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Samantha Tran

UC Irvine Finishes Homestand vs. San Diego, Flies to Hawai'i

| By: Alex Roberts-Croteau

MIDWEEK

UC Irvine Anteaters (14-17, 6-6 Big West) vs. San Diego Toreros (12-17, 5-4 WCC)
Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3,408) - Irvine, Calif.
Tuesday - 6:00 PM | ESPN+ | KUCI | Live Stats

ROAD SERIES

UC Irvine Anteaters (14-17, 6-6 Big West) at Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors (16-13, 6-9 Big West)
Les Murakami Stadium (4,312) - Honolulu, Hawai'i
Friday - 9:35 PM | ESPN+ | Live Stats
Saturday - 9:35 PM | ESPN+ | Live Stats
Sunday - 4:05 PM | Live Stats

Game Notes

PITCHING PROBABLES
Tuesday: UCI LHP Ryder Brooks vs. USD LHP Logan Piper
Friday: UCI RHP Trevor Hansen vs. UH RHP Isaiah Magdaleno
Saturday: UCI RHP Finnegan Wall vs. UH RHP Hekili Robello
Sunday: UCI TBD vs. UH TBD

Coming Up This Week
  • Tuesday's matchup is the first vs. San Diego this season and 119th all-time against them. UCI has won the last eight meetings. Anteater alum Mitch Holland is an assistant coach for the Toreros
  • The weekend sees UCI travel to Hawai'i for the final time as a Big West rival.
Storylines
  • The Anteaters have won five straight Big West games and jump back into the middle of the Big West standings with a 6-6 record
  • The offense hit .295 as a team and .323 in the weekend series sweep of UC Davis alone 
  • Auggie Gutierrez was the team's hitting leader batting .429 with two RBIs
  • Rowan Felsch had three hits, all coming in the series, all for extra bases, and led with four RBIs
  • Noah Alvarez was the team's on-base leader at .538 with four hits, a triple, and three RBIs
  • Frankie Carney had seven hits and two steals to lead the team last week
  • Daniel Polasek made his return since an injury on opening day in his first at-bat. He recorded his first two collegiate hits and scored a run
  • Zach Doyle provided a punch with two extra-base hits for his four hits, three RBIs, and reached nine times on the weekend
  • Pitching saw five total pitchers face UC Davis, each giving up one earned run
  • Trevor Hansen pitched into the ninth for the third time in his career, produced his 19th career quality start, and struck out nine 
  • Jack Ross made his first weekend start since March 2025 allowing four baserunners in a win
  • Finnegan Wall continued his impressive trend with a second straight quality start
  • Danny Suarez made his closer debut picking up his first save Thursday and closing out Saturday. His scoreless streak ended at 17.1 IP
  • Ricky Ojeda returned to the bullpen picking up his fourth career save with four innings Friday

SCOUTING THE BRUINS
  • San Diego comes into the week fresh off a home sweep of Santa Clara. Their season has followed a similar path to UCI's starting 7-2 with wins against schools like Charlotte twice, Creighton, and Michigan. Then they lost 10 straight and went 2-14 in the month of March being swept at California, vs. Oregon State, and series losses vs. Gonzaga and at Pepperdine.
  • The Toreros and 'Eaters meet for the 119th all-time meeting with UCI ahead, 67-50-1, and 32-25-1 in Anteater Ballpark. The 'Eaters have won the last eight in the series, the last six in Anteater Ballpark, and last lost at home in nine innings back in 2014.
  • The offense is hitting .253 as we pass the halfway point of the season. Among the other WCC schools, USD is near the top in on-base and slugging with their 28 home runs and 122 walks, and 46 steals make them one of the best on the West Coast. Catcher Jayden Lobliner paces the club with top makes in average, hits, doubles, and 7 HR and 27 RBI. The lineup has some depth to it with three players each collecting three steals, three others with five home runs each, and a few doing each like CJ Moran (.283, 5 HR, 22 RBI, 8 SB) and Stanford grad transfer Gabe Springer (.283, 33 R, 5 HR, 8 SB, 20 HBP)
  • Pitching has an ERA of 6.62 with 130 walks to 240 strikeouts and 41 home runs allowed. Much like the offense, they've been powered by transfers from Division I schools with 15 in all and eight graduate transfers. Some of the arms that have seen some innings include Hayden Cody from CSUN (14 G, 1-1, 1 save, 3.63, 22.1 IP), Nate DeSchryver from NJIT (14 G, 3-2, 5.64, 22.1 IP), and Kyle Bade from Oklahoma State (9 G, 7 GS, 1-3, 9.00, 25 IP). Seven different pitchers have a start, five have multiples, and four have a save on a staff allowing a .282 average to opposing hitters
SCOUTING THE RAINBOW WARRIORS
  • Hawai'i is back at home where they're 12-8 this season contributing to their 16-13 overall record. They've taken home series vs. Gonzaga, Ball State, and Cal State Fullerton while splitting with Wichita State and dropping all three to Cal Poly. On the road, they've dropping two of three at Long Beach State, won two of three at UC Santa Barbara, and last weekend dropped two of three at UC San Diego
  • The Rainbow Warriors and 'Eaters play for the final time at Big West foes this weekend before they head to the Mountain West. UCI has a 44-14 series lead all-time with wins in eight straight. At Les Murakami Stadium, the Anteaters have won the last four series including a sweep back in 2024. Last year's series was headlined by back-to-back complete game shutouts by Trevor Hansen and Ryder Brooks to complete the sweep in Anteater Ballpark.
  • The offense is just behind the Anteaters with a .237 average as a team while scoring about as many runs a game as the 'Eaters while hitting one less home run than UCI. Ben Zeigler-Namoa returns to lead the squad with his .301 average, three home runs, and 18 RBIs. He's got help from Elijah Ickes (.290, 16 R), Jake Redding (7 2B, 15 RBI), and other veterans like Tate Shimao (.289, 19 R, 14 RBI) and Kamana Hahaku (.410 OBP, 11 SB).
  • Pitching has been a huge strength for the Rainbow Warriors with a 3.34 team ERA and opponents hitting just .223. The starting duo of Isaiah Magdaleno (4-2, 2.61, 51.2 IP, 61 K) and Hekili Robello (5-2, 3.33, 46 IP, 8 BB, 47 K) get things going for UH. Closer John Alkire II (1-2, 4 Sv) has been human lately but has been tough on his home mound. The pitching depth has made it tough in the late innings with arms like Tsubasa Tomii (16 G, 1-0, 1.00, 18 IP, 17 K), Grant Garman (12 G, 1-0, 3.63, 17.1 IP, 24 K), and the likes of Brody Martin-Grudzielanek (3.97, 22.2 IP, 20 K) and Liam O'Brien (4.08, 28.2 IP, 26 K) that will definitely factor into the weekend. The Bows also tout 1 of the top 3 defenses in the Big West along with the Anteaters statistically.
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