Anteaters win in 11th

Barry Faulkner

The UC Irvine baseball team battled and clawed for nine innings to

pull itself to the precipice of ending its three-game Big West

Conference losing streak Saturday night, only to plunge off the

metaphoric cliff in the top of the 10th.

But the Anteaters, who had lost five straight conference contests

to No. 13-ranked Long Beach State, picked themselves up to dust the

Dirtbags right off them and earn an improbable 4-3 victory in 11

innings, before 1,016 at Anteater Ballpark.

After rallying to erase a 2-0 deficit with single runs in the

sixth and eighth, the Anteaters tumbled back into the valley they

have occupied during their recent struggles.

But that didn’t last long, as Brian Peterson and Jaime Martinez

produced two-out singles against 49er reliever Steve Hammond in the

11th.

Brett Dalton was then hit by a pitch in the dirt to load the bases

and freshman center fielder Ollie Linton worked a nine-pitch walk,

checking his swing on ball four after fouling off three straight 3-2

pitches. Linton’s walk pushed across the winning run and unleashed a

fired-up band of teammates from the third-base dugout.

“I was battling the butterflies,” said Linton, whose deft bunting

contributed to UCI rallies all night. Linton’s squeeze bunt with two

outs in the 10th scored Tim Wojcik to tie the game at 3-3.

“I was just trying to keep staying alive and battling,” Linton

said of his final at-bat.

The win improved UCI to 15-14, 2-3 in conference. But it did much

more than that, according to Anteater Coach Dave Serrano.

“That was an exciting, exciting win,” Serrano said. “It was

emotional at the end, because we wanted it, and [the 49ers] obviously

wanted it too. Those are great games to win and tough games to lose.

But it’s the kind of game that could turn our whole season around.”

UCI junior Matt Anderson agreed.

“It’s a great win against a great team and something we can rally

off of the rest of the year,” Anderson said. “We gave a punch, they

punched back and we threw the knockout blow, I guess.”

The loss ended a six-game winning streak for Long Beach State

(23-11, 4-1).

UCI erased a 2-0, second-inning deficit to keep 49er junior

right-hander Marco Estrada from winning his sixth collegiate decision

without a loss.

The ‘Eaters’ limited, but persistent productivity, however, wasn’t

enough to reward a quality start by junior Matt Cassel, who buckled

down after a rough second inning to keep the hosts in the game.

“I thought Matt gave a great performance,” Serrano said. “People

in the stands may forget that about tonight’s game, but I won’t.”

Sean Boatright led off the second inning with a single for the

49ers, then stole second. He scored on a double by Chris Jones, who

came home one out later on Jordan Struble’s line double of a sliding

left fielder to give Estrada about all he has needed in recent weeks.

Estrada had given up just four runs in his four previous starts,

doing his part to help Long Beach’s pristine team ERA of 2.11

entering the game.

Dalton broke a streak of 12 straight hitters retired by singling

to start the sixth. He advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by

Linton and, after tagging and advancing to third on a flyout, scored

on Anderson’s RBI single to right to pump some life into the Irvine

dugout.

Erik Johnson opened the UCI seventh with a single and advanced to

second on a sacrifice bunt by Gregg Wallis. After a strikeout, Dalton

stole third as third baseman Evan Longoria leaped high to snag the

throw from catcher Jones.

But the inning ended on a groundout, giving Irvine two runners

left at third base to go with their two left at second base to that

point.

Dalton opened the Irvine eighth with a double to left-center field

and was pushed to third on Linton’s sacrifice bunt. The 49ers brought

the infield in and Danny McCarthy bounced a one-hopper to second

baseman Chuck Sindlinger. Sindlinger charged and threw slightly high

to the plate, allowing Dalton to slide under Jones’ tag to knot the

score.

The visitors broke the deadlock in an unlikely fashion in the

10th, when Anderson booted a routine, two-out grounder to third to

put Steve Velazco aboard against All-American closer Blair Erickson.

Erickson threw an errant pickoff throw to first to allow Velazco

to reach third and he scored on a passed ball by Aaron Lowenstein to

take the air out of the hosts and their fans.

“A lot of teams would have dropped their heads and said ‘Here we

go again,’” Serrano said of the disheartening 10th. “But I’m proud of

my guys, because they kept battling.”

Big West Conference

UC Irvine 4,

Long Beach State 3

Score by Innings

*--*

LB 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 - 3 7 1

UC Irvine 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 - 4 10 2

*--*

Estrada, Anderson (8), Jamison (10), Kammond (11) and Jones;

Cassel, Erickson (9), Robertson (11) and Wagner. W -- Robertson, 2-2.

L -- Hammond, 0-3. 2B -- Tulowitzki (LB), Boatright (LB), Jones (LB),

Struble (LB), Johnson (UCI), Dalton (UCI) .