College Baseball: Aggies handle ‘Eaters
UC Irvine sophomore Andrew Martinez has been the classic hit-or-miss performer at the plate this season. And it can be said that the Anteaters, as a team, have been much the same.
An 8-3 setback against visiting UC Davis in the first of a three-game Big West Conference baseball series Friday marked a dip in the rollercoaster ride that has been the 2015 UCI campaign.
The loss was the third straight for UCI (21-13, 8-2 in conference), which had won 15 straight to help rebound from an 0-6 start, the worst in program history. UCI maintains a 1.5-game lead over Cal State Fullerton and UC Santa Barbara in the Big West standings.
Friday’s lack of success included seven hits, three errors, the most in 30 games, and the worst start of the season for junior left-hander Elliot Surrey, who lost for the first time in five starts.
Surrey allowed six runs, all earned, on 12 hits in 5 2/3 innings to see his earned-run average climb from 2.32 to 3.46.
In the three-game losing skid, UCI has averaged just two runs and six hits per game. This, coming off a stretch in which it produced 67 runs in seven games.
“It was a rough, rough night for Surrey,” UCI Coach Mike Gillespie said. “And, let’s face it, it has been a scuffle offensively [recently].”
Martinez, a 6-foot-4, 250-pound sophomore designated hitter, was a shining light for the hosts. He doubled twice, the first of which drove in two runs in the fourth inning to pull UCI within 4-3. Martinez, who was two for three, is now batting .288. He has 22 runs batted in with 19 hits, 12 of which have been for extra-bases, including a conference-leading eight home runs.
Martinez did not add to his team-worst 25 strikeouts and, Gillespie said, continues to make progress in his first season as a full-time starter.
“In the early going, about every other at-bat was a strikeout,” Gillespie said of Martinez, who was hitless in six at-bats last season. “I think he gives us more competitive at-bats now than he did early. He has made some adjustments and he deserves to stay in there.”
Junior shortstop Mikey Duarte and junior first baseman Mitchell Holland were both two for four against UC Davis senior right-hander Spencer Koopsman, who allowed seven hits and just one earned run in the first complete game of his career.
Koopsman, who has now made 41 starts in 55 career appearances, improved to 4-3 and lowered his ERA this season from 4.60 to 3.57. He walked four, hit one and struck out three.
“I think [Koopsman, who threw 129 pitches] was good enough,” Gillespie said of the pitcher who halted a three-game losing streak for the Aggies (21-14-1, 5-5), who had dropped seven of their previous nine games.
UCI freshman Keston Hiura, who saw his 19-game hitting streak end Tuesday in a loss at San Diego State, was hitless in three at-bats Friday. He hit .461 during the 19-game streak (35 or 76) and entered the week leading the Big West with a .386 batting average (now .353).
Hiura, who was left at the plate when Ryan Cooper was caught trying to steal second base to end the game, had UCI’s other RBI when his groundout plated Duarte in the first inning.
Duarte’s two hits lifted his average to .341.
Another highlight for UCI was senior left-handed reliever Matt Fielding, who entered with the bases loaded and one out and worked out of the jam in the eighth inning. Fielding, who had yielded nine earned runs in 3 2/3 previous innings this season (a 22.09 ERA), recorded five outs while allowing just one hit and striking out two.
“I’m really happy for Fielding, who I thought did a really good job,” Gillespie said.
UC Davis, which came in leading Big West teams in runs, doubles and total bases, and was second with a .287 team batting average, banged out 16 hits to produce its best scoring output in 10 games.
The series continues Saturday at 1 p.m.
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Big West Conference
UC Davis 8, UC Irvine 3
SCORE BY INNINGS
UCD 202 011 200 – 8 16 2
UCI 100 200 000 – 3 7 3
Koopmans and Silva; Surrey, Vetrovec (6), Sparling (8), Fielding (8) and McClanahan. W – Koopmans, 4-3. L – Surrey, 4-3. 2B – Silva (UCD), Lynch (UCD), Martinez (UCI) 2. 3B – Tanner (UCD).