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Baseball:
No. 1 UC Irvine Wins Sixth Straight With Victory Over Utah in Series Opener
April 23, 2009 SALT LAKE CITY, UT --- Top-ranked UC Irvine matched a season-high with its sixth consecutive win after recording an 8-3 victory against Utah Thursday at Spring Mobile Ballpark. The win lifted the Anteaters to 29-10 overall while Utah dropped to 14-23. Catcher Francis Larson led the team with three RBI on 1 for 4 hitting while Casey Stevenson and Tommy Reyes combined for four runs with two RBI apiece. Jeff Cusick paced the team with three hits (3 for 4) and a run scored while Eric Deragisch and DJ Crumlich added two hits each. Ben Orloff was 1 for 5, extending his hit streak to a season-best 10 games. Starter Daniel Bibona held Utah to two runs on seven hits while striking out three and walking two in seven innings of work to improve to 7-1 while Brock Bardeen provided a shutout inning in relief in the eighth. Matt Dufour closed out the game in the ninth, allowing a run on two hits. The Anteaters took a three-run lead in the top of the third, loading the bases with one out for Ronnie Shaeffer, who was hit by the pitch to force in a run. Larson then hit a fly ball to right for the sacrifice and Stevenson followed with a single to left to bring in Deragisch. Utah got on the board in the fifth as Tyler Yagi capitalized on Corey Shimada's two-out double with a run-scoring hit to cut into the lead, 3-1.
The UCI lead widened to four runs (5-1) in the top of the sixth as Reyes belted a two-run double to center.
Utah added a run in its half of the sixth as CJ Cron hit a solo home run, his seventh of the season. Larson highlighted a three-run seventh for the Anteaters with a triple off the left-field fence to drive in two runs as UCI took an 8-2 lead. Pinch hitter Kyle Myers singled in the bottom of the ninth to score Jo Jo Sharrar to cap the scoring. Starter Brian Budrow fell to 4-3 after giving up five runs on eight hits in 5.1 innings. The series continues Friday at 5:00 PM (PT). |
