No. 1 UC Irvine Clinches Big West Championship With Win Over UC Davis
May 15, 2009
IRVINE, Calif. --- Junior Daniel Bibona pitched his first career complete-game as top-ranked UC Irvine clinched the program's first-ever Big West Conference championship with a 9-3 win over UC Davis Friday at Anteater Ballpark. The victory lifted the Anteaters to 18-1 in the Big West and 38-12 overall.
Bibona held the Aggies (10-38, 3-16) to three runs on five hits while striking out five to climb to 10-1 on the season. It was the first time since March 6 against Alabama-Birmingham that Bibona had allowed three earned runs in a single game.
The UCI offense gave its ace plenty of run support as Casey Stevenson hit his first career grand slam for the Anteaters in the bottom of the first. UC Davis starter Scott Chew sandwiched a hit batsman with a pair of walks to load the bases with one out for Stevenson, who jumped on a 1-1 pitch for his second home run of the year. Jeff Cusick followed with a solo shot over the left-field fence as UCI hit back-to-back round-trippers for the third time this season and took a 5-0 lead.
UC Davis got on the board in the second on an RBI single to score Ryan Scoma, who had walked and advanced to third on a wild pitch and throwing error by UCI.
The Anteaters added a run in their half of the inning, capitalizing on a double to left by Ben Orloff, who scored on Tommy Reyes' groundout to the pitcher.
Eric Deragisch drove in a run for UCI in the fifth with a sacrifice fly and the team then tacked on two runs on Cory Olson's two-run home run to left to give the Anteaters a 9-2 lead.
Stevenson led UCI with four RBI while Olson added two runs batted in on 1 for 4 hitting. Orloff was 3 for 3 with three runs scored.
Chew fell to 1-7 with the loss after giving up nine runs on eight hits in six innings. Justin Shafer drove in two runs, batting 2 for 4 while Kyle Mihaylo also recorded two hits in the outing.
The series continues Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
