UCI gets a breakthrough against Northridge

NORTHRIDGE ? The UC Irvine baseball team’s dam of self-imposed pressure finally burst in the eighth inning of Saturday’s Big West Conference game at Cal State Northridge.

And so dramatic was the breakthrough, the resulting flood of the Anteaters’ 3-0 victory may spill over, not only to today’s series finale, but to the rest of the regular season as well.

Senior Glenn Swanson pitched a four-hit shutout to earn the victory, but Northridge starter Edwin Quirarte matched him with seven scoreless innings before UCI broke through in the eighth.

The Anteaters (33-20, 8-9 in the Big West), who had just five hits in a 4-2 loss Friday to the Matadors that extended UCI’s losing streak to three games, had only three hits the first seven innings.

Matt Morris singled with one out in the eighth and stole second to set the stage for Taylor Holiday.

“With Swanson pitching such an unbelievable game, we all wanted to do it for him so bad,” said Holiday, who like the rest of his teammates, had been urged by Coach Dave Serrano not to try too hard to end the losing streak.

Serrano said that just focusing on playing the game would help the Anteaters eventually regain their winning ways.

Holiday singled to center field to drive in Morris for all the run support Swanson would need.

“I’ve been struggling lately [2 for 13 with nine strikeouts in the three-game losing streak], so for me it was a big hit, both for the team and for my confidence,” Holiday said. “I think it helped that I had a hit earlier in the game.”

Ben Orloff followed with a single off reliever Johnny Brettle and a walk loaded the bases. After Jaime Martinez’s bounder to the pitcher resulted in a forceout at the plate, Tyler Vaughn nubbed an infield single to second to drive in the second run.

UCI converted three singles in the ninth into another run. Morris capped the rally by driving in Chad Lundahl from second on a bouncer through the shortstop hole.

“Hitting is contagious like that,” Holiday said. “It just seems to always happen that you get one and the floodgates seem to open. All game, we were battling for that one. We were stinging balls and one that fell was all we needed.”

Hitting was more problematic for the Matadors (26-26, 6-11), who were retired in order four times and never managed more than one baserunner in an inning. No Northridge runner advanced past second base.

Swanson struck out six to increase his career total to 288, passing former career leader Gary Wheelock, who amassed 287 from 1972 to 1974.

Swanson, whose other complete game this season was a no-hitter against San Diego on April 25, won his fifth straight start to improve to 9-4. His 25 career victories are tied for fourth in Anteater annals and his next start will tie him with Bob Frishette (56 from 1977-80) for second on the school’s career list.

“I told him that in this ballpark, which is notoriously an offensive ballpark, to throw a shutout on four hits may have been almost as special as the no-hitter,” Serrano said.

The victory could wind up meaning much more as the Anteaters continue their quest for a berth in the NCAA Regionals. They entered the day in sixth place in the conference, but are in a three-way tie for third entering today’s action. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s loss Saturday night at first-place Cal State Fullerton created a deadlock between UCI, UC Riverside (an 11-9 loser to Long Beach State in 12 innings Saturday) and the Mustangs.

After finishing up with Northridge today and facing UCLA in a nonconference game Tuesday, UCI plays host to UC Riverside for a three-game series beginning Friday to close out the regular season.

“Today was about overcoming in a lot of ways,” Serrano said. “Early on, I thought we stung some balls, but we were hitting balls right at people. But the difference today was we didn’t get frustrated as a team. We stuck with it and I think the game kind of rewarded us late. We got some seeing-eye groundball hits and we got some infield hits to help us build off Swanny’s performance.

“We still have a lot of work to do, but I told the team they probably feel a little lighter right now, like I do, because we just got a big gorilla lifted off our shoulders. To be in that rut, it was like ‘When is it going to happen for us?’ We couldn’t have played a better game to get out of that rut, because we had to maintain our focus for every pitch on defense and every pitch on offense.

“It’s not going to guarantee [a win today], but it’s going to make [today] a lot easier to play.”