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UCI’s junior first baseman Anthony Martinez waits for a pitch from ASU’s sophomore Cole Carlon. (PHOTO: Adam Kunin, For OC Sports Zone).
Despite threatening multiple times late, UC Irvine’s baseball team couldn’t break through to find the game-tying run in a 4-2 loss to Arizona State on Friday night in its opening game at the Los Angeles Regional.
Missed opportunities proved to be the theme of the day for the UCI offense, which failed to cash in with at least two runners in scoring position in three different innings. The defeating blow to the Anteaters’ cause came in the eighth, when UCI grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.
With the loss, the Anteaters will return to Jackie Robinson Stadium to play against Fresno State Saturday at noon in an elimination game.
On the mound, sophomore right-handed pitcher Trevor Hansen turned in a solid performance, conceding three earned runs across his 6 ⅓ innings on the mound. A pair of which came in the second inning, when ASU’s Jacob Tobias and Isaiah Jackson each ripped off home runs two at-bats apart.
“I think just using [pitch] mix more was something that I talked to Dan (Bibona) about,” Hansen said. “They got the two fastballs there. Not terrible pitches.”
The UCI offense managed to find a pair of runs in the second courtesy of an RBI double from sophomore designated hitter Alonso Reyes and an RBI single from redshirt sophomore infielder Frankie Carney.
However, the Anteaters couldn’t find a timely hit the rest of the night, going scoreless for the next seven frames.
One of the lone bright spots for UCI was its ability to preserve its pitching staff for the rest of the weekend. The Anteaters only needed 2 ⅔ innings from Big West pitcher of the year, sophomore left-hander Ricky Ojeda, and saved the rest of its bullpen for a must-win game Saturday.
“We’re fortunate to only use two guys tonight,” Ben Orloff said. “Even Ojeda was able to keep that pitch count reasonably down … It’s kind of all hands on deck to try to live to see Sunday.”
Still, UCI faces a long road ahead, as about 93 percent of past regional winners won their first game of the weekend. Still, Orloff believes his team has a shot at keeping its postseason run alive.
“We know what the stats say about winning the first game of a regional,” Orloff said. “That’s going across every screen in America all day, so we know what those stats mean. But we just saw Cal Poly come out of that loser bracket and win that tournament (Big West) last weekend.”