UCI Baseball notched another home victory against the University of Louisiana, winning 7-4 on Feb. 28 at Anteater Ballpark.
After an 8-4 win on Feb. 26 against Utah Tech, Irvine sent redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Danny Suarez to the mound. He got two quick outs in the top of the first before Louisiana sophomore infielder Drew Markle homered to left field for the first run of the game. Suarez struck out the next batter to end the inning, but Irvine still found itself in a deficit before its first at-bat of the night.
Sophomore left-handed pitcher Chase Morgan started for Louisiana, entering the game with a 2.00 ERA in two appearances. However, in his first two batters against Irvine, he allowed as many earned runs as he did in those previous two outings. A leadoff walk set up UCI junior infielder Colin Yeaman, who ran a full count before homering to left field, to retake the lead for Irvine.
Both starters allowed runs in the first but locked in for the second inning as Morgan and Suarez each struck out the side. Heading into the third, Suarez ran into some trouble. A one-out walk was interrupted by a messy bunt play, where Louisiana sophomore outfielder Maddox Mandino advanced on a bunt attempt but was caught trying to reach third, placing a new runner at first for Markle.
Already with a homer on the night, Markle got Suarez again with a triple to left-center. The tying run scored, and Suarez secured the last out of the third. UCI, however, had no response against Morgan, who had a 1-2-3 inning and sent a tie game into the fourth.
Suarez, who had six strikeouts through three innings, continued to miss bats by striking out three more in the top of the fourth, bringing his game total to nine strikeouts.
Three straight one-out hits in the bottom of the fourth ambushed Morgan, who had seemed to settle in before UCI junior outfielder Rowan Felsch doubled down the left-field line with runners on first and second. That brought in the go-ahead run before Morgan ended the inning on two more strikeouts.
Through four innings, Suarez displayed great ability to generate whiffs and throw strikes, but he also ran up his pitch count on the way there. He walked the leadoff batter in the fifth before striking out the next three, ending his outing with 12 strikeouts and 93 pitches in five innings.
The score remained unchanged until the bottom of the sixth, when Irvine senior outfielder Chase Call homered to right field to extend UCI’s lead to 4-2. The ‘Eaters loaded the bases after the home run, but a double play ended a possible rally.
A leadoff walk in the top of the eighth prompted Irvine’s second pitching change of the game, bringing in sophomore left-handed pitcher Ricky Ojeda. He struck out the first batter he faced, but a single back to the mound put two runners on.
Another strikeout put Ojeda in a much better position to escape the inning, but a double-steal play allowed Louisiana freshman infielder Trip Dobson to slap a game-tying base hit to right field, resetting the game at 4-4 heading into the ninth.
Wasting no time, Irvine went straight to work in the bottom of the eighth. Felsch reached on a leadoff walk, and two hit-by-pitches loaded the bases with one out for redshirt senior infielder Will Bermudez. Aftering racking up a 2-2 count, Bermudez singled to center field, scoring the go-ahead runs.
Irvine hitters stayed on their toes throughout the bottom of the eighth. Especially after the third hit-by-pitch of the inning, they came with the bases loaded and brought in another run to set the score at 7-4.
UCI redshirt junior catcher Zach Crandall, an infielder with a .429 season batting average, took the mound in the ninth to face the top of Louisiana’s lineup. He allowed a one-out single but induced a double play to end the game and record the save.
Notable contributions came from the UCI pitching staff in this game, racking up 17 total strikeouts in eight innings — one of its highest totals of the season.
Irvine faced Louisiana again on March 1 and defeated them 9-6. They played again on March 2 at Anteater Ballpark, and won 12-5 to sweep the weekend series.
Avery Rosas is a Sports Staff Writer. He can be reached at rosasaj1@uci.edu.
Edited by Benjamin Flores and Jaheem Conley.