CORVALLIS, Ore. — The UC Irvine baseball team saw its season come to an end on Monday when the Anteaters could not rally in their rain-delayed game against No. 15 national seed Oregon State.
Elijah Hainline hit a three-run home run to spark a five-run second inning on Sunday night and the Beavers extended their two-run fourth-inning lead when play resumed on Monday afternoon, pulling away to beat UCI, 11-6, and win the four-team Corvallis Regional.
“It’s tough coming out of the loser’s bracket on these deals,” UCI coach Ben Orloff said. “I think since the start of the regional era, it’s over 80% the team that wins it does so by winning the first two games and when you don’t do that, you’re in a bind.”
Oregon State (45-14) had to wait a day to advance after the game was suspended Sunday night with the Beavers leading 6-4 in the bottom of the fourth inning. The Beavers will hit the road to take on No. 2 national seed Kentucky in the best-of-three Lexington Super Regional, beginning Friday or Saturday. The winner earns a trip to the eight-team College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
Dub Gleed had a three-run home run to cap a four-run bottom of the first inning for the Anteaters (45-14) against Beavers starter Eric Segura.
Oregon State answered with a five-run second inning and never trailed again.
UCI starter Nick Rincover left after issuing a leadoff walk to begin the big inning. David Utagawa took the mound and walked Wilson Weber. Hainline homered to center field to drive in three. Traves Bazzana added a sacrifice fly and Gavin Turley drove in the fifth run with a two-out double.
UCI went with its ace, Nick Pinto, to begin the resumed portion of the game and Oregon State knocked him out before he could get a third out in the top of the fifth. Mason Guerra had an RBI single and Dallas Macias drew a bases-loaded walk in the frame to put Oregon State ahead, 8-5.
“Trying to get 27 outs each night, Nick Pinto’s a senior and we’ve talked about this for a long time about being available come Monday,” Orloff said. “I don’t regret the decision. To win these things out of the loser’s bracket, you have to do some unconventional stuff on the mound. So that’s what went into it and you’re trying to win this thing. You’re trying to win two and so you gotta be able to win two games and that’s what we needed to do.”
Gleed hit a solo shot in the bottom of the fifth for what proved to be the Anteaters’ final run.
“This is one of the best groups of guys that I’ve ever been a part of, best-coached team I’ve ever been a part of,” Gleed said. “I’m grateful to have the opportunity to be on this team and around these guys each and every day and play for UCI baseball. All year we just try to grind out games. We know at times it’s not going to be perfect. We’re ok with that. We’re ready for whatever comes our way. We just fought as long as we could, unfortunately we came close but were just short.”
Micah McDowell drove in a run in the sixth with a two-out, bases-loaded infield single. Guerra hit a solo shot in the eighth and Macias hit the team’s 118th homer of the season – a two-run shot in the ninth.
Hainline, Guerra and Jabin Trosky bat 7-8-9 in the order, respectively. All three had two hits, combining for five RBIs and six runs scored.
Reliever AJ Hutcheson (4-2) earned the win on the mound. He retired all four batters he faced, striking out one.
Utagawa (3-1) did not retire a batter in taking the loss. He gave up four runs on two hits and two walks.
Oregon State had previously beaten the Anteaters, 5-3, on Saturday night. The Anteaters needed to win the suspended game to force a winner-take-all rematch with the Beavers later Monday.
UCI second baseman Will Bermudez echoed Gleed’s thoughts after being eliminated.
“All season long, we’ve just been one big family,” Bermudez said. “Since we all stepped on campus, we’ve all been pushing for each other whether that’s in between the lines, outside the lines, in class. We’re just all pushing each other to succeed. Picking each other up is vital to our success, and like Dub said, we came up just a little short.”
Orloff was gracious in defeat and praised the Beavers for their consistent success.
“Congratulations to Oregon State for the year they’re having,” Orloff said. “These guys have become the standard on the West and it feels like if you want to go to Omaha, it goes through Corvallis and it goes through Oregon State. And congratuations to what Mitch Canham’s doing over here. It’s not easy to replace what Coach (Pat) Casey did here, and for him to be able to keep this thing rolling. They’ve really got a good team. They’re a class act and so congratulations to them and the people here. We’ve had a great experience here, and lost to a really good team.”
Oregon State has been to the College World Series seven times, most recently in 2018 when the Beavers beat Arkansas, 5-0, to win their third championship. Oregon State also posted back-to-back CWS titles in 2006-07, beating North Carolina both times.
UCI made CWS appearances in 2007 and 2014. The Anteaters won back-to-back championships at the Division II level in 1973-74.
