‘Eaters stunned in ninth

Barry Faulkner

With just eight Big West Conference games remaining, much can still

happen to improve the postseason chances of the UC Irvine baseball

team.

But after Cal State Northridge junior Alberto Quintana connected

for a three-run, two-out, game-winning home run in the bottom of the

ninth against heralded Anteater closer Blair Erickson Friday

afternoon at Matador Field, UCI must hope just about all of whatever

happens now is good.

Things couldn’t get much worse for the Anteaters than this

dramatic loss, in which the Matadors (14-29, 1-9 in conference)

scored four times in the ninth to secure their first Big West victory

of the season.

The loss, UCI’s third straight in a Big West series opener,

dropped the Anteaters to 27-12-1, 4-6. It also denied them an

opportunity to gain ground, or at least not lose any, on the four

teams ahead of them in the conference standings.

After all, the Anteaters’ growing reputation -- evidenced by their

being ranked No. 14 by Baseball America and No. 15 by Collegiate Baseball -- likely won’t help them earn a spot in an NCAA regional,

should they not finish in the top half of the eight-school Big West.

UCI entered Friday’s action trailing Long Beach State by five

games, Cal State Fullerton by four, UC Riverside by three and Cal

Poly San Luis Obispo by one. UCI did not trail Friday until Quintana

came up big, as the visitors rode the typically strong pitching of

junior starter Brett Smith and some timely hitting to some seemingly

comfortable leads.

Matt Anderson’s bases-loaded single in the third plated Andy Amara

and Gary Dudrey, then Matt Fisher scored on a double-play grounder to

give Smith more run support than he had seen in his two most recent

starts (a 2-1 loss to the University of the Pacific April 23 and a

3-0 defeat at Long Beach State and All-American pitcher Jared

Weaver).

The hosts had only two hits through five innings, both infield

singles, before a double and a single got them on the board in the

sixth.

Mark McCauley launched a solo homer to cut the deficit to 3-2 in

the seventh, by which time the Matadors were on their fifth pitcher.

Smith exited after seven, yielding five hits, two earned runs,

striking out three and walking none. He appeared to be in great shape

to earn his seventh win of the spring, when junior left fielder

Jordan Szabo followed a double by pinch-hitter R.J. Brown with a

two-run homer in the eighth to make it 5-2.

Chris Nicoll pitched a scoreless eighth to set the stage for

Erickson, whose 13 saves led the nation coming into the week and left

him one shy of tying the Big West freshman record set by former Cal

State Fullerton ace Chad Cordero (now in the Montreal Expos bullpen)

in 2001.

Erickson, whose only previous loss came on March 20 against

Minnesota, when he entered a tie game, surrendered hard-hit singles

by John Voita and pinch-hitter Quinn Ciccarelli to start the ninth.

He then struck out McCauley, but walked Raymond Ravago to load the

bases.

Johnny Coit followed with a soft grounder to third baseman

Anderson, who threw to second for a force, allowing one run to score.

Quintana, who hit a walk-off homer to beat the University of San

Diego Feb. 1, then stepped in with one thing on his mind.

“[Erickson] has a great fastball and my plan was to get his

fastball,” said Quintana, who entered with a team-best .348 batting

average. “He was blowing it by everybody, so I figured he was going

to be a little cocky about thinking he could get it by me. I was

ready for it and he threw it.”

Quintana’s blast, his fourth of the season, ruined another fine

offensive day by Szabo. After going 4 for 4 with four RBIs and a home

run in Tuesday’s win at USC, Szabo went 2 for 4 with two RBIs and

another homer, his third of the spring.

Fisher, a senior second baseman who along with Anderson and first

baseman Brett Dalton all made sparkling defensive plays, went 3 for 5

to help spearhead the Anteaters’ 12-hit attack.

The series continues today and Sunday, both at 1 p.m.

*--*

Big West Conference

Cal State Northridge 6, UCI 5

Score by Innings

UCI 003 000 020 - 5 12 1

CSUN 000 001 104 - 6 9 1

Smith, Nicoll (8), Erickson (9) and

Wagner; Camacho, Goforth (3), Sistilli

(3), Hochgesang (5), Brettl (8), Campbell

(9) and Fleener. W - Campbell, 2-3. L -

Erickson, 0-2. 2B - Martinez (UCI), Mahin

(CSUN), Brown (UCI). HR - McCauley

(CSUN), Szabo (UCI), Quintana (CSUN).

*--*