USA's Steve Kittrell and UCI's Mike Gillespie-Picture provided by Donald J Boyles
Game 5 of the QTI Baylor Classic involved UC-Irvine and South Alabama. On the mound for UC-Irvine was Crosby Slaught and South Alabama countered with Lance Baxter.
UC Irvine (7-4) got on the board in the bottom of the second when Larson led off with a home run to left-center field off of South Alabama (5-7) starter Lance Baxter. Eric Deragisch followed with a bunt single and later came around to score on Cory Olson’s two-out single to give the Anteaters a 2-0 lead.
South Alabama tied the score in the top of the third, scoring a run on an error in a botched rundown and a run-scoring single by Heisler. He also delivered again in the fifth with a bunt single to plate Derek O’Reilly to give the Jaguars the 3-2 lead.
South Alabama scored twice in the sixth on a Jake Overstreet’s two-out single to put the lead at 5-2.
The Anteaters rallied to close the gap to 5-4 in the bottom of the seventh on clutch pinch hits by Jordan Fox to plate Crumlich and Bell to score Ben Orloff. UCI caught the Jaguars in the eighth as Tony Asaro delivered with a jam shot to right to bring in Olson, who had been hit by the pitch to start the rally.
Casey Stevenson delivered a bases-loaded single to left to drive in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth as UC Irvine rallied from behind to defeat South Alabama 6-5 Sunday at the QTI Baylor Classic at Baylor Ballpark. UCI climbed to 7-4 with the win and 2-1 in tournament action while USA fell to 5-7 overall.
The final game of the tournament was won by Baylor beat UAB 11-8 in the tourney recap.
