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Baseball:
No. 5 UC Irvine Opens Series With 7-2 Win Over UC Riverside
April 18, 2008 IRVINE, Calif. --- All-American pitcher Scott Gorgen struck out a career-high 14 batters as No. 5 UC Irvine defeated UC Riverside 7-2 Friday in a Big West Conference game at Anteater Ballpark. The win lifted the Anteaters to 24-7 overall and 6-4 in the Big West while the Highlanders dropped to 9-23 overall and 3-4 in league action. Gorgen recorded nine of his strikeouts in the first four innings, including striking out the side in the second. Gorgen picked up his seventh win (7-2) of the season and yielded just two runs on three hits while walking two in the effort. UCI scored early, pushing across single runs in the first three innings and scoring three in the fourth. The Anteaters capped the scoring with a run in the bottom of the fifth on a squeeze play off the bat of catcher Aaron Lowenstein to plate Casey Stevenson. The Anteaters were led by Ben Orloff, who was 3 for 3 with an RBI double and Francis Larson, who went 3 for 4 at the plate with two RBI. Six of nine Anteater batters registered a run batted in with Stevenson's RBI groundout, proving to be the eventual game-winning run in the UCI third.
UC Riverside marred Gorgen's shutout effort in the top of the fifth as Ben Price doubled to left to score Ryan Goetz, who had led off the inning with a double and Brandon Schnebly, who was hit by the pitch. However, Gorgen did not allow another hit, retiring the side in order in the sixth and walking one in the seventh before giving way to Tom Calahan in the eighth. Calahan walked one in a scoreless inning of relief and Kyle Necke ended the game with a perfect ninth.
Highlander starter Stephen Penney was chased after 3.2 innings and fell to 0-5 after surrendering six runs on eight hits. |
