College baseball: UCI edges Santa Barbara, 3-2

ANTEATER BALLPARK - UC Irvine shortstop B.J. Eucce singled home the

go-ahead run in the sixth inning and Anteater starter Brett Smith

recorded his third win of the season with seven solid innings Saturday

night as host UCI defeated UC Santa Barbara, 3-2, in a Big West

Conference baseball game.

Irvine committed four errors but managed to hold off the Gauchos

(14-19, 1-4 in the Big West), who never led and were kept in check

offensively with three hits.

Smith struck out eight and walked three, while yielding only two hits

and two unearned runs as UCI improved to 21-15, 4-1. Anteater reliever

Michael Koehler earned his club-leading sixth save with two shutout

innings.

UC Irvine right fielder Chris Klemm scored Jordan Szabo in the first

inning and Matt Anderson in the third as the hosts built a 2-0 edge.

UC Santa Barbara answered with a run in the fourth on Josh McCanne’s

RBI triple, scoring Chris Malec, and a run in the fifth to tie it when an

Irvine error allowed Matt Wilkerson to cross the plate.

In the sixth, Eucce’s single up the middle scored Jon Horwitz, the UCI

center fielder.

Horwitz went 1 for 2 to extend his hitting streak to 14 games.

The Anteaters conclude their three-game series against Santa Barbara

today at 1 p.m.

BIG WEST CONFERENCE

UC Irvine 3, UC Santa Barbara 2

Score by Innings

UC Santa Barbara 000 110 000 - 2 3 0

UC Irvine 101 001 00x - 3 9 4 Thompson, Sugarman (7), Miller (7) and Vogt; Smith, Koehler (8) and

Miller. W - Smith, 3-0. L - Thompson, 2-1. Sv - Koehler, 6. 2B - Miller

(UCI). 3B - McCanne (UCSB).