Anteaters fall, 8-6, await fate

IRVINE ? Yogi Berra never played college baseball. Otherwise, one of his most famous sayings might have been: “It’s not over, until the NCAA selection committee says it’s over.”

The UC Irvine baseball team, which lost to Big West Conference rival UC Riverside, 8-6, Sunday in the regular-season finale at Anteater Ballpark, will learn today whether its season will end in such a way.

The 64 participants in the NCAA Regionals are announced today during a 30-minute program televised on ESPN at 9:30 a.m.

“We’re at the mercy of the selection committee,” UCI Coach Dave Serrano said after watching his team score four in the ninth to raise the heart rate of the Highlanders, as well as most of the 1,228 in attendance. “I just hope what we’ve done over the course of 58 games proves to them that we’re worthy of moving on.”

What the Anteaters (36-22, 11-10 in conference, good for sole possession of third place) have done is win more games than any team in UCI’s 20 seasons as a Division I program. The previous high was 34, which resulted in the program’s lone Division I regional appearance.

The 36th win ? culminated by senior Jaime Martinez’s two-run, walk-off homer Saturday night to give UCI its fifth straight conference series victory ? was on the minds of many UCI rooters Sunday, as the Anteaters gouged into the deficit, before succumbing to Riverside (29-25, 9-12).

Junior Josh Tavelli drove a three-run triple into the left-center-field gap with one out in the ninth, then scored on sophomore Aaron Lowenstein’s sacrifice fly to make things infinitely more interesting.

“I can honestly say that as a team and as a staff, we were thinking ‘Wow, are we going to do it again?’ ” Serrano said of Sunday’s late-inning drama. When things like [Saturday’s comeback, which included a Matt Morris two-run homer in the ninth to force extra innings] happen on a team, you never believe it’s over until they say it’s over.”

Few expect the selection committee to say anything of the kind about the Anteaters, who fell behind, 3-0, in the first inning when the Highlanders pounced on starting pitcher Scott Gorgen.

Riverside parlayed three straight hits, a walk, a fielder’s choice and a stolen base into three runs against the freshman right-hander.

Gorgen appeared to stabilize himself, retiring nine straight hitters until a one-out walk in the fourth. But Riverside erupted for three runs on five hits in the fifth, chasing Gorgen from the game.

“That was easily his worst outing of the season,” Serrano said of Gorgen, who entered the game with a staff-best 2.11 earned-run average. “He wasn’t in sync and you could see early that his tempo wasn’t very good. He didn’t have a great repertoire of pitches to throw over the plate and Riverside was coming after us today. We beat [the Highlanders] Friday and we left them on the field [Saturday]. They wanted to finish the season on a positive note and they took it to us.”

The six earned runs allowed by Gorgen ended a string of 23 straight games in which the UCI starter allowed no more than three earned runs. Gorgen, who took the loss to fall to 7-4, saw his ERA climb to 2.52, still best among Anteater starters.

UCI sophomore second baseman Cody Cipriano homered in the first inning to open the scoring for the hosts. He went one for four Sunday to make him eight for 13 in the series. In the month of May, Cipriano was 23 for 50 with nine extra-base hits and 10 RBIs. He finished the regular season with a team-leading .361 batting average.

UCI junior designated hitter Zach Robinson doubled and came around to score on a two-out throwing error in the seventh to pull the Anteaters within 7-2.

Martinez doubled to open the UCI ninth and advanced to third one out later when Matt Morris was hit by a pitch and Tim Wojcik walked to set the table to Tavelli.

But after Lowenstein’s scoring fly ball, Taylor Holiday, who doubled in the sixth and shares the team hit lead with Cipriano (66), flew out to center to end the game.

Riverside starter James Simmons, who worked 8 1/3 strong innings to improve to 9-5, was denied his bid for his first compete game of the season when former Mike Millett, a former Anteater, came on to finish the deal.

After the game, the UCI players and coaches exchanged handshakes and hugs in shallow left field. Serrano said he hoped it would signal the end of the regular season, not the end of the year.

“With what this team’s effort has been over the course of 58 games, I think we owed it to each other to thank one another for the commitment to one another,” Serrano said. “We can’t be guaranteed anything, but I’m hoping we get to continue on.”

Serrano also said his team will not be satisfied with merely earning a trip to a regional.

“”What I want to pound into my team is that we’re just not excited about moving on,” he said. “We’re hoping to go somewhere and make an impact and prove to people that we’re very deserving and that the Big West does have good baseball teams. We want to represent the Big West to the utmost degree.”