In a pitching duel between UC Irvine’s Justin Cassel and Sacramento State’s Travis Kane, it was the Anteaters who were able to score the deciding run in the bottom of the sixth inning, handing the Hornets a 3-1 loss on Friday night at Anteater Ballpark.Sacramento State drops to 6-9, while the Anteaters improve to 10-6.
Kane, in his fifth start of the year, held UC Irvine to just one run and two hits in his first five innings on the mound, but the Wenatchee, Wash., native surrendered the game-winning run in the sixth inning and was relieved in the seventh after loading the bases.
Left-hander John Schlager, in his seventh appearance of the season, helped alleviate the damage, recording two outs when UC Irvine’s Jaime Martinez hit into a double play, flying out to Montana Dye in right field. In the ensuing play at the plate with Josh Tavelli trying to score from third on the sacrifice fly attempt, Dye’s throw to catcher Buddy Morales was in time, keeping the score 2-1 after seven innings.
Junior right-hander Cyrus Sarraf then took the mound recording the final out of the inning.
The game within reach, junior third baseman Patrick Cummins led off the top of the eighth inning with a single to right field, putting the Hornets’ tying run on first base. But Cassel retired the next three batters of the inning, ending his night pitching 8.0 innings and holding Sacramento State to one unearned run on four hits, while recording nine strikeouts.
The Hornets were trailing 1-0 early after the first inning, but tied the game in the top of the fourth when Gary Johnson led off the inning with the Hornets’ first hit, singling to left field. The junior second baseman advanced to second on a throwing error by Cassel and moved to third when senior Pat Keiper singled. The Los Angeles native is now hitting .410 from the plate.
Johnson, who led the Hornets going 2-for-4 from the plate, scored Sacramento State’s lone run on Cassel’s second throwing error of the inning.
In the sixth, the Anteaters scored the go-ahead run when Zach Robinson’s sacrifice fly scored Gary Dudrey. UC Irvine added its third run in the bottom of the eighth when, after leading off the inning being hit by a pitch, Dudrey again scored on Matt Morris’ sacrifice fly to center field.
Kane (1-2) finished the night pitching 6.0 innings and allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits.
The Anteaters’ closer, Blair Erickson entered the game in top of the ninth and struck out out three consecutive batters for his fifth save of the season.
Sacramento State will continue its three-game weekend series at UC Irvine on Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. The game can be followed on gametracker at www.athletics.uci.edu.
