FULLERTON — The top-seeded UC Irvine baseball team cleared its first hurdle in the Big West Tournament on Thursday afternoon, defeating Hawaii, 7-5, at Goodwin Field.
Will Bermudez reached base five times, going 2 for 2 with two runs scored and an RBI to pace the UCI offense, while Max Martin had three strikeouts in 1⅔ innings to close out the win.
The Anteaters (40-13), the Big West regular-season champs, will face second-seeded Cal Poly (38-16) in a winner’s bracket game on Friday at 3 p.m., while fourth-seeded Hawaii (34-20) will face third-seeded Cal State Fullerton (29-26) in an elimination game at 7 p.m.
Cal Poly beat Fullerton, 7-2, on Thursday night.
UCI grabbed an early lead with a three-run first inning. With the bases loaded and no outs, Anthony Martinez started the scoring with an RBI single. Jacob McCombs’ hard-hit ground out scored Colin Yeaman with the second run, then Chase Call singled to left center for a 3-0 lead.
The Rainbow Warriors answered with two runs in the second inning, but they stranded the potential tying run.
UCI scored three more runs in the bottom of the second. A ground ball under the second baseman’s glove scored two runs, and another McCombs grounder extended the Anteaters’ lead to 6-2.
Pitching and defense took control for the next four innings. Riley Kelly worked out of a pair of jams while pitching into the fifth inning and striking out five while scattering six hits, then Ricky Ojeda (13-0) came on in relief and went three innings.
Hawaii’s Ben Zeigler-Namoa hit a three-run home run in the seventh to cut UCI’s lead to 6-5, but the Anteaters added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth and Martin retired five of his six batters for his 14th save.
Frankie Carney went 2 for 4 with a run scored for UCI, while and Martinez went 1 for 4 with two RBIs and Call went 1 for 4 with an RBI.
Jordan Donahue went 3 for 4 with a run scored for Hawaii, and Matthew Miura went 2 for 5 with a run scored.
More to come on this story.
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