Seniors, UCI bow out, 9-4

Barry Faulkner

As it has throughout the Big West Conference campaign, the UC Irvine

baseball team had trouble sealing the deal Sunday, dropping the final

game of a three-game conference series for the fifth time in seven

tries.

Sunday’s 9-4 victory by visiting Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, before

a Senior Day crowd of 1,217, meant more than just the loss of a

series. The setback dropped UCI to 31-25, 10-11 in conference and,

combined with UC Riverside’s second straight win over conference

champion Cal State Fullerton, dropped the Anteaters into fifth place

in the final Big West standings.

So, after entering Sunday with the notion that a win could propel

the team to its second straight NCAA regional appearance, there

remained little optimism afterward that the seniors, honored during a

pregame ceremony, would ever don a UCI uniform again.

“There will be jubilation if we make [the NCAA regionals, for

which pairings will be broadcast today at 8:30 a.m. on ESPN],” UCI

Coach Dave Serrano said. “But there won’t be any anger if we don’t.

We created this ourselves and we have to live with it.”

Serrano said the team’s struggles on Sunday (and one Monday at the

University of the Pacific after Sunday’s game was rained out)

crystallized a general lack of consistency by a team from which much

was expected.

“I stressed before we ever started the year that Sunday was going

to be attitude day, because that’s such a divider between you and

that other team in your conference, or that other team in your

region,” Serrano said. “A 3-0 series [sweep] makes a huge difference

over being 2-1, and 2-1 is obviously a lot better than 1-2. That

Sunday game is always the difference between winning and losing a

conference or contending for a regional. And because of our

shortcoming, the Sunday losses have been a big part of our downfall.”

The Anteaters’ two Sunday wins in conference helped them earn

two-games-to-one series wins at UC Riverside and at UC Santa Barbara.

They also won the Cal State Northridge series at home, but lost on

Sunday in their bid for a sweep.

In all four conference series losses, all by two-games-to-one

margins, the Anteaters dropped the deciding final game of the set.

UCI was hoping to ride the aftermath of Saturday’s 11-0 triumph to

success on Sunday. But Cal Poly (36-20, 14-7), which tied Long Beach

State for second and appears headed to its first NCAA regional since

becoming a Division I program in 1995, jumped to leads of 2-0 and 4-2

against UCI victory leader Justin Cassel, who came in 9-3.

“I think our guys showed up and were ready to play, but a little

bit of the air went out of the balloon when they put a one on the

board [in the second and third], then a two [in the fourth],” Serrano

said.

Cassel kept that balloon afloat by leaving the bases loaded in the

second and the third, but the Mustangs kept hammering away. The

visitors amassed 17 hits and benefited from seven walks and one hit

batsman, as well as one UCI error. Cal Poly won despite leaving 15

men on base.

UCI utilized doubles by Matt Anderson and Mark Wagner, as well as

an RBI single by Gregg Wallis to put the potential tying run on deck

in the eighth.

But Cal Poly closer Mike Bille came on to squelch the threat and,

after one-out error in the ninth, Bille induced a game-ending double

play to post his conference-leading 14th save.

UCI’s senior-laden lineup -- a tribute paid to the veterans by

Serrano -- produced at least one hit by all nine starters.

Wagner and Wallis were each 2 for 4 with one RBI, while Anderson

and senior right fielder David Kennedy also drove in runs.

Brett Dalton extended his hitting streak to 15, while fellow seniors Danny Miramontes and Andy Amara also had hits.

Seniors Jimmy Alstot, Michael Koehler and Nash Robertson likely

made their final appearances on the mound in relief.

Gary Daley went seven innings for the win and Kyle Blumenthal was

4 for 5 with four RBIs.

Big West Conference

Cal Poly SLO 9, UC Irvine 4

Score by Innings

*--*

CPSLO 0 1 1 2 0 1 3 1 0 - 9 17 3

UCI 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 - 4 11 1

*--*

Daley, Norris (8), Bille (8) and Blumenthal; Cassel, Alstot (6),

Erickson (7), Koehler (8), Robertson (9) and Wagner. W -- Daley, 6-2.

L -- Cassel, 9-4. Sv -- Bille (14). 2B -- Roberts (CP), Blumenthal

(CP) 2, Cooper (CP), Anderson (UCI), Wagner (UCI) 2.