Cusick provides big finish

IRVINE — With small ball not exactly working out too well for the UC Irvine baseball team Friday night, senior first baseman Jeff Cusick had something a little bigger in mind.

So, with two on, after a failed two-strike-bunt attempt had just produced the first out of the ninth inning against visiting Cal State Fullerton, Cusick provided the big finish the Irvine rooters were looking for before 1,576 at Anteater Ballpark.

Cusick sat on a 1-0 changeup from Titans closer Nick Ramirez and launched it off the scoreboard in left field for a three-run, walk-off home run to give the No. 18-ranked ’Eaters sole possession of first place in the Big West Conference.

UCI (18-9, 4-0 in conference), the defending Big West champion, has now won 28 of its last 30 conference games, dating back to 2008.

Unranked Cal State Fullerton, guided by former UCI Coach Dave Serrano, fell to 16-12, 3-1 and lost a chance to perhaps accept gift the Anteaters appeared eager to present.

“If think if we would have lost that one, we would have felt like we gave it to them,” said UCI senior All-American left-hander Danny Bibona, for whom the heroics of Cusick, his former Santa Margarita High teammate, parlayed his complete-game four-hitter into a victory. “That was a game that was ours the whole game … That was our game to be won.”

UCI had leads of 1-0, 2-1, and 3-1, before the Titans used an error and a controversial balk call to support a three-run seventh inning the gave them a 4-3 edge.

A run-producing double by junior third baseman Brian Hernandez allowed UCI to knot it in the seventh and Bibona battled on, avoiding the hook after 106 pitches through eight innings.

“Bibona was a warrior,” Gillespie said of the 2009 Big West Pitcher of the Year, who is 5-2 this year and 9-0 against conference foes the last two seasons. “He just competed and competed to the max.

“The only reason we left him out there in the ninth was because of the two left-handed hitters due up.”

Bibona struck out eight, walked two and allowed two earned runs. He threw 115 pitches.

Other than Bibona, UCI was less than crisp. A two-base throwing error by catcher Francis Larson contributed to Fullerton’s big seventh inning and second baseman Casey Stevenson made a throwing error that Bibona overcame.

In addition, Sean Madigan struck out when he bunted foul with two strikes in the seventh.

Gillespie defended his decision to bunt with two strikes, which worked out in the first when Hernandez dropped one down to advance two runners.

“I’d like to give the three-run home run sign every time,” Gillespie said with a smile. “But count up those home runs we hit around here [in a notorious pitchers’ park]; there are not a lot of them. We’ll do what we do [bunt].”

Hernandez homered inches over the left-field fence to lead off the Anteaters’ fifth, matching Ramirez, who drove one out to right to give the visitors their first run in the second.

Cusick, on an 18-game hitting streak, said his knowledge of Ramirez’s pitching pattern helped him get the first walk-off homer of his career.

It was the first walk-off homer for UCI since Jaime Martinez did the deed at home against UC Riverside in 2006.

“He had thrown a lot of [change-ups] earlier in the game to right-handed hitters,” Cusick said. “I knew he wasn’t going to throw a fastball. He’s not going to give in there.

“I’m still a little in shock, to be honest with you,” said Cusick, whose four runs batted in lifted his team-leading total to 32. He also leads the team with five homers. “I still don’t know really what happened.

“If we don’t have that one break-down inning it wouldn’t have had to have been so dramatic.”

Bibona appreciated Cusick’s dramatic drive.

“That’s definitely the most special thing [Cusick] has ever done on a baseball field,” Bibona said.

The series continues today at 1 p.m. at UCI.

Big West Conference

UC Irvine 7, Cal State Fullerton 4

SCORE BY INNINGS

No. Ramirez, Ni. Ramirez (7) and Marcoe; Bibona and Larson. W – Bibona, 5-2. L – Ni. Ramirez, 0-3. 2B – Lopez (CSF), Crumlich (UCI), Hernandez (UCI). HR – Ni. Ramirez (CSF), Hernandez (UCI), Cusick (UCI).