Recapping the action from the Irvine Regional at Anteater Ballpark on Friday.
Virginia- 5, San Diego St.- 1
Irvine, CA- Virginia’s pitching staff outdueled San Diego State phenom Stephen Strasburg as the seventh-ranked Cavaliers notched a 5-1 victory Friday afternoon in the opening round of the 2009 NCAA Irvine Regional at Anteater Ballpark in Irvine, Calif. The Cavaliers recorded two early runs, then rode their pitching before tacking on three runs in the eighth inning against the Aztecs’ bullpen to seal the win and hand Strasburg his first loss of 2009.
Virginia, the regional’s No. 2 seed, now will face the winner of the No. 1 UC Irvine-No. 4 Fresno State game at 11 p.m. ET Saturday. ESPNU and Comcast SportsNet each will have live coverage of the game. No. 3 SDSU will play at 7 p.m. ET against the loser of the UCI-Fresno State contest in an elimination game.
Virginia pitcher Robert Morey (So., Virginia Beach, Va.) had one of the best starts of his career, going six shutout innings and allowing just five hits and three walks while striking out nine. He improved to 3-0 with the victory. Tyler Wilson (So., Midlothian, Va.), Matt Packer (Jr., Germantown, Tenn.) and Kevin Arico (So., Flemington, N.J.) allowed just one hit and one walk over the final three frames. As a staff, Virginia struck out 13 batters.
Virginia Recap
San Diego St. Recap
UC Irvine- 4, Fresno St.- 2
IRVINE, CA- One inning of offense was all No. 1 UC Irvine (44-13) needed to top defending national champion Fresno State (32-29) 4-2 in opening night action Friday at the Irvine Regional played at Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark. The top-seeded Anteaters rallied for four runs in the fourth to advance to the winners bracket in a regional that boasts three 40-win squads.
UCI opened the deciding frame by loading the bases after two hit batters and a double down the left field line by Casey Stevenson. Jeff Cusick’s bases-loaded walk and DJ’s Crumlich’s sacrifice fly each brought in runs and set up a two-run double off the bat of freshman Jordan Fox, who made just his fifth start of the season Friday.
UCI starter Daniel Bibona (12-1) showed why he is a first-team All-American during his first 3 1/3, retiring every batter he faced while striking out five.
UC Irvine Recap
Fresno St. Recap
