UCI baseball (5-3) started their four-game homestand in dominating fashion against Utah Tech (3-6), winning 8-4 at Anteater Ballpark on Feb. 27.
Irvine redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Finnegan Wall was sent out for his second start of the season coming off Tommy John surgery, an injury that caused him to miss the entire 2024 season. In the top of the first, he allowed a leadoff single before a sharp grounder was handled at third and thrown around the horn to turn a double play. Wall retired the next batter to end the top of the first.
Facing Utah Tech junior right-handed pitcher Jonah Marshall, who struck out the leadoff hitter, UCI junior infielder Colin Yeaman legged out a triple, where a collision with the outfield wall allowed Yeaman to reach third standing up.
The Trailblazers elected to play their infield back, despite having a runner on third with less than one out, allowing Irvine senior outfielder Chase Call to generate the game’s first run on a groundout to short.
Wall retired the first two batters of the second quickly before Utah junior catcher Andrew Pyle doubled past a diving third baseman to keep the inning alive for senior first baseman Aaron Perez, who took a 1-0 fastball to right field for a two-run home run — the Trailblazers led 2-1 in an instant as a result.
Now in a deficit, UCI sophomore infielder Zach Fjelstad stepped into the box with a runner on first and pulled a fly ball to almost the exact same spot that Perez went, with the same result. The two-run home run set the Irvine bench ablaze with energy and started a string of command issues for Marshall.
While control vexed Utah’s starter, hard contact was Wall’s biggest problem. He allowed three hits through his first two innings and three more in the third inning alone. Utah senior outfielder Ethan Royal hit a leadoff single, and with two outs sophomore pitcher/third baseman Ryan Kroepel went dead center for a triple off the wall, tying the game at 3-3. Freshman outfielder Finnegan Stewart ran a full count before hitting a single to center, giving the Trailblazers the lead once again.
Irvine failed to hold a lead for the second straight inning, but they got some help from Utah junior outfielder Levi Randall — who let a single from Call slip under his glove and roll all the way to the left field wall. Call trotted to third on a single and an E7 error, and junior outfielder/first baseman Rowan Felsch tied the game on a sliced line drive past short and into left field.
During the top of the third, redshirt sophomore left-handed pitcher Ryder Brooks and his sidearm-adjacent delivery relieved Wall of the inning. Brooks stayed in for the fourth and went scoreless against the bottom of the lineup to keep the game tied.
Junior right-handed pitcher Dax Newman entered for Utah in relief of Marshall and had similar difficulties throwing strikes. Two walks in the inning threatened an Irvine lead, but Newman got out of it before anything developed for Utah Tech.
The beginning of the end began for the Trailblazers — they had their first 1-2-3 inning of the game against Brooks, who continued pitching into the fifth. The funky-throwing left-hander proved to be an issue for Utah, as they suddenly went 2.1 innings without a hit and one baserunner.
Two quick strikeouts crept up on Irvine in the bottom of the fifth, but Fjelstad produced once again, hitting the second triple of the game for the ‘Eaters. Despite some uncomfortable swings during the at-bat, redshirt sophomore infielder Frankie Carney managed to sneak a ground ball past the second baseman to score the go-ahead run for UCI.
After another scoreless inning from Brooks, Irvine used the bottom of the sixth to finish what they started in the previous inning. A single and two extra baserunners set the table for senior catcher Blake Penso, and he laced a line drive into the left-field corner to score two runs for the Anteaters. Carney lined a ball that was corralled at second and thrown awkwardly to first — a play that was questionably ruled out by the first base umpire. Nevertheless, the sixth inning ended 7-4 ‘Eaters.
Irvine made quick work of Utah in the seventh, setting up his offense to score another run before an uneventful eighth inning and an always-stressful ninth, which belonged to sophomore pitcher Ricky Ojeda. In his previous outing, Ojeda allowed four runs in 1.1 innings — this time, he entered an 8-4 game, retired the side in order with two strikeouts and ended the game for Irvine.
Brooks went four innings of relief with six strikeouts in a standout pitching performance while Fjelstad led the offensive charge, going 3-for-5 with two extra-base hits and two runs batted in.
The second game of Irvine’s homestand was against the University of Louisiana at Lafayette at Anteater Ballpark on Feb. 28, which they won 7-4. Over the weekend, they played Louisiana two more times and won both games, 9-6 and 12-5 respectively.
Avery Rosas is a Sports Staff Writer. He can be reached at rosasaj1@uci.edu.
Edited by Benjamin Flores