College Baseball: ‘Eaters, Surrey falter
SANTA BARBARA — While one Anteater came away from Friday’s 10-5 loss at UC Santa Barbara with a storybook tale for frequent retelling, a series of misfortune and opportunistic hitting by the Gauchos combined to all but expunge what might have fueled some future bragging rights for the visitors.
UCI sophomore second baseman John Brontsema, who was a bat boy at UCSB growing up when his father coached the Gauchos, launched the first pitch in his first at-bat at his old stomping grounds for a home run in the seventh inning.
And the rest of the Anteaters might have also found reason to someday wax nostalgic about Friday’s performance, after they posted five runs on eight hits against Gaucho Dillon Tate, a junior starting pitcher who some believe will be the first player selected in the Major League draft in June.
But UCSB (37-13-1, 13-5 in conference), ranked No. 12 by Baseball America, produced seven runs with two outs in the fourth inning to turn a 3-2 deficit into an insurmountable cushion.
The victory pulled the Gauchos even in the conference standings with UCI (31-19, 13-6), which began the day tied for first with Cal State Fullerton. Fullerton played at Hawaii late Friday, needing a win to take sole possession of the conference lead. A Fullerton loss would create a three-way tie for first.
Tate, the ace of a UCSB staff that leads the Big West and ranks No. 3 in the nation with a team earned-run average of 2.30, collected his eighth win in 12 decisions this season. The hard-throwing right-hander struck out eight and walked only one to persevere against what UCI Coach Mike Gillespie said was some quality work by his hitters.
“There was some good news, but then too much bad news,” Gillespie said. “The worst news was that we didn’t win after having some very, very good at-bats against a really good [pitcher].”
UCI junior starter Elliot Surrey was also getting the better of Tate through two scoreless innings, during which he had allowed one hit and was staked to a 2-0 lead.
But UCSB’s Peter Maris belted a two-out, two-run homer to knot the score in the third inning and the hosts, who then lashed four two-out hits to fuel their decisive fourth-inning barrage.
“He just unraveled,” Gillespie said of Surrey, who has lost his last four Big West starts. In those outings, the left-hander has surrendered 37 hits and 25 earned runs in 19 2/3 innings, an ERA of 11.44. Surrey’s last conference win was April 2 at UC Riverside.
“The truth is, we ask [Surrey, who is now 5-6] to match up on the Friday game and that’s asking a lot,” said Gillespie, whose team entered the week ranked No. 22 by Collegiate Baseball, but has now lost two straight. “He gets a ball up and then misses with a pitch and things snow-ball and he loses confidence. With him, we have to mix three pitches and locate. And it got to the point [Friday] where he had no faith in his second and third pitch.”
UCI hitters inspired faith early, as four of the ‘Eaters first seven batters singled against Tate. The last of those was an RBI knock by freshman right fielder Cameron Bishop that opened the scoring.
UCI doubled its lead in the third, when senior center fielder Kris Paulino doubled to open the frame, reached third on a wild pitch, and came home on junior shortstop Mikey Duarte’s sacrifice fly.
After UCSB erased the lead, UCI surged ahead again in the fourth, on a two-out RBI double by freshman second baseman Cole Kreuter.
Freshman sensation Keston Hiura, who along with Bishop was two for four, hit his sixth homer of the season to lead off the UCI sixth. The six homers are a school record for freshmen.
UCI loaded the bases in the ninth, but UCSB reliever Robby Nesovic, who was one of four Gauchos with two RBIs, left them stranded.
Another UCI highlight was sophomore reliever Sean Sparling, who allowed two hits and one run in 4 1/3 innings to pare his ERA from 4.50 to 3.96.
“Coming in [Friday], everybody knew that runs would figure to be at a premium,” Gillespie said. “So I think everybody felt, and should feel, pretty proud of the way the at-bats went. But it’s the wind out of the sails now, because things went the way they went.”
UCI blew plenty of plays on its own, including having a runner picked off second base, dropping a fly ball, missing a cutoff man for an error that produced a run, committing one passed ball and having another pitch dropped on a stolen-base attempt.
The series continues Saturday at 2 p.m. and concludes Sunday at 1 p.m.
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Big West Conference
UC Santa Barbara 10, UC Irvine 5
SCORE BY INNINGS
UCI 011 101 100 – 5 9 2
UCSB 002 700 010 – 10 10 0
Surrey, Sparling (4) and McClanahan; Tate, Nesovic (8) and Wear. W – Tate, 8-4. L – Surrey, 5-6. 2B – Paulino (UCI), Kreuter (UCI), Wear (UCSB), Nesovic (UCSB), Fisher (UCSB). HR – Maris (UCSB), Hiura (UCI), Brontsema (UCI).