UCI bats heat up in victory

Barry Faulkner

It reached 100 degrees by the second inning Saturday at Cal State

Northridge’s Matador Field, but the hottest place in the yard may

have been the UC Irvine baseball team’s bat rack.

For the second straight Saturday, the Anteaters exploded

offensively, amassing 22 hits, including a season-high five home

runs, to outmuscle the Big West Conference hosts, 21-16.

“It was a hitter’s paradise today,” said UCI Coach John Savage,

who watched his five pitchers, like the eight Northridge hurlers,

struggle in the cozy confines and warm, windless air. “I’ve seen this

ballpark play like that and enough is never enough. It really turned

into survival of the fittest and we had enough offense to put the

game away.” If it was offense they wanted, the 128 in attendance came

away from the four-hour, 25-minute slugfest with enough to hold them

for at least a week.

In addition to the 37 runs -- the highest combined single-game

total in the 26-season history of the UCI program, the two lineups

produced 41 hits, nine home runs and nine doubles. UCI’s run total

was its best of the season, but four shy of the school record.

Among the homers, including two each by UCI’s Mark Wagner and Matt

Anderson, were three grand slams. Home runs alone produced a combined

24 runs as hitters consistently took advantage of the 360-foot power

alleys.

Wagner, a sophomore whose heroics were enhanced by sweating out

half the game in catcher’s gear behind the plate, hit a grand slam

and a two-run blast on his way to a 4-for-6 performance with six RBIs

and three runs.

“It was quite a long day,” said Wagner, who with fellow catcher

Jeff Werhun is out indefinitely with a facial fracture sustained in

the University of the Pacific series last weekend, will be counted

upon to carry more of the catching load. “But I was definitely glad

to contribute offensively.”

Sophomore first baseman Jaime Martinez also went 4 for 6,

including a three-run, first-inning homer that gave the Anteaters

(28-12-1, 5-6 in conference) the first of several leads that, as in

Northridge’s dramatic ninth-inning comeback victory Friday, the

Matadors made disappear. Martinez collected four RBIs and three runs.

Junior outfielder Jordan Szabo went 3 for 4 with two walks and is

now 9 for 12 with seven RBIs in three games this week, while senior

second baseman Matt Fisher went 3 for 6 with two doubles and four

runs for the winners.

Anderson went 2 for 4 and drove in four, while also scoring two

runs, and junior outfielder Andy Amara, who was 5 for 5 in the 16-5

home win over UOP April 24, continued his Saturday magic by going 3

for 3 with two doubles, a walk, and three runs after pinch-hitting in

the fifth.

UCI freshman Cody Cipriano also came off the bench to go 2 for 2,

drive in one and score twice.

Sophomore first baseman Michael Paulk led the Northridge attack,

going 5 for 6 with two homers, a double, six RBIs and three runs.

He followed John Voida’s grand slam with a solo homer in the third

and lauched a slam of his own in a five-run sixth that gave

Northridge a short-lived 12-11 lead.

Wagner’s slam capped a seven-run seventh for the visitors, for

whom freshman David Huff earned the pitching victory with some timely

relief.

Freshman closer Blair Erickson, who took the loss Friday in only

his second blown save in 15 chances this season, got the final two

outs on strikeouts Saturday to leave the potential tying run in the

on-deck circle.

Northridge fell to 14-30, 1-10.

*--*

Big West Conference

UCI 21, Cal State Northridge 16

Score by Innings

UCI 300 233 730 - 21 22 1

CSUN 005 025 040 - 16 19 0

Swanson, (5), Nicoll (5), Huff (6),

Schroer (8), Erickson (9) and Wagner;

Rocchio, Jean (4), Lopez (6), Brettl

(7), Campbell (7), Eberhardt (8),

Goforth (9), Polanco (9) and Fleener. W

- Huff, 2-0. L - Brettl, 0-3. 2B -

Fisher (UCI) 2, Cipriano (UCI), Amara

(UCI) 2, Rykebosch (UCI), Quintana

(CSN), Voita (CSN), Paulk (CSN). HR -

Anderson (UCI) 2, Wagner (UCI) 2,

Martinez (UCI), Voita (CSN), Paulk (CSN)

2, Riordan (CSN).

*--*