College Baseball: ‘Eaters sloppy in loss

It wasn’t until the eighth inning that the UC Irvine baseball team’s errorless streak was snapped at 38 1/3 frames. But some defensive lapses not visible in the box score helped pave the way for visiting Loyola Marymount’s 7-2 nonconference win Tuesday.

LMU junior starting pitcher Blake Redman also played a key role for the Lions (9-12), blanking the ‘Eaters (14-7) on five hits through seven innings to earn his first win as a starter this season.

Redman, who lost his previous two starts and dropped his last three decisions, struck out seven and did not walk a batter in his longest start as a Lion. He improved to 2-3.

UCI, which saw its five-game winning streak snapped, got on the board in the eighth when sophomore center fielder Keston Hiura rocketed a two-run home run over the left-field fence for his sixth dinger of the season. It was the third homer in two games against LMU this season for Hiura, the reigning Big West Conference Player of the Week who went two for four to lift his conference-leading batting average to .468.

Hiura, who had seven homers on his way to earning Big West Freshman of the Year honors in 2015, has a team-best 22 runs batted in this season. He extended his hitting streak to 11 games, he has reached base in 37 consecutive games, and he has hit in 20 of 21 contests this season.

“Even though plays weren’t called errors, they were failures to make plays,” UCI Coach Mike Gillespie said. “And literally every run they scored, there was [less-than-solid defensive execution] that was real critical. And then we had some real errors.”

Freshman catcher Matt Reitano was charged with two throwing errors in the eighth inning, attempting to erase would-be base stealers at second and third base. Still, all three LMU runs were earned in the inning, as were each of the Lions’ tallies.

But a double-clutch by third baseman Jonathan Munoz on a would-be double-play ball that would have ended the first inning, instead let the Lions open the scoring.

Some hesitation by Reitano on a bouncer in front of the plate with runners on second and third, helped the Lions load the bases in the fourth. And they cashed in with a one-out grounder to first base that doubled the lead.

After a pair of one-out singles in the LMU fifth, Lions’ catcher Cassidy Brown smacked a liner to left. Senior left fielder Grant Palmer froze on the ball for an instant, before retreating and leaping just as the ball went over his glove for a run-producing double. A sacrifice fly followed to give Redman a 4-0 lead.

Palmer did go two for three and was robbed of a hit when Austin Miller dived to snag a sinking liner in right-center field.

Sophomore second baseman Cole Kreuter, the only other UCI player beside Hiura to play in every game this season, continued his solid campaign by going two for four to raise his average 10 points to .313.

UCI junior Adam Alcantara was hit by a pitch for the 11th time this season, tying two others for the NCAA Division I lead.

Miles Glazier, Dylan Riddle and Sean Sparling combined for 2 2/3 scoreless relief innings and junior catcher Edgar Ruvalcaba laced a pinch-hit single up the middle in the ninth for his first hit in three career at-bats.

Sophomore Alonzo Garcia absorbed the loss to fall to 1-2. He was charged with four runs on six hits in 4 2/3 innings. But he struck out five, and fanned the side in order in the third.

Hiura’s homer helped UCI avoid being shut out for the first time in 46 games.

UCI now gets a week off before returning to action Tuesday at San Diego.

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Nonconference

Loyola Marymount 7, UC Irvine 2

SCORE BY INNINGS

LMU 100 120 030 – 7 9 0

UCI 000 000 020 – 2 8 2

Redman, Arriaga (8) and Brown; Garcia, Glazier (5), Vargas (6), Riddle (8), Sparling (9) and Reitano, Mazur (9). W – Redman, 2-3. L – Garcia, 1-2. 2B – Miller (LMU), Brown (LMU), Whalen (LMU). HR – Hiura.