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Baseball:
No. 1 UC Irvine Wins Series Over Cal State Northridge
May 2, 2009 IRVINE, Calif. --- Top-ranked UC Irvine captured its fifth Big West Conference series, defeating Cal State Northridge 12-7 Saturday at Anteater Ballpark. UCI improved to 13-1 in conference play and 33-11 overall while the Matadors dropped to 18-28 (4-13) overall. The Anteaters, who have won 14 of their last 16 games, scored double-digit runs for the 11th time this season and set a single-game record with four triples. Catcher Francis Larson led the team, going 3 for 4 with four runs scored and was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle. Ben Orloff belted his first career triple and tied a personal-high with team-high three RBI. Casey Stevenson drove in two runs on 2 for 3 hitting while Dillon Bell also recorded two RBI and two runs scored. Starter Christian Bergman picked up the win (8-1) after pitching 6.2 innings and striking out six. The junior allowed four runs (three earned) on 10 hits and walked just one. Matt Dufour added 1.1 innings of scoreless relief. Nine Anteater batters came to the plate in the bottom of the second to chase starter Justen Gorski from the game. UCI belted two doubles and two triples to highlight the frame and take a 5-0 lead. The team then put together a two-out rally in the third as Bell doubled in two runs and Cory Olson tripled to left to score Bell. Olson would cross the plate on an error as the Anteaters claimed a 9-0 advantage.
Following a single run in the fourth by UCI (10-0), Cal State Northridge got on the board with three runs in the fifth on a Tommy Simis double and a run-scoring hit by Jason Dabbs. UCI plated a run in the fifth and Ryan Fisher's sacrifice fly in the sixth to capitalize on Larson's triple capped the scoring for the Anteaters at 12-3. The Matadors struck again in the seventh as first baseman Richard Cates singled off Bergman to bring in a run, prompting UCI to hand the ball off to senior Matt Dufour, who struck out Ryan Pineda to end the inning. Dufour faced the minimum in the eighth, giving up a one-out single to designated hitter Brian Slover but then got out of the inning on a double-play grounder to third. CSUN tacked on three runs in the ninth as Cates and Pineda delivered RBI hits but freshman Matt Summers struck out catcher John Parham to end the game. The series concludes Sunday at 1:00 p.m. |
