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Baseball:
Casey Stevenson Delivers Walk-off Hit to Lift No. 1 UC Irvine Past UCLA
May 19, 2009 IRVINE, Calif. --- Junior Casey Stevenson drove in the game-winning run in the 10th inning to lift top-ranked UC Irvine to a 5-4 non-conference win over UCLA in front of a season-high 2,726 fans Tuesday at Anteater Ballpark. With the win, the Anteaters climbed to 41-12 overall while UCLA fell to 26-27. The Anteaters trailed 4-3 in the bottom of the 10th after Cody Decker put the Bruins ahead in the top of the inning with his 20th home run of season. However, freshman Tommy Reyes sparked the UCI rally with a one-out double to right and reached third on a groundout to pitcher Gerrit Cole, who was brought in to relieve Gavin Brooks. Ronnie Shaeffer's grounder was mishandled by UCLA and he then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Stevenson jumped on an 0-2 pitch for the game-winning hit. UCI trailed the entire game as UCLA scored three early runs off starter Brock Bardeen. Bardeen struck out four and walked two while allowing three runs on six hits in 3.2 innings. UCLA's Casey Haerther hit a two-out single to right to put the Bruins on the board in the first. The Anteaters tied the score in the second on Jeff Cusick's RBI double. However, UCLA punched a pair of run-scoring singles up the middle in the third to take a 3-1 lead. Eric Deragisch tied the game in the sixth with a two-run shot over the left-field wall off starting pitcher Garett Claypool. Claypool pitched 5.2 innings, striking out three and allowed three runs on four hits in the no-decision.
UCI's Kyle Necke pitched in relief of Bardeen and struck out a career-high eight batters in 4.1 innings, giving up just one hit in the winning effort. Pettis entered in relief in the top of the ninth and retired four straight before yielding the go-ahead home run. Pettis improved to 5-2 after pitching two innings, allowing a run on one hit.
Cusick went 3 for 4 with an RBI to pace the Anteater offense while Deraigsch drove in two runs on 2 for 5 hitting. Reyes also added two hits and scored twice. UC Irvine's match-up against UCLA is the Cox3 "Game of the Week". Air dates and times are as follows for the Orange County area: Thursday (May 21) - 8:30 p.m. Friday (May 22) - 11:00 p.m. Saturday (May 23) - 1:00 p.m./8:00 p.m. Sunday (May 24) - 1:00 p.m./7:00 p.m. Monday (May 25) - 8:00 p.m. The Anteaters travel to UC Santa Barbara to conclude the regular season with a three-game series this weekend (May 22-24). |
