Fri July 25, 2008
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UC Irvine Rally Falls Short in 6-4 Loss to UCLAMay 13, 2008
IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine left the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, falling to UCLA 6-4 Tuesday in a non-conference game at Anteater Ballpark. The win dropped the Anteaters to 33-14 overall while the Bruins improved to 26-23. Trailing 6-3 with one out in the ninth, UCI loaded the bases against Brendan Lafferty, who gave up a pair of singles and a walk. Tim Murphy picked up for Lafferty and Ben Orloff hit a hard grounder to third baseman Jermaine Curtis, who mishandled the ball, allowing a run to score and leaving the bases loaded. However, Murphy struck out Francis Larson and Dillon Bell hit a grounder to first as Murphy earned his first save of the season. UC Irvine found itself trailing early as UCLA took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third. However, UCI plated a run in the bottom of the inning as Bell worked a four-pitch walk to score Eric Deragisch for the team's first run. UCLA's Mickey Weisser hit a solo home run in the fourth but Tavelli responded for the Anteaters with his third round-tripper of the season to close the deficit to 3-2. Tony Asaro opened the UCI sixth with a triple to right-center and scored on Jeff Cusick's grounder to short to tie the game at 3-3. UCLA struck back in the seventh, capitalizing on an Anteater error in the seventh and scoring the go-ahead run on Brady Dolan's sacrifice fly. The Bruins added single runs in the eighth and ninth innings. UCI starter Tom Calahan struck out three in 2.1 innings and allowed two runs on four hits in the no-decision. Reliever Crosby Slaught fell to 1-1 with the loss after giving up a run and striking out two and walking four in 1.2 innings. Tavelli paced the offense, batting 2 for 4 with an RBI and two runs scored. Lafferty picked up the win (2-2) for UCLA, pitching 3.1 innings and giving up two runs on five hits. |
