For the UC Irvine baseball team, payback was delivered in an 8-5 victory over Hawaii at Les Murakami Stadium.
A night after being drubbed 10-2, the 19th-ranked Anteaters rebounded with an 11-hit assault against six UH pitchers to even the three-game Big West series. The finale is set for today at 1:05 p.m.
For at least one Saturday night, the Anteaters lived up to the gaudy stats of a lineup that entered averaging 7.1 runs per game and a starting rotation with a collective 2.42 ERA.
UCI second baseman Brendan Brooks and designated hitter John Jensen launched towering home runs in support of right-handed pitcher Tanner Brubaker. The Rainbow Warriors scored three in the ninth, but Taylor Rashi got the final two outs for his seventh save.
“I’m disappointed, obviously, in the way we pitched, the way Jeremy (Wu-Yelland, the UH starter) pitched,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said. “We lost the freebie war, by a big margin (six walks, three hit batsmen). … You’re playing with fire when you have to go to the bullpen so early against a ranked team.”
Brubaker allowed six hits, struck out two, and found the escape hatch after the Rainbow Warriors threatened further damage in the fourth and sixth innings. They scored a run in each of those innings.
Brubaker has made an easy adjustment after one-season stops at Cal Baptist and then Saddleback Community College. He was the Tampa Bay Rays’ 28th-round selection in the 2019 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, but opted to honor his commitment to the Anteaters.
On Saturday, he subdued the ’Bows with a darting slider, change-up and fraternal-twin fastballs delivered with two- and four-seam grips.
The ’Bows had hoped to build on Friday night’s performance, in which freshman Aaron Davenport out-dueled All-America pitcher Andre Pallante. But the Anteaters wasted little time in unraveling Wu-Yelland. The left-handed sophomore has potentially the most dominant pitches on the Rainbows staff. But on a calm Saturday evening, Wu-Yelland struggled to master his temperamental pitches.
“I wasn’t good enough tonight, and everybody knows that,” Wu-Yelland said. “I have to do better for the team next week. I’ll do that. It can’t really get much worse.”
Four of the first five Anteaters reached base in the opening frame — two on hits, two on walks. Adrian Damla drove in the Anteaters’ first run with a single, and Brooks’ sacrifice fly made it 2-0.
While Wu-Yelland escaped a jam in the second, he was not as fortunate in the third. A double, an error and an RBI double — all with no outs — forced Wu-Yelland’s earliest ouster in eight career starts. In 341⁄3 innings this season, Wu-Yelland has 22 walks against 29 strikeouts.
The ’Bows closed to 3-1 in the fourth when Dallas Duarte singled home Scotty Scott.
But the Anteaters answered with a three-run sixth. Cade Smith plunked Jensen to open the inning. Christian Koss hit an opposite-field liner past first baseman Alex Baeza and continued to second when Jensen beat the throw to third. Jensen then scored on Griffin Mazur’s single. After the Anteaters loaded the bases, a double-play grounder scored Koss from third. Later, Damla singled home Mikey Filia.
The ’Bows loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the sixth. But they managed only one run when Ethan Lopez scored after Duarte grounded into a double play. Brubaker induced Tyler Murray into an inning-ending groundout.
Brooks and Jensen belted solo homers against Carter Loewen and Kash Koltermann in the seventh.
The ’Bows fell to 11-15 overall and 1-1 in the Big West. The Anteaters improved to 17-5 and 1-1.
