No. 25 UC Irvine Rallies Past UW For Series Win

Sunday, February 17

Irvine, CA

6:00 PM

University of Washington

1-2

UC Irvine

2-1

Washington

UC Irvine

February 17, 2019 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Brian Tom

IRVINE, Calif. – No. 25 UC Irvine scored five runs in the seventh inning to rally past Washington, 6-4, Sunday night at Anteater Ballpark to capture the season-opening series, 2-1.

Behind Irvine native Jonathan Schiffer's three-hit night and a solid five-inning start from Josh Burgmann, the Huskies (1-2) jumped out to a 4-1 lead. But, the Anteaters (2-1) sent 10 hitters and scored five times in the decisive seventh inning.

After a Ramon Bramasco double, the Huskies brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth inning, but Jordan Bocko (1-0) struck out pinch-hitter Noah Hsue to get out of the jam and closer Taylor Rashi struck out the side in the ninth to clinch his second save of the series.

The Husky offense jumped on UC Irvine starter Trenton Denholm out of the gates and tagged him for two runs in the first inning. With one out, the Huskies got back-to-back singles from Mason Cerrillo and Nick Kahle, followed by a fielding error at second base on a ground ball by Joe Wainhouse to load the bases. Schiffer stepped up and lofted a single into left field that scored two and gave the Huskies a 2-0 lead.

Schiffer was 3 for 4 on Sunday and finished the three-game series 5 for 12 at the plate.

Burgmann no-hit the Anteaters through the first four innings before John Jensen led off the fifth with a triple and came around to score on a sacrifice fly. It would be the only run he allowed in five innings as he allowed three hits, struck out five and walked three in a stellar 2019 debut.

The Huskies would expand their lead to 4-1 with single runs in the sixth and seventh innings, both aided in large part by UC Irvine errors. Schiffer scored from second base in the sixth inning when Irvine shortstop Christian Koss committed his second error of the game with a wild throw at second trying to make a force out. The Huskies got their fourth run in the seventh when Kaiser Weiss reached second on an error in right field by Jensen and Cerrillo chased him home with a triple.

After that, UC Irvine would turn the tides. The Anteaters scored their first two runs on a hit by pitch and walk – both with the bases loaded. Koss made amends for his two earlier errors by tying the game with a sacrifice fly, and Konnor Zickefoose and Brendan Brooks followed with RBI singles to give the Anteaters a two-run lead.

The Huskies don't have much time to lick their wounds as they play CS Fullerton in a single game on Monday with a first pitch scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at Goodwin Field.