IRVINE, Calif. — UC Irvine’s top five RBI producers will return to lead the team through a 2016 schedule that includes taking on three of the four teams from both the Los Angeles and Lake Elsinore Regional fields.
The Anteaters open on the road for the second consecutive season, playing four games at San Jose State, Feb. 19-21.
UCI’s home opener will be against San Diego State (Feb. 23), the first of a home-and-home series against the Aztecs with the ‘Eaters making the return trip Apr. 19.
The contest against SDSU kicks off a stretch in which UCI will play nine of its next 10 games at Anteater Ballpark. The home swing includes an exhibition game against the NC Dinos (Feb. 25) and a three-game set against Nevada, Feb. 26-28. Following a visit to Loyola Marymount (Mar. 1), UCI returns to host UTSA (Mar. 4-6) before entertaining CSU Bakersfield (Mar. 8), a regional participant, in a midweek contest.
The Anteaters take their only non-conference trip out of the state of California to return a series against Tennessee (Mar. 11-13).
The team then returns to campus to host five straight games that begins with a match-up against Maryland (Mar. 16), winners of the 2015 Los Angeles Regional. The Wednesday night game will mark the first-ever meeting between the Anteaters and the Terrapins.
Seattle University will also be a first-time guest of the Anteaters when the Redhawks travel to Anteater Ballpark for a weekend series (Mar. 18-20) before UCI caps off its five-game stay at home against LMU (Mar. 22).
UCI travels to San Diego to begin the annual two-game set against the Toreros (Mar. 29) and then kicks off the month of April with a Big West Conference series at Hawaii (Apr. 1-3).
Big West action continues at home against UC Riverside (Apr. 8-10) and the Anteaters then take their show on the road for an eight-game swing that starts against the Roadrunners (Apr. 12). Conference series at Long Beach State (Apr. 15-17) and UC Davis (Apr. 22-24) sandwich the Tuesday night return game against the Aztecs (Apr. 19).
UCI will play UNLV twice this year with the first meeting slated for Monday afternoon (Apr. 25) at home.
The ‘Eaters then take a short trip to USC (Apr. 26) before hosting Cal State Fullerton (Apr. 29-May 1).
UCI will meet the Rebels on their home field, May 3, and then takes on UCLA in a weekend series utilizing both Anteater Ballpark and Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Anteaters will make the trek to Los Angeles Friday (May 6) and Sunday (May 8) with UCLA making the visit on May 7.
A pair of non-conference games against the Toreros (May 10) and USC (May 17) at Anteater Ballpark bookend the Anteaters’ final road trip of the regular season to Cal Poly (May 13-15).
UCI will end the regular season at home for the first time since 2012. The Anteaters look to avenge a series loss against Santa Barbara (May 20-22), which competed in the Lake Elsinore Regional and then host CSUN (May 26-28) for a series that kicks off Thursday night.
The Anteaters were 33-23 in 2015 and finished third in the Big West at 15-9. All-American, Keston Hiura led the Big West with 52 runs batted in last year and returns for his sophomore campaign. Bolstering the offense will be Mitchell Holland, a second-team All-Big West choice who was second with 35 RBI. Cameron Bishop, who drove in 30 runs last year, comes off a summer assignment with the Corvallis Knights where he had 24 RBI on 35 hits and struck out 35 on the mound. Andrew Martinez logged 23 runs batted in for UCI and Mikey Duarte, who batted leadoff for the ‘Eaters, rounds out the group with 19 RBI.
Also returning to the field are Parker Coss, who was a West Coast League All-Star and Wyatt Castro, the Golden State Collegiate Baseball League’s MVP and Hitter of the Year. Adam Alcantara will help solidify the outfield in 2016 after earning All-WCL second team honors while Sean Sparling received an honorable mention nod with the Wenatchee AppleSox.
2016 UC-Irvine Baseball Schedule (PDF)
