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Sophomore Joey Gonzales extended
his hitting streak to nine games on Saturday.
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(April
19, 2008) – Matt Larkins held 5th ranked UC Irvine to
one unearned run and the UC Riverside bullpen held off a late
rally to pick up a 5-3 victory in Irvine, CA Saturday night.
The Highlanders (10-23, 4-4 Big West) recorded 13 hits led
by Drew Garcia who finished the night 3-for-4.
Larkins
improved his record to 5-2 after limiting the Anteaters (24-8,
6-5 Big West) to just five hits and striking out one in his
5.1 innings of work.
UCR
staked Larkins to an early 3-0 lead after they jumped on UCI
starter Bryce Stowell for three runs on three hits in the
first. Drew Garcia singled home Carl Uhl and Ryan Goetz then
brought home Garcia and Aaron Wible with a two-run double
to right center to complete the first inning scoring.
That
was all that Larkins needed as he pounded the strike zone
throughout the game. He used two double plays and nine groundouts
to pick up the win. He escaped his only jam in the fifth,
after loading the bases, by getting a groundout. Larkins would
have held UCI scoreless if not for a two-out Highlander error
that allowed the one run to come across in the inning. Paul
Applebee relieved Larkins following the error and struck out
an Irvine pinch-hitter to preserve the 4-1 lead.
UCR
provided some breathing room an inning later, using perfectly
placed safety squeeze bunt by Wible to allow Joey Gonzales
to score and open up a 5-1 advantage.
Irvine
continued to battle, bringing a run across in the eighth and
added another in the ninth off of Applebee who gave way to
closer Joe Kelly after allowing a leadoff triple to Anteater
lead off man Ollie Linton to start the ninth. Kelly came though
for UCR, inducing the Anteaters into two ground balls, allowing
the one run, that was charged to Applebee, to cross but then
struck out the final batter to pick up his second save of
the season and give the Highlanders a 5-3 win.
Riverside
had four players record two or more hits including Ryan Goetz
who also drove in two runs for the Highlanders. Applebee finished
with five strikeouts in his relief role and Gonzales extended
his hitting streak to nine games.
UCR
will send Paul Bargas to the mound for tomorrow’s 1:00
p.m. rubber game of the series.
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