College Baseball: Moore back on track
There were a season-high 12 runs and a victory to get to .500 for the first time all season. But the biggest development in UC Irvine’s 12-6 nonconference baseball triumph over visiting Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday occurred on the mound.
Senior Sam Moore, an All-American who led the nation with 23 saves last season, struck out the side in the ninth and left the bases loaded by retiring the only hitter he faced in the eighth to earn his first save since May 9, 2014. In the 37 games since his final save of 2014, at which point he had converted 23 of 24 opportunities to set a Big West Conference single-season record, Moore had produced five blown saves and lost all three of his decisions.
But, he said, he never lost faith in himself.
“I knew what I could do and my teammates and coaches knew what I could do,” Moore said after his fifth straight scoreless outing, including back-to-back hitless stints of 1 1/3 innings on Friday and Saturday. “I wasn’t struggling with [my performance] and my teammates never got on me. I just went through a time in which I just needed to find myself again. And I did. I knew what I could be and you saw right there, what I could be, coming off no days rest.”
Moore, who in six previous appearances this season had allowed opponents a .348 batting average, ended the eighth inning with a tapper back to the mound. His three strikeouts in the ninth surpassed his total for the season to that point (two).
In his five straight scoreless outings, he has allowed three hits and no walks in five innings.
“Moore was good and good for him,” UCI Coach Mike Gillespie said. “It’s good news. We patted him on the back both [Friday and Saturday] for just not giving up the ghost [during his save drought]. He just kept at it. He very well could have quit, and I mean really quit. But he just didn’t. Nobody did anything different with him and I don’t think he’s trying to do anything differently. But he’s more confident, that’s for sure.”
Junior first baseman Mitchell Holland, who went five for five with one run batted in and two runs to lead a 15-hit attack, was also pleased to see Moore lead the postgame handshake line from the bump.
“It’s great to see [Moore] back,” Holland said. “[Friday] he had a great outing and he had a great outing [Saturday]. We know it’s there. And he’s working so hard and he is just the consummate leader for the whole pitching staff. It’s great to see him get a little success going and get on a little roll.”
UCI (10-10) is also on a roll, having won four straight and seven of its last eight with just the series finale with the Roadrunners Sunday left before the ‘Eaters open conference play on Friday at home against Hawaii.
“We had some tough losses early, no way around it,” said Holland, who helped his team register double-digit runs for only the third time this season. UCI’s 15 hits were the second-most all year, topped only by 17 in a 12-10 loss to Tennessee on Feb. 27. “But we have finally bounced back a little bit. We’re getting a little consistency out of the lineup and a little consistency out of the bullpen. All along we’ve had great starting pitching, so we are finally kind of putting it all together right now.”
Junior starter Matt Esparza allowed two runs, both unearned, on five hits in five innings to win his fourth straight decision and improve to 4-1. He struck out five.
Senior catcher Jerry McClanahan hit a two-run homer to break a scoreless tie in the second inning and sophomore Andrew Martinez launched a pinch-hit homer to lead off the fifth. It was the team-leading fifth of the season for Martinez.
UCI has now hit two home runs in three of its last four games and its 14 homers are two more than the 2014 team hit in a 66-game season that ended in the College World Series.
“I grew up locally, so I know the ball doesn’t fly [at Anteater Ballpark],” Holland said. “But in the daytime, we have gotten some balls up in the jet stream and they have flown. We’ve got some big boys, too, and we’ve found some big-time power.”
The 6-foot-4, 250-pound Martinez was two for two, while junior shortstop Mikey Duarte was two for four with two RBIs and two runs for the winners, for whom nine players had at least one hit.
Cal State Bakersfield is 11-11-1.
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Nonconference
UC Irvine 12, Cal State Bakersfield 6
SCORE BY INNINGS
CSB 000 202 020 – 6 11 2
UCI 022 210 32x – 12 15 1
Gee, Daily (4), Dermenjian (6), Mata (7), Vieja (8) and Trowbridge; Esparza, Sparling (6), Moore (8) and McClanahan. W – Esparza, 4-1. L – Gee, 2-2. Sv – Moore (1). 2B – Duarte (UCI), Holland (UCI), Cooper (UCI). 3B – Grotjohn (CSB). HR – McClanahan (UCI), Martinez (UCI).