March 27, 2009

Box Score

IRVINE, Calif. --- A strong outing by pitcher Daniel Bibona and key Anteater hits led No. 10 UC Irvine to a 5-2 win over No. 19 Cal Poly Friday at Anteater Ballpark. The win lifted UCI to 14-7 overall and 1-0 in the Big West Conference while Cal Poly fell to 17-5 (0-1) overall.

Bibona held a potent Cal Poly offense to two runs on seven hits while striking out eight and walking one in seven innings of work to improve to 4-1. Junior Eric Pettis struck out one and yielded a hit in two innings to earn his sixth save of the season.

Cal Poly's Bobby Crocker hit a solo home run off Bibona to put the Mustangs on the board in the top of the first and Luke Yoder singled in Wes Dorrell to stake Cal Poly to a 2-0 lead.

UCI trimmed the lead to one in the second on an RBI double by DJ Crumlich to score Eric Deragisch and then took the lead in the third, getting a run on an Cal Poly miscue and an RBI groundout by Francis Larson.

The Anteaters tacked on single runs in the fifth on a run-scoring groundout by Ronnie Shaeffer and in the sixth on Ben Orloff's clutch hit to drive in Larson.

Orloff, Larson and Deragisch each went 2 for 4 to lead the Anteaters.

The Mustangs threatened in he eighth with back-to-back walks to lead off the inning but J.J. Thompson was called out on batter's interference on Larson's attempt to pick off Yoder at second and Pettis induced a double-player grounder to escape the jam.

Cal Poly starter DJ Mauldin fell to 3-2 after giving up five runs (three earned) on eight hits in seven innings.

The series continues Saturday at 1:00 p.m.