Anteaters answer with 7-1 win over No. 10 Long Beach St.

UC Irvine dusted off its 9-4 loss to No. 10 Long Beach State Friday

and came back with a resounding 7-1 victory to tie a Big West

Conference baseball series in front of 733 at Anteater Ballpark

Saturday .

Sophomore pitcher Brett Smith stepped up with a brilliant

performance and was backed up by an effective offense that collected

11 hits, and a four-run fourth inning that put the Anteaters in

control. Smith struck out five, scattered six hits and allowed one

run in eight innings. Smith improved to 7-1 on the season.

Second baseman Matt Fisher led the Anteater offense with a 3-for-4

performance, while designated hitter Greg Wallis produced two RBIs.

UCI improved to 15-21, 3-2 in the Big West, while the “Dirtbags,”

ranked No. 10 by Baseball America, dropped to 22-12, 3-2.

The Big West rubber game starts today at 1 p.m., with Paul French

on the mound for UCI and Cesar Ramos pitching for Long Beach.

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Big West Conference

UC Irvine 7, Long Beach St. 1

Score by Innings

L. Beach 000 001 000 -- 1 6 2

UC Irvine 000 400 30x -- 7 11 2

Weaver, Baumback (6), Andrade (7), Paz

(8) and Jennings; Smith, Nicoll (9). W

-- Smith, 7-1. L -- Weaver, 7-3. 2B --

Davis (LB). 3B -- Klemm (UCI) Wagner

(UCI)

*--*