UC Irvine proves to be too much in sweeping Hawaii baseball

For the third time in as many days, the UC Irvine baseball team pulled the string that unraveled Hawaii’s comeback hopes.

On Saturday afternoon at Les Murakami Stadium, the Anteaters’ five-run lead dwindled to one run in the third before the 20th-ranked visitors broke away to a 12-5 victory.

A crowd of 1,610 saw the Anteaters complete the three-game sweep — the first endured from a Big West team in Rich Hill’s three seasons as UH head coach. The Anteaters improved to 22-3 overall and 8-1 in the Big West. The ’Bows fell to 15-10 and 2-4.

“The failure crystallizes your path toward success,” said Hill, whose ’Bows rallied but could not overcome deficits in the first two games of the series. “We found out a lot of things. I’m actually excited to go back to work on Monday.”

The weekend’s lessons were the Anteaters have an aggressively efficient lineup and a maturing pitching staff. Ricky Ojeda, who earned the victory on Saturday, was among five UCI freshmen to pitch in the series.

“That’s what we’ve been doing all year,” UCI coach Ben Orloff said. “Every start on the mound, besides (Nick) Pinto, was made by a freshman. Those guys are really good. This is a tough environment to pitch in, against a good team. There’s not many people in the country throwing as many freshmen as us.”

Outfielder Caden Kendle, who missed five games because of a hamstring injury, rejoined the lineup Tuesday against Loyola Marymount. On Saturday, for the second game in a row, Kendle had four hits. He batted .714 against the ’Bows.

“I was seeing the ball well all weekend,” said Kendle, who upped his season average to .467.

Kendle batted third in the first two games but moved to leadoff on Saturday after shortstop Woody Hadeen was struck on the back with a pitch on Friday. “Woody’s banged up,” Kendle said. “But it doesn’t matter where I bat in the lineup. It’s the same approach no matter what.”

In the sixth, Kendle, playing left field, sprawled to snag left-swinging Jake Tsukada’s line drive.

“We played their lefties a little in and over all weekend,” Kendle said of shading to left-center. “They want to flare it over. (Tsukada) hit it hard. I ran back and kept my eyes on it and played it out. It’s definitely a tougher background than I’m used to.”

Orloff said Kendle is “one of the best players in the country. It showed this weekend. He got eight hits. He played defense.”

The Anteaters scored five runs in the first inning and added another run in the second. The ’Bows scored a run in the second, then closed to 6-5 with a four-run third.

But the Anteaters plated three runs in the fourth and never looked back. Abraham Garcia-Pacheco singled home two runs and Chase Call added a sacrifice fly.

UH’s Isaiah Magdaleno struggled in his fourth start, allowing four consecutive hits to open the first inning. Hill decided to allow Magdaleno to stay in after the right-handed freshman retired the final two batters of the first.

“We wanted him to go more than one inning,” Hill said. “We thought we were going to score a little bit. But I wanted to send him out for the second to see if he could regroup after that first inning.”

But after Kendle singled to start the second, Magdaleno was replaced. Hill praised the bullpen — Tyler Dyball pitched two scoreless innings as Magdaleno’s immediate replacement — to allow “us to get back in the game within one run.”

But the Anteaters proved to be too forceful. Every starter had a hit; in all, the Anteaters amassed 17 hits against five UH pitchers.

“Hat’s off to UC Irvine,” Hill said. “They absolutely came in and took care of business. … Those guys pitched great (and) obviously played great defense. Swung the bat. (Their) bunting game was a clinic.”

Referencing the site of the College World Series, Hill said of the Anteaters’ attack: “It’s a very Omaha-esque offense, for sure.”