson

Coming Up This Week

'Eaters are on the road to UC San Diego for a three-game week taking on the Tritons who are in a three-way tie for first in the Big West
The Big West standings behind the top three teams is congested with UC Irvine currently tied for seventh sitting 1.5 games behind CSUN for the final spot in the Big West Championship field

Storylines

UCI is 6-4 in the month of April with wins over UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, Hawai'i, and USD
Frankie Carney was the team's hitting leader vs. UCSB (.538) and tops the team in April hitting .375 with nine RBIs. He enters the series with a six-game hitting streak and 13 straight on base
Landon Gaz is hitting .364 in the month of April and added three hits and a home run vs. UCSB
Efren Ortega reached base seven times in 12 chances last week with a team-high three runs
Daniel Polasek has returned to full strength and gone 9-for-28 in April with seven RBIs
Tommy Farmer returned from an injury and provided a key three-run triple in UCI's win
Lucas Schermer blasted his first career home run Sunday, the first pinch-hit UCI HR since 2024
Pitching was led by the bullpen which allowed six total runs over 19.1 innings during nine total relief appearances
Ricky Ojeda allowed two baserunners in 5.1 relief innings to win Saturday. He has a 0.68 ERA with two wins and a save in his last three appearances since returning to the bullpen
Danny Suarez continues to excel as a reliever with one walk in 24.1 innings this season and seven total baserunners and a 1.26 Big West ERA
Tyler Foster retired the first 11 hitters he faced keeping the 'Eaters close Friday while picking up a career high five strikeouts
Hunter Manning and Dane Grant each threw scoreless ball vs. UCSB with 4.1 IP between them
Brandon Luu returned from Tommy John April 7 and has retired all six hitters he's faced

SCOUTING THE TRITONS

UC San Diego flew under the radar through much of play prior to Big West season playing a very tough slate like the Tony Gwynn Legacy where they went 1-2, winning one game in a road series at Louisiana, swept in four games at Cincinnati, and dropping two midweek matchups to No. 20 Oregon. They did get a game off No. 1 UCLA in the season's opening week, 1 of just 3 losses UCLA has incurred.
Big West action has shown the Tritons' true colors with a road sweep at CSUN, series win vs. UC Riverside, another road sweep over UC Davis, and then a series win over Hawai'i to get them out to an 10-2 start. Facing the other title contenders UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly got them one win in each series out dueling the Gauchos to open followed by heartbreaking late losses to finish the series, and then the Mustangs controlled their series until UCSD came away with a wild 16-15 win last Sunday. In this week's midweek contest, UCSD went down the road to San Diego and fell there on a walkoff in the 10th inning that has UCSD 16-20 on the season, 4-7 in the month of April, and losers of six games in their last seven
The Tritons and Anteaters play a sixth series as Division I rivals since UCSD joined the Big West in 2021. The 'Eaters won't see them much longer as they head to the WCC for the 2028 season. UCI was 11-0 prior to the Big West matchups mostly coming in the 1970s which gives them a 20-7 all-time edge. Since 2021, neither team has secured a sweep in any season with UCI winning the first three and UC San Diego taking the series the last two seasons making it 9-7 Anteaters during that stretch. Last season, it was all UCSD with a 15-run win Friday night and a Saturday shutout victory before UCI grabbed an 8-4 Sunday victory to salvage the series.
The offense is tricky posting just a .234 batting average, but they hurt the ball scoring 6.1 runs a game with 44 home runs, second in the Big West, a top-four slugging percentage, and topping the league in walks and nearly the same in hit by pitch. They've done a lot more damage in conference play hitting .281 with a Big West-leading 28 home runs along with league highs 144 runs scored and a .415 on-base. The hitting stars getting them to a 12-6 conference record at J.C. Allen hitting .370 with nine doubles and 18 RBIs, Michael Crossland hitting .324 with six home runs, and other notables like Alex Leopard (3 HR, .476 OBP), Gabe Camacho (22 R, 5 HR), and Delshaun Lanier (19 RBI).
Pitching has an overall ERA of 6.65 while winning two-thirds of their conference games with a 5.37 ERA. Two weekend starters have done their part in Steele Murdock (3-1, 4.24, 51 K) which includes a 17-strikeout win at UC Santa Barbara, and Nic Gregson (0-3, 4.40) who has walked just five while being a hard-luck loser at UCSB, but guided the Tritons to a shutout win over UCI a year ago. The other weekend spot has been split by Austin Bowker (2-0, 7.03, 24.1 IP) and Trevor Rector (0-1, 5.40, 5.0 IP) with some powerful bullpen arms like Devon King (3-0, 1 Sv), Julian Cazares (1-1, 2 Sv, 10.1 IP, 3 BB, 14 K), and Jake Villar who no one has been able to solve yet (12.1 IP, 0.00, BB, 12 K)