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Baseball:
No. 5 UC Irvine Handles Northern Colorado
March 22, 2008 TEMPE, Ariz. --- UCI's Jeff Cusick was 5 for 5 at the plate to lead the fifth-ranked Anteaters to a 9-6 win over Northern Colorado at Bobby Winkles Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. With the win, UCI climbed to 16-1 while Northern Colorado dropped to 6-15. Cusick recorded his second triple of the season and a pair of doubles to tie for first with catcher Francis Larson with six apiece. Cusick singled in the first and singled in the sixth to drive in the team's final run of the game. Ryan Fisher recorded two RBI while going 2 for 4 with two runs scored and Ben Orloff and Ollie Linton each added two hits apiece in UCI's 16-hit effort. Anteater starter Bryce Stowell struck out six in 5.1 innings, allowing six runs, all unearned to remain undefeated at 4-0. Christian Bergman struck out two in 1.2 shutout innings and Matt Dufour struck out one and yielded a hit in a 1.1 inning stint. Closer Eric Pettis recorded his fifth save of the season after retiring the final two batters in the ninth. Fisher put UCI on the board in the first with a single through the left side. Orloff then scored from third on a double-play groundball and Brock Bardeen doubled to right-center to plate Fisher for a 3-0 lead.
Northern Colorado answered in its half of the first, scoring a pair of runs on Chad Murray's two-out single. Murray, who had advanced to third on Erik Whinery's single then tried to score on a wild pitch but Larson fired a strike to Stowell, who tagged out Murray at the plate to end the inning.
The Anteaters struck again in the second. Linton rounded the bases without the aid of a hit. After drawing a leadoff walk, Linton stole second and then advanced to third on a throwing error from Whinery. Linton then crossed the plate on a wild pitch from starter T.R. Keating. Orloff followed with a single, reached third on an errant throw by Keating in a pickoff attempt and scored on Cusick's triple. Linton wreaked havoc again in the fourth. After leading off with a single, Linton stole second and third on consecutive pitches and then scored on Orloff's sacrifice fly to right. Cusick extended the inning with a two-out double and crossed the plate on Larson's single to give the team an 8-2 lead. The Bears rallied again, cutting the lead to three in the fifth inning with three runs with Murray's two out, two-run single highlighting the inning. Northern Colorado continued to chip at the lead with a run in the sixth and put runners on first and second with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Pettis entered the game in relief and induced back-to-back fly-ball outs to left to preserve the win. Keating gave up six runs on 10 hits in three innings to fall to 2-2. Murray paced the team with four RBI while going 2 for 4 at the plate. |
