UCI strikes out in extra innings against USD

On a night in which futility mounted in record proportion for both lineups, the UC Irvine baseball team, as it has much of the season, proved to be the most futile on Tuesday … almost excruciatingly so.

Though six UCI pitchers struck out a record 18 San Diego batters, the Anteaters fanned 18 times themselves in a 5-1 nonconference loss that lasted 14 innings and just shy of five hours.

The four hour, 57-minute duel was the longest home game in UCI program history.

UCI (17-29), fell to 0-4 in extra-inning contests and is now 6-24 in its last 30 games. The ’Eaters’ .370 winning percentage with 10 regular-season games remaining, would be the third-worst in program history. Only UCI teams in 1989 (.366) and 1975 (.365 in the NCAA Division II ranks) won less frequently.

UCI, which is now 0-10 when it scored fewer than three runs this season, had just two hits through 8 2/3 innings, before junior first baseman Ryan Fitzpatrick hooked a 3-2 pitch inside the left-field foul pole to erase a 1-0 deficit and force extra innings.

The Toreros (30-16-1), who opened the scoring in the fifth inning, left 17 runners on base, including at least one in each of the final 10 innings, but broke through for four in the 14^th.

San Diego was one for 16 with runners in scoring position before Brhet Bewley bounced a comebacker off the glove of UCI pitcher Kaz Akamatsu that spun past second baseman Cole Kreuter into shallow right field to drive in the go-ahead run.

After a strikeout, Jeff Houghtby doubled in a run and Noah Prewett singled in two to give Akamatsu his second loss in as many decisions.

UCI pitching, which came in with a 5.48 ERA to rank No. 205 in the nation, continued its recent upswing. The Anteaters have now posted a 2.57 ERA in the last four games, a 2.78 mark in the last seven.

But as has been its pattern this season, meshing offense with pitching and defense has proved largely futile for the Big West Conference cellar dweller (tied with UC Riverside at 4-11).

Senior designated hitter Keston Hiura, who came in leading the nation with a .416 batting average, as well as a .558 on-base percentage, went hitless in four at-bats with two strikeouts. He was hit by a pitch and walked once, one of just three walks issued by five USD pitchers, but saw his eight-game hitting streak end.

Freshman Ryan Johnston, who came in with a seven-game hitting streak, was zero for four with two strikeouts before leaving the game for a pinch-hitter in the 10^th inning.

Fitzpatrick continued his recent hot hitting, going two for five, to account for one-third of the hosts’ hits. Fitzpatrick, who opened the season six for 47 for a .128 average that relegated him to the bench for an extended period, has nine hits, four home runs and 10 RBIs in the last six games. He has at least one RBI in each of those six games.

UCI had runners at second and third with two outs in the first inning, before Adam Alcantara flew out.

Alcantara singled and stole second after Fitzpatrick’s fifth dinger of the season in the ninth, but was left holding the bag when Parker Coss flied out.

Kreuter singled to open the UCI 10^th, advanced to second on a groundout and moved to third on a wild pitch. But an attempted squeeze on a 3-2 count produced a strikeout when Alex Guenette bunted foul. After an intentional walk to Evan Cassolato, pinch-hitter Adrian Damla flied out.

With men on first and third and two outs in the 11^th, Kreuter flied to right and, after Christian Koss was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and scooted to third on a wild pitch in the 12^th, Cassolato and Mikey Filia struck out to end the threat.

UCI starter Chris Vargas allowed two hits and struck out a career-best six in a career-long 5 2/3 innings.

Andre Pallante (two strikeouts and one hit allowed in 1 2/3 innings) and Calvin Faucher (three hits and four strikeouts in three scoreless innings) kept UCI in it.

Akamatsu did the same in his first 2 1/3 innings, striking out four. But he walked USD pitcher Jonathan Teaney on four pitches to start the winning rally. It was Teaney’s first at-bat of the season after USD forfeited the DH for defensive purposes.

UCI begins a three-game conference series on Friday at Hawaii.

*

Nonconference

San Diego 5, UC Irvine 1

(14 innngs)

SCORE BY INNINGS

USD 000 010 000 000 04 – 5 12 0

UCI 000 000 001 100 00 – 1 6 0

Barry, Conyers (5), Crow (10), Sprengel (12), Teaney (13) and Schulyer, Adams (12); Vargas, Martin (6), Glazier (7), Pallante (7), Faucher (9), Akamatsu (12) and Guenette. W – Teaney, 3-1. L – Akamatsu, 0-2. 2B – Prewett (USD)2, Garcia (USD), Houghtby (USD). 3B – . HR – Fitzpatrick (UCI).

[email protected]

Twitter: @BarryFaulkner5