UCI feels right at home

LINCOLN, Neb. — UC Irvine junior outfielder Ollie Linton has the Anteaters’ best seat in the house this weekend.

Staring in from his perch in center field, his eyes drift occasionally into the vast expanse of stadium seats occupied by an overwhelming majority of red-clad Nebraska fans who, unknowingly, inspire both Linton and his teammates.

“We feed off of that energy,” Linton said of the thousands of fans his team has largely silenced the last few seasons in postseason road settings at the 2007 Round Rock Regional, hosted by Texas, the 2007 Super Regional at Wichita State and now the Lincoln, Neb. Regional at the Cornhuskers’ Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.

UCI is now 7-0 in those games.

“This team won’t quit and we won’t die,” Linton said. “We love having the crowd. Even when the crowd is against us, we turn that around to work for us. We just love it. We come to play.”

With such motivational enhancement, Linton’s solo home run with one out in the fifth inning propelled the Anteaters (40-16) to a 3-2 victory over Nebraska in the winner’s bracket game. UCI now has two chances to earn the one win that would send it on to a Super Regional, which would likely be at LSU.

UCI junior shortstop Ben Orloff, another returning starter from last year’s College World Series squad, echoed Linton’s enthusiasm for playing in front of large crowds rooting for their host teams.

“It’s really awesome being out here,” said Orloff, who doubled and scored to pull the Anteaters even, 2-2, in the third inning. “Like some of the guys were saying ‘This is college baseball.’ With this atmosphere, and playing a real quality team like Nebraska (41-15-1) … that’s just a well-played game.”

 UCI Coach Mike Gillespie joked about Linton, the speedy leadoff man, hitting his fourth home run of the season to win a game. But he got serious about Linton’s power potential as well.

“He has strength. He’s not frail,” Gillespie said of the 5-foot-8, 160-pound center fielder, who owns school single-season and career stolen base record (37 and 68, respectively). “Even though the stats may suggest that he hasn’t hit a lot of home runs [now five in 513 at-bats, including one inside-the-park homer in 2005], he has and does drive the ball. So, to suggest that we’d all be shocked that he hit the ball out of the park would not be accurate. Nobody was in awe that he hit it out, because, if you watch him day-in and day-out and you see all his skills, and his ability to go foul line to foul line, you wouldn’t be astonished, and we weren’t.”

 With Saturday’s win, UCI improved to 9-1 in one-run decisions this year. The Anteaters are also 35-0 this season when leading after seven innings and 37-0 when leading after eight.

 UCI’s win also dropped Nebraska’s record at Haymarket Park this season to 29-4-1. With the combined four-hit performance by starter Daniel Bibona and closer Eric Pettis, it was the first time Nebraska had been held to two or fewer runs at Haymarket Park.

 The 8,646 in attendance Saturday, all but about 150 in the UCI rooting section wearing scarlet and cream, was the second-largest regional crowd in the stadium’s seven seasons.

 It was Nebraska starting pitcher Johnny Dorn’s second complete game this season, but he has taken the loss both times. Saturday was the second straight complete game in NCAA Tournament play for Dorn, who gave up a career-high 11 hits in his 58th career start. He had never allowed more than nine before Saturday.

 Much is made of the Anteaters unique nickname, but Saturday’s matchup featured the Anteaters against a Nebraska team that, but for a sportswriter intervention, may still be called the Bugeaters.

The Nebraska football team was known as the Bugeaters from 1982-1900, before Lincoln sportswriter Charles S. “Cy” Sherman, after the Bugeaters’ first losing season in eight years, suggested Cornhuskers, which caught on and has been used ever since.

Bugeater souvenir T-shirts and hats are still sold by Nebraska fan shops and some Cornhusker fans maintain they are a part of their own ’Eater Nation.

 While UCI ace Scott Gorgen saw the team on which his twin brother Matt played, Cal, eliminated with a 9-2 regional loss to host Long Beach State Saturday, the Orloff family is still all smiles.

Matt Orloff, a senior infielder at Simi Valley High bound for Cal State Fullerton, helped Simi Valley win the CIF Southern Section Division I title with a 4-1 championship-game win over Long Beach Wilson at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

Matt, father Mike, mom Karen and sister Sarah missed UCI’s Friday win over Oral Roberts while attending Matt’s game.

They then took a red-eye flight Friday night-Saturday morning and were on hand Saturday at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.

Matt’s CIF title ties him with Ben, who was on the 2004 Simi Valley CIF Championship squad.

 Should UCI face Oral Roberts today, chances are the ’Eaters would not hit against Golden Eagles senior Carlos Luna, who improved to 13-0 Saturday and is tied for the national lead in wins.

Luna pitched 4 1/3 innings of relief in ORU’s 8-7 win in 10 innings to eliminate Eastern Illinois Saturday.

Oral Roberts weekend starter Jerry Sullivan started in the victory and threw 4 2/3 innings.