|
Baseball:
No. 3 UC Irvine Scores Early, Hangs on to Win Series Against UC Riverside
April 18, 2009 RIVERSIDE, Calif. --- Third-ranked UC Irvine jumped on the board with six runs in the first and then watched a six-run lead trimmed to three but went on to win the series against UC Riverside with a 9-6 decision Saturday at Riverside Sports Complex. The Anteaters climbed to 10-1 in the Big West (25-10 overall) while the Highlanders fell to 20-12 (2-6 Big West) overall. Casey Stevenson drove in three runs while going 3 for 5 while Tommy Reyes, DJ Crumlich and Ryan Fisher each posted two hits and an RBI. Eric Deragisch also had two hits and scored twice while Ben Orloff and Jeff Cusick drove in a run apiece. Starter Christian Bergman improved to 6-1 after pitching 5.2 innings. Bergman allowed three runs on nine hits and did not walk a batter. Noel Avison and Brock Bardeen combined for 2.1 innings and Eric Pettis logged his 11th save after retiring the side in order in the ninth.
UC Irvine's chased starter UC Riverside starter Matt Andries from the game in the first after mounting a two-out, six-run rally. Back-to-back singles by Deragisch and Francis Larson followed by walk to Reyes loaded the bases Cusick, who drove in the run with a line-drive single. Stevenson then hit an 0-2 pitch from to the right-field wall to clear the bases and would come around to score on a Crumlich single. Fisher capped the scoring in the inning with a run-scoring hit to right-center.
Trailing 7-0, the Highlanders jumped on the board in the bottom of the second as Robert Brantley doubled to lead off the inning and scored on a fielder's choice. Joey Gonzales' two-out double would cut the lead to 7-2. UC Riverside trimmed the lead to 7-3 on Hur's second double of the game, this time an RBI hit to score Carl Uhl, who singled and stole second to lead off the frame. However, the Anteaters answered with two runs in the sixth as Orloff capitalized on Fisher's leadoff triple with a run-scoring single through the right side. Ronnie Shaeffer's sacrifice fly to center plated Orloff for the 9-3 advantage. The Highlanders battled, putting together a two-out rally in the eighth. Bryan Horst doubled with two outs and scored on McConkey's RBI single. Tony Nix followed with a single to put runners on first and second and both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Uhl delivered a two-run single to left-center to cut the lead to 9-6. However, that would be all as Bardeen induced a fly-ball out to center to end the threat. Andries fell to 3-2 after allowing six runs on six hits in 2/3 innings. Dustin Emmons pitched 6.1 innings and gave up three runs on seven hits. Uhl led the team, going 2 for 5 with two RBI. The series concludes Sunday at 2:00 p.m. |
