College Baseball: UCI stuns No. 1-ranked TCU
UC Irvine welcomed Texas Christian University, the nation’s No.1 team, to Anteater Ballpark rather rudely on Friday.
The Anteaters sent 13 batters to the plate in an eight-run first inning, collected 15 hits for the game and cruised to an 11-2 victory.
The eight-run outburst is the most in any inning this season for the Anteaters, (8-4), the most in the first inning since scoring 10 in the first at Hawaii on April 3, 2016 and the most at home in the first since scoring nine against UC Davis on April 29, 2007.
Eleven runs is the second-most allowed by the Horned Frogs (11-2), who lost for only the second time season.
The Anteaters extend their season-high winning streak to five and put an emphatic end to TCU’s seven-game winning streak.
“I’m real pleased, not just that there were a lot of hits, there were at least three, two-strike hits that drove in runs.” UCI Coach Mike Gillespie said. “It was one of the good ones. This was fun.”
TCU had trailed in eight of their first 12 games this season, coming back to win in seven of them.
But the Anteaters early haymaker made the notion of a comeback virtually impossible.
Horned Frogs’ starter Brian Howard, who was 2-1 with a 4.50 ERA coming into the contest, lasted just a third of an inning.
With one out, Adrian Damla singled home two runs and Jake Hazard each singled home a run.
Christian Koss than followed with a three-run triple, putting the Anteaters ahead 7-0.
Matt Reitano then singled to drive in Koss.
After another single by Evan Cassolato, his second of the inning, Howard’s evening was over.
Jake Eissler came in and got out of the inning without any more damage being done.
In the bottom of the sixth, Keston Hiura belted his fifth home run of the season and 19th of his career, moving him into to third place all-time in school history.
The hitting barrage slightly overshadows an excellent outing by Anteater starter Louis Raymond, who gave up just two runs on three hits over 6 2/3 innings before yielding to Sean Sparling.
“Our offense has been picking us up all year, so it was good that they scored a lot early and let me settle down and go deeper into the game,” Raymond said. “Getting eight in the first inning was a big surprise.”
The Horned Frogs’ Luken Baker, who came in hitting .563 over the past five games and .385 with four home runs and 12 RBIs for the season, was held hitless in four at bats.
“He is a hitter you can’t mistakes to, so you just try to attack him inside and be aggressive against him and it worked,” Baker said.
The Horned Frogs are the first No.1 team to play at UC Irvine since Cal State Fullerton in 2006.
The teams were also meeting for the first time.
Nonconference
UC Irvine 11, Texas Christian 2
SCORE BY INNINGS
TCU 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 3 0
UCI 8 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 - 11 15 0
TCU- Eissler, Green, Coughlin and Skoug; UCI- Raymond (W, 3-1), Sparling and Reitano; Howard (L, 2-2). 2B - Keuter, Hazard, Hiura; 3B - Koss, HR Hiura.