Erickson, offense propel UCI

IRVINE ? Though UC Irvine All-American Blair Erickson has, for the time being, been relieved of his closer role, it does not mean the fireballing right-hander can’t continue to be the Anteaters’ savior.

Erickson, a junior who has 10 saves this season and 37 in his noteworthy career, pitched a career-high six innings to earn his first victory as a starter in the Anteaters’ 14-4 Big West Conference triumph over UC Santa Barbara on Sunday.

The win, Erickson’s fourth in as many decisions this season, allowed the Anteaters to win their second straight three-game conference series, two games to one. It also provided a quick remedy to a disastrous 8-7 setback Saturday night, when the Gauchos scored five runs in the ninth inning off of three UCI relievers to snatch an unlikely victory.

“That just shows our character,” UCI Coach Dave Serrano said of bouncing back to improve to 24-17, 5-7 in conference. “[Saturday’s] loss stung as much as any game I can remember since 1996 when I was at Tennessee and we lost a four- or five-run lead in the ninth. But the only thing we could do today was to try to respond, and I thought we responded the right way.”

Serrano said Erickson, who went four innings in his first start, April 14 at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo when he was not involved in the decision, is still adjusting to his new assignment.

“I don’t want to be critical, because it’s still new to him, but that still wasn’t Blair Erickson,” Serrano said. “I know he can [succeed as a starter] and he kind of proved me right. But he still didn’t have his best stuff or his best command. He definitely did enough to do what we wanted, which was to get us a victory. That’s the most important thing.”

Erickson gave up seven hits, walked three and struck out only three. He took a shutout into the sixth, but gave up two earned runs, before turning the ball over to Gary Nakashima, who pitched the final three innings for his third save. Erickson threw a career-high 86 pitches.

“I haven’t started since [his junior year of high school] and I’m a little rusty,” Erickson said. “But I think I took a step forward from last week to [Sunday]. I got sloppy a couple time out there, but, luckily, my team picked me up today.”

Serrano said UCI’s offense ? which produced its best single-game scoring output this season on 15 hits, including six doubles and Jaime Martinez’s team-leading fifth homer of the season ? stepped it up against Santa Barbara pitchers.

“This weekend, as a whole, was all about the offense,” said Serrano, whose club scored just 20 runs in its first nine Big West contests, but amassed 33 runs and 38 hits in three games against the Gauchos (16-20, 3-6). “When you put up that many runs, and with as much confidence as I have in our pitching staff, we should win three games.”

Martinez and Chad Lundahl were the offensive leaders for UCI on Sunday.

Martinez, the reigning Big West Player of the Week, went three for five with three RBIs and three runs. He launched a three-run homer well beyond the left-field fence to cap a five-run eighth inning. The senior first baseman was five for 13 in the series with two homers, six RBIs and two doubles. He now has 36 RBIs this season, 10 more than Taylor Holiday who ranks second on the team.

Lundahl was three for four with two doubles and three RBIs. In the series, the junior third baseman went eight for 14 with five RBIs and three doubles.

Senior left fielder Gary Dudrey also continued his strong season, going two for four with two runs, two doubles and one stolen base. For the series, he was five for 10 with five runs and five steals.

Junior Cody Cipriano was two for four with two RBIs and Holiday, a sophomore, went two for three with one RBI as seven different Anteaters drove in runs. Eight UCI players had at least one hit.

UCI freshman Ben Orloff and senior Danny McCarthy had two RBIs apiece as UCI scored one in the third inning, two in the fourth, five in the fifth and one in the sixth.

Perhaps the best stat of the day for UCI was that it left only three runners on base.

UCI, which is now 14-2 when it scores at least six runs, entered the series hitting .264 as a team. But the Anteaters head into Tuesday’s 6 p.m. nonconference date against visiting San Diego with a .272 team average.