For the second game in a row against UC San Diego (24-20, 13-10), No. 13 UC Irvine Baseball (33-11, 19-4) suffered a frustrating loss. A 4-0 shutout loss at Anteater Ballpark on May 3 followed a 19-4 loss the day prior.
San Diego sophomore shortstop Anthony Potestio led off the game with a base hit to right off of Irvine sophomore right-handed pitcher Trevor Hansen, who tossed 7.2 scoreless innings in his last outing against Cal Poly.
Another hit put runners on first and second with no outs in the first, but Hansen got a flyout to record his first out. On his first pitch to redshirt senior first baseman Colton Lomanto, a grounder to third turned into an inning-ending double play and sent UCI to the plate for the first time.
Jumping all over redshirt senior right-handed pitcher Nic Gregson, Irvine redshirt sophomore right fielder Frankie Carney tripled to center field with no outs. However, with offensive issues dating back to the previous day, UCI got no runs across in the inning. San Diego’s pulled-in infield recorded the first out at home on a grounder to third before a double play ended the inning scoreless.
Hansen and Gregson went scoreless through the next two innings until the top of the fourth, where San Diego walked and doubled to score the first run of the game. A strikeout ended the fourth for Hansen, but Irvine was now in a deficit.
With the Anteaters failing to score once again, Potestio tripled in the top of the fifth with one out. Poor defense caused issues for Irvine all weekend, epitomized by a passed ball during San Diego sophomore center fielder Michael Crossland’s fifth-inning at-bat that scored Potestio. Crossland reached on an error at third base almost immediately after, and the inning ended with Irvine down 2-0.
A leadoff single by UCI senior catcher Blake Penso created hope of a mounting comeback, especially after a two-out walk put the tying run on base. Instead, a popout to shortstop ended the inning scoreless once again.
To put salt in Irvine’s wound, San Diego singled twice to start the top of the sixth, putting runners on first and third. A flyout to right field, which recorded the first out of the inning, also scored the third run of the game against Hansen. Another single prompted a pitching change from head coach Ben Orloff, opting for sophomore left-handed pitcher Ricky Ojeda instead. Ojeda struck out his first hitter on three pitches before inducing a two-pitch flyout to center, showing a rare sign of pitching efficiency from Irvine’s staff across the past two afternoons.
Gregson got a quick first out in the bottom of the sixth before two straight baserunners, ending his night after 5 ⅓ scoreless innings. San Diego junior left-handed pitcher Spencer Seid entered in relief, and after junior designated hitter Anthony Martinez popped up behind first, Penso struck out on a high fastball to end yet another threatening inning.
Both teams went scoreless the next two innings, trading threats but relinquishing them all the same. Once the top of the ninth rolled around, Irvine senior right-handed pitcher David Butler allowed two straight baserunners — a double and a walk — before a flyout to center seemed to be an inconspicuous first out of the inning; instead, the relay throw to third base escaped both the third baseman and the pitcher backing him up. The ball reached Irvine’s dugout, allowing both runners to advance two bases and increasing San Diego’s lead to 4-0.
Irvine redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Finnegan Wall entered and didn’t allow any extra runs, but the tone of the game left little hope for Irvine’s usually explosive offense in the bottom of the ninth.
For his third and final inning, Seid struck out the side to solidify San Diego’s dominant second win against Irvine over the weekend, giving Hansen his first loss of the season and an almost four-inning save for Seid.
The Anteaters played San Diego once more on Sunday and won 8-4 to take one game in the series; on May 6, they traveled to Riverside, Calif. to face Cal Baptist and won 9-8. UCI will travel upstate to face CSU Bakersfield over the weekend on May 9-11.
Avery Rosas is a Sports Staff Writer. He can be reached at rosasaj1@uci.edu.
Edited by Benjamin Flores