Holiday regional’s top player for UCI

ROUND ROCK, Texas — UC Irvine junior Taylor Holiday, who was named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Regional at Dell Diamond, led a group of six Anteaters selected to the all-regional team.

Holiday, a first baseman and leadoff hitter, went seven for 15 in three games (.467), including three hits, a school single-game Division I postseason record, in the tournament-opening 13-0 win over Wake Forest Friday. Holiday scored six runs and drove in one.

Also, playing briefly in left field, he made a sensational sliding catch of a drive in the gap to end Saturday night’s 3-1 win over Texas.

Cipriano, a senior second baseman, went five for 14 for a .357 average, with a team-high five RBIs in the tournament.

Gorgen threw a complete-game, five-hitter in the first win against Texas Saturday, then came back and worked a perfect inning of relief in the regional-clinching triumph over the Longhorns Monday.

Etheridge threw 8 2/3 innings of shutout ball in two appearances, including an eight-inning stint against Wake Forest that included a career-high 10 strikeouts. He got the final two outs Monday, including another strikeout.

Lowenstein, a junior catcher, was three for 10 with one RBI, and also provided consistently solid defense behind the plate.

Linton had two hits in eight at-bats, drove in two runs and scored twice. But his biggest contribution may have come defensively.

He covered extensive ground to run down drives in right-center field and left-center to thwart Texas rallies in two separate innings Saturday. He also doubled a Longhorns runner off second after catching a line drive in the clinching game.

SPORTSWRITER ROBBERY

UCI freshman designated hitter Jeff Cusick was somehow denied a spot on the all-regional squad that was selected by virtue of media votes.

The Texas-heavy cast of sportswriters, allowed to vote in one player at each position, as well as two pitchers, somehow chose Texas freshman Russell Moldenhauer over Cusick, despite Cusick’s clear statistical advantage.

Moldenhauer went three for 17 in the tournament with four RBIs and one run.

Cusick was three for seven with four RBIs and one run.

MASTERY OVER MENTOR

Serrano said it was special to win his first regional as a Division I head coach against his former Cal State Fullerton coach, Augie Garrido.

“I’ll tip my hat to Coach Garrido,” Serrano said. “Whether he knows this or not, I’m kind of modeling this program exactly on how he modeled the Cal State Fullerton program in the mid-1970s, and ‘80s and ‘90s.

“I just want to get a bunch of baseball players. They don’t have to be the most recruited, or the fastest or the strongest, but just good baseball players, who want to win. I think that’s what you see out on the field with this [UCI] team.

“And I’m hoping that [Garrido] could look out across the field and be proud of what he sees developing at UC Irvine, because I think it’s exactly what he developed over 30 years ago at Cal State Fullerton, when he started building that program from scratch and made it into the national power it is today.”

TEXAS COACH FLATTERED

After being made aware of Serrano’s comments about following his blueprint, Garrido said he was flattered.

“That’s a tremendous compliment and a tremendous reward,” Garrido said. “Probably the most meaningful thing in my life is whatever I’ve given [to past players and coaches]. I’m a teacher and that’s what teachers do. They give, unconditionally, to the people around them. Any joy or any blessings that comes into the lives of [Serrano] or Sergio [Brown, a UCI assistant who worked formerly at Cal State Fullerton] or their families; that’s the ultimate reward for me.

“But, I will say this. [Serrano] is his own man; it’s his own program and it belongs to him.”

THE ULTIMATE SURPRISE

The 68-year-old Garrido, who completed his 39th season as a Division I coach and has won an NCAA record 1,629 games, as well as five national titles, said he was very surprised to have been eliminated in this regional.

“I think this is the most surprised I’ve been [in any postseason], whether we won or lost,” Garrido said. “And I was surprised as [heck] when we won in 1979 [at Cal State Fullerton].”

EARNING SOME RESPECT

Garrido said the Anteaters’ inability to earn a No. 1 regional seed and host a regional this season was a matter of them not having much tradition of postseason success before this year.

UCI lost both games in each of its previous two regional appearances in 2006 and 2004.

Cipriano said his team uses this perceived slight as motivation.

“I think we play our best baseball when we have a chip on our shoulder,” Cipriano said. “We don’t get a lot of media attention and a lot of respect from the East Coast.”

FAN APPRECIATION

The combined attendance of UCI’s three games at Dell Diamond was 19,301, including 9,256 Saturday against Texas.

That’s more than the Anteaters played for in their last 25 regular-season games combined and well more than double the Anteaters’ monthly attendance totals for February (14 games), March (14) and May (12).

UCI played before 18,369 in 16 April contests, including three-game series with Long Beach State (home) and at Cal State Fullerton.

COUNTER PUNCH SUPREME

Due to a rain storm that suspended play Sunday night, the Anteaters (43-15-1) needed to get six outs Monday to clinch the program’s first regional title since it entered the Division I ranks before the 1978 season.

But UCI Coach Dave Serrano said the key to the game occurred Sunday night.

“I think what kind of summed up this team was [Sunday] night, when Texas rolled a two in the top of the sixth inning and the crowd was behind them and you could feel the momentum of the game really change,” Serrano said.

“Then, in the bottom of the sixth inning, [Cipriano] made a base-running mistake [getting nailed at third trying to advance on a ball hit to the shortstop], which happens. It would have been easy for many teams out there to shrug their shoulders and say ‘This isn’t going to work out.’ But they didn’t do that. And it was the greatest punch-back of all-time for this program’s history [to score three runs in that inning to take a 6-5 lead].

“That really set the tone [for Monday], to allow us to come out and play Anteater baseball and get the regional championship.”

BARRY FAULKNER can be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at barry.faulkner@latimes.com.