UCI earns second home victory, 3-1

The UC Irvine baseball team scored two runs in the bottom of the

third and a run on a throwing error in the sixth to defeat UNLV, 3-1,

Tuesday at Anteater Ballpark.

UCI, which has lost sophomores Matt Anderson, R.J. Brown and Jaime

Martinez to season-ending injuries, won its second home game of the

season.

The Rebels got on the board in the top of the second with an RBI

single by Robert Vankirk to score Fernando Valenzuela, but UCI

answered with two runs in its half of the third on run-scoring hits

by Danny Miramontes and Mark Wagner.

UNLV threatened in the top of the fifth with runners on second and

third, but Kris Krise entered in relief for starter Chris Nicoll and

got Eric Nielsen and Patrick Dobson to fly out. UCI got out of the

inning on a failed steal attempt by Andrew D’Angelo. Krise pitched

two innings of no-hit, one-walk relief to earn the win and improve to

2-1 on the season.

Reliever Paul French earned his first save of the season after

shutting out UNLV over three innings and striking out three.

UNLV starter Robbie Van fell to 2-2 on the season after allowing

three runs on three hits while striking out five in six innings of

work. With the loss, UNLV falls to 13-7 while the Anteaters improve

to 7-12.

UCI starter Chris Nicoll threw four innings, giving up a run on

five hits while striking out three to get no decision.

The Anteaters will travel to Pepperdine Wednesday for a 2 p.m.

game.

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Nonconference

UCI 3, UNLV 1

Score by Innings

UNLV 010 000 000 -- 1 5 1

UCI 002 001 00x -- 3 5 1

Van, Thompson and Vankirk; Nicoll, Krise

(5), French (7) and Wagner. W -- Krise,

2-1. L -- Van, 2-2. Sv -- French (1). 2B

-- Miramontes (UCI)

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