UCI finds only futility against 49ers

LONG BEACH ? The UC Irvine baseball team began the second half of its regular-season schedule Saturday in search of some competence, as well as a little confidence.

But a 6-2 Big West Conference loss to Long Beach State at Blair Field only seemed to thicken the cloud between what the Anteaters are and what they need to be to avoid becoming a Big West afterthought.

“We’re searching right now,” UCI Coach Dave Serrano said after his revamped lineup managed just four hits against junior starter Andrew Carpenter.

“If you take out a six-run inning at Arizona [in a 7-1 win March 26], we haven’t had very many good innings over our last four games [five runs in 35 innings].”

Carpenter, who threw 126 pitches for his third complete game of the season to improve to 4-2, had eight good innings. Only a two-out, two-run home run by UCI designated hitter Jaime Martinez kept him from a shutout. Carpenter struck out eight, walked just one and allowed only two runners past second base.

Carpenter was the second straight starter to stymie the UCI offense, after Jared Hughes allowed one run and four hits in eight innings of the series opener Friday. But neither 49er pitcher had his best stuff, Long Beach State Coach Mike Weathers said.

“Andrew was good, but I don’t think he was as good early as he has been,” said Weathers, whose team improved to 14-15, 2-0 in conference. “He gained some momentum in the fifth and sixth and I thought he really ended up well. Irvine is a pesky team that really takes good at-bats. [The Anteaters] are tough outs and they make you work for it, so I thought [Carpenter] was good.”

UCI (18-12, 0-2 in conference) will need an attitude adjustment, Serrano said, to get back on track as it continues through its remaining 19 conference games.

“I think there is some doubt creeping in,” Serrano said. “From the pitching, from the offense ? I think guys are starting to wonder who is going to get it done and why we are not getting it done. We’ve got to get that stopped and continue to go forward.”

Serrano said he tried to propel his team forward on Saturday by shaking up the lineup.

Junior shortstop Chad Lundahl, the only Anteater to start the first 29 games, sat out. Junior first baseman Cody Cipriano, whose .347 batting average coming in was second on the team, was relegated to one pinch-hit at-bat.

“[The coaching staff has] been disappointed about how some guys have approached their at-bats,” Serrano said. “The lineup is made by who looks good in practice and who looks good in batting practice. We want our guys to have to show up every day and go to work, to have fun and play hard. If not, someone else is chomping at the bit to take their job.”

For the second straight game, 49er junior third baseman Evan Longoria made it his job to victimize UCI pitching. Longoria went 3 for 5, including a two-run homer in the sixth that widened a 3-2 lead. Longoria, who has homered in three straight games, is 4 for 8 in the series with four RBI and four runs.

Martinez went 2 for 4 and Josh Tavelli earned the only other legitimate hit for the ‘Eaters. Bryan Petersen got a gift double when his high pop fell between three 49ers behind second base in the eighth.

UCI made an error in each of the first three innings and gave the Dirtbags an unearned run in the first and second as Long Beach earned a 3-0 lead.

Martinez’s homer drew UCI within one, but the offense fizzled from there.

Petersen made an inning-ending diving catch in the left-center gap to save two runs in the seventh.