UCI wins Big West crucial

Barry Faulkner

The good news-bad news quotient finally came out in Brett Smith’s

favor Friday night, as it did for host UC Irvine, which claimed a 6-3

Big West Conference baseball victory over UC Riverside.

Smith, who lowered his ERA from 2.02 to 1.97 with seven strong

innings -- striking out nine and yielding just three hits and one

earned run -- was given the opportunity to tighten up and/or lose

rhythm when he was relegated to a seat in the dugout for about 30

minutes during the Anteaters’ four-run second-inning rally.

But Smith, whose three losses this season have come in games the

Anteaters have scored only one combined run, said he was more than

willing to sit, as his offense staked him to a rare lead.

“I’ll take that trade-off every time,” said the 6-foot-5

right-hander, who improved to 8-3 and helped UCI (33-17-1, 9-10 in

conference) pull into a three-way tie for fourth place with just two

Big West games remaining.

“It can make the game real simple,” Smith added of the early lead.

“When you get a guy on, you don’t panic.” UCI, knotted with UC Santa

Barbara and Cal Poly, who are playing each other today and Sunday,

trails Riverside by one game. A top-three finish would greatly

enhance the Anteaters’ chances of getting a berth in the NCAA

regionals.

“I thought Smith pitched like a Friday-night guy,” UCI Coach John

Savage said of his ace, who had won just once in his previous five

starts, though hardly pitching ineffectively. “He gave us what we

needed and got us through the seventh inning. When you have a 2.02

ERA [coming in] with 100 innings [100 2/3 after Friday], you know

you’re probably one of the elite guys in the country.”

Smith came out after seven, having thrown 120 pitches, and junior

Steve Schroer worked two scoreless innings to earn his first save.

Freshman Blair Erickson, who leads the nation with 16 saves, was

ready in the bullpen, but Savage, wanting to save Erickson for the

weekend, elected to let Schroer close the deal with a three-run lead.

“If it had been a one- or two-run ballgame, you’d have seen

[Erickson] in there,” Savage said.

UCI jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Matt Anderson

doubled with one out and scored one out later on Cody Cipriano’s

single.

Senior second baseman Matt Fisher, hitting leadoff for only the

fourth time all season, tripled with the bases loaded to trigger the

four-run second, after David Kennedy singled, Tim Stewart was hit by

a pitch and Andy Amara singled.

Anderson followed Fisher’s triple with an RBI single to stake

Smith to a 5-0 cushion.

Kennedy singled to open the UCI third and came home on Fisher’s

RBI double to increase the lead.

Fisher’s four RBIs pulled him into a tie with Anderson for the

team lead with 39.

UC Riverside, taking advantage of two of the hosts’ three errors,

rallied with two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth, two of those

unearned.

*--*

Big West Conference

UCI 6, UC Riverside 3

Score by Innings

UCR 000 021 000 - 3 5 1

UCI 141 000 000 - 6 11 3

Winter, Rzepczynski (2) and Salotti;

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

Wagner. W - Smith, 8-3. L - Winter, 3-5.

Sv - Schroer (1). 2B - Anderson (UCI),

Fisher (UCI), . 3B - Fisher (UCI),

Salotti (UCR).

*--*