Small ball, big night for UCI

IRVINE ? It all came together Tuesday night for the UC Irvine baseball team.

On a night when there was a groundbreaking ceremony for a new clubhouse at Anteater Ballpark, UC Irvine received shutout pitching from four different hurlers plus timely execution on offense to complete a season sweep of USC with a 5-0 nonconference victory.

It marked the first time since the program resurrected in 2002 that UC Irvine (22-16) has swept the season series with USC (22-17).

When the teams met March 7, it took the Anteaters five hours and 24 minutes to beat the Trojans, 10-9, in 13 innings at Dedeaux Field.

Tuesday night, it took less than half that time ? a cool two hours and 25 minutes ? for the Anteaters to emerge with their third consecutive victory. UC Irvine won the last two games of a three-game set at Cal Poly over the weekend to capture its first Big West Conference series of the season.

The Anteaters hope they are on the upswing heading into the heart of conference play.

“We kind of have to have the momentum from these wins carry over into the rest of the season,” said UC Irvine Coach Dave Serrano, whose squad is 3-6 in the Big West. “We can’t have any letdowns. We got great pitching today and we executed on offense. When we do that, we can beat anybody.”

Senior left-hander Glenn Swanson set the tone for the Anteaters pitching staff by hurling four innings of perfect baseball, facing the minimum 12 batters. Swanson stayed ahead in the count and consistently dropped in sharp-breaking curveballs for strikes.

“My curveball was snapping off good in the bullpen and it carried over into the game,” Swanson said. “I was keeping the ball down, getting ahead in the count and trying to give up as many ground balls as possible.”

Swanson struck out three and didn’t walk anybody in his four innings to improve to 4-3.

“Any time you give the ball to a fifth-year senior in a midweek game, you feel pretty comfortable about it,” Serrano said. “He threw all four of his pitches for strikes.”

The pitchers who followed Swanson to the mound for UC Irvine were nearly as effective. Junior Gary Nakashima gave up just two walks in his two innings of work, and junior Dylan Axelrod allowed just two hits in his two innings before Kyle Necke closed the game in the ninth, giving up just a single to Baron Frost before retiring Daniel Perales (Mater Dei High) on a ground ball to second base.

The Anteaters played small ball to score most of their runs. In the bottom of the first inning, freshman Ben Orloff walked, stole second and scored on an infield single up the middle by senior Jaime Martinez. UC Irvine scored in the fourth when Martinez reached on an error, took second on a passed ball, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by junior Matt Morris and scored on Danny McCarthy’s single to right field past a drawn-in infield.

The Anteaters added a run in the sixth when junior Chad Lundahl hit a shot that one-hopped the left-center field fence for a one-out double, took third on a ground ball to second by Aaron Lowenstein and scored on an infield single by senior Gary Dudrey (3 for 4, two RBIs) off the pitcher’s glove.

“That’s our style,” Serrano said. “We get ‘em on, move ‘em over and score ‘em.”

The groundbreaking ceremony on the new clubhouse at Anteater Ballpark took place before the game. The two-story, 6,500-square foot venue is scheduled to be finished in the fall. The clubhouse is slated to consist of training facilities, a team locker room, equipment rooms and coaches’ offices.

The Anteaters will try to continue on the upswing when they host UC Santa Barbara for a three-game set starting Friday.