‘Eaters’ baseball team earns No. 18 ranking

The UC Irvine baseball team moved into Baseball America’s poll at No.

18 this week as Coach John Savage’s club prepares to host UCLA

tonight at 6 p.m. at Anteater Ballpark.

The Anteaters, 12-3-1 overall, are coming off a three-game sweep

at previously 25th-ranked Baylor. UCI has lost just one of its last

12 games.

Anteater freshman reliever Blair Erickson, who earned a save in

each of the three weekend wins, was named Big West Conference

Co-Pitcher of the Week, along with Long Beach State’s Jared Weaver.

Erickson’s eight saves are a UCI single-season record and he has

yet to blow a save.

Tuesday’s game marks the return of Bruins’ head coach Gary Adams,

who started the UCI baseball program.

Adams was 185-68-5 in five seasons with the Anteaters (1970-74),

including NCAA Division II titles in 1973 and ’74.

Ball return paces CdM win

* TENNIS: Corona del Mar High junior Carsten Ball, in his first

action of the season, combined with senior Brennan Roberts to sweep

at No. 1 doubles, leading the Sea Kings to a 12-6 nonleague home win

over Mater Dei Monday.

Ball, out with a virus, helped the Sea Kings improve to 3-0.

*--*

Nonleague

Corona del Mar 12, Mater Dei 6

Singles -- Miller (CdM) lost to Van’t Hof, 0-6, def. M. Hirsch, 6-0, def. Premoli, 6-1; Reitz (CdM) lost, 1-6, won, 6-0, 6-0; Tat (CdM) lost, 0-6, won, 6-1, 6-4.

Doubles -- Ball-Roberts (CdM) def. Kearney-B. Miles, 6-2, def. Burrows-Lam, 6-1, def. Krueger-C. Miles, 6-0; Caughren-Kroopf (CdM) lost, 1-6, won, 6-4, 6-2; Gingold-Nguyen (CdM) lost, 3-6, 3-6, won, 6-1.

*--*

Sea Kings fall to Esperanza

* BASEBALL: Corona del Mar High senior Barrett Sprowl continued

his hot hitting, but host Esperanza earned a 7-1 baseball victory

Monday in the final pool play game of the Newport Elks tournament.

Sprowl, who started on the mound and played third base, was 2 for

3 with a double and an RBI against the Aztecs (1-2). He is now 8 f or

10 on the season with five doubles.

Despite the loss, CdM (2-1) wins its pool and advances to

Wednesday’s semifinal at Foothill.

Ben Maggard pitched a perfect fifth for CdM.

*--*

Newport Elks tournament

Pool play Esperanza 7, CdM 1

Score by Innings

Corona del Mar 000 010 0 -- 1 3 3

Esperanza 021 301 x -- 7 9 0

Sprowl, Eadington (3), Maggard (5), Folks

(6) and Kelly, Marin-Finn; Daly, Rooney (5)

and Larson. W -- Daly, 1-0. L - Sprowl ,

0-1. 2B -- Sprowl (CdM), Dickerson (E). 3B

-- Dickerson (E). HR -- Dillon (E).

*--*

Estancia 10th in own tourney

* GOLF: The Estancia High boys golf team finished 10th among 23

teams from 17 schools at its own Mesa Verde tournament Monday at Mesa

Verde Country Club.

Marcus Sostak, Greg Les, Jason Les and Nick Lettieri contributed

for the Eagles.

The event was won by Woodbridge.

Estancia remains unbeaten

* SWIMMING: The Estancia High boys swim team improved to 3-0 with

a 115-40 nonleague victory over visiting Century Monday

Chad Kunnert and Sean Goodman won two individual events, while

Paul Collier, Jason Echinique and Anthony Hermann also won for the

Eagles.

*--*

Nonleague

Estancia 115, Century 40

200 medley relay -- Estancia (Kunert, Hermann, Goodman, Collier), 1:57.50. 200 free -- 1. Collier (E), 2:13.15; 2. DiFrancesco (E), 2:41.12; 3. Lopez (C), 3:08.72. 200 IM -- 1. Goodman (E), 2:28.03; 2. Hermann (E), 2:39.60; 3. McDonald (E), 3:10.53. 50

free -- 1. Echanique (E), 27.22; 2. Alderete (E), 28.07; 3. Bannon (E), 33.11. 100 f ly -- 1. Goodman (E), 1:10.41; 2. Echanique (E), 1:22.41; 3. Garcia (C), 1:29.24. 100 free -- 1. Collier (E), 1:00.94; 2. DiFrancesco (E), 1:07.47; 3. Palma (C),

1:09.97. 500 free -- 1. Kunert (E), 5:24.53; 2. Mellin (E), 6:33.54; No third. 200 free relay -- 1. Estancia (Collier, Goodman, Echinique, Kunert) 1:47.62. 100 back -- 1. Kunert (E), 1:08.50; 2. Mellin (E), 1:22.30; 3. Leon (C) 1:46.25. 100 breast -- 1.

Hermann (E), 1:14.50; 2. Alderete (E), 1:27.89; 3. Ruvulcaba (Ct) 1:32.47. 400 free relay 1. Estancia (Mellin, Bannon, McDonald, Hermann), 4:37.95.

*--*

Cuyamaca defeats Pirates

* GOLF: Orange Coast College dropped an Orange Empire Conference

men’s golf match to Cuyamaca, 387-398, Monday at Cottonwood Golf

Course in El Cajon.

Alex Dugger (5-over-par 77), Jason Cassidy (79), Joo Namkoong

(80), Shaun Vickers (80) and Peter Baker (82) scored for the Pirates.

Blue Devils blank UCI

* TENNIS: The UC Irvine men’s tennis team fell, 7-0, to No. 9 Duke

at the Racquet Club of Irvine Monday.

Junior Brian Morton, a Corona del Mar High product, was the only

Anteater to win a set, forcing his singles opponent, No. 9-ranked

Ludovic Walter, to earn a 2-6, 6-2 (10-8) victory.

UCI fell to 5-5.

Biola men bury Vanguard

* BASKETBALL: Biola University tripled Vanguard’s points in the

paint to help the Eagles earn an 82-47 Golden State Athletic

Conference men’s basketball win over the visiting Lions Monday night.

Biola outscored VU, 30-10, in the lane and outscored the visitors,

49-26, after intermission.

Brian Kim led VU with 18 points, while Horace Wormely added 11.

Vanguard completes the regular season 14-17, 7-13 in conference.

Biola improved to 22-8, 13-7.