The Anteaters are off to an 8-5 start on the season, and they have played a very tough slate through the first few weeks of the year. Their three weekend series so far have included, a tough road trip to play at Louisiana-Lafayette, a home series against NCAA Tournament participant Grand Canyon, as well as a road trip to top 15 ranked Oregon State.

The midweek games haven’t been cakewalks either, including San Diego State and Arizona State. UCI swept the Sun Devils in a two-game midweek series this week. While it is still early in the season, Irvine sits at #25 in the RPI, so this is a big weekend series for the Hawkeyes, in terms of building an NCAA Tournament resume.

Friday Pitching Matchup – rSoph Adam Mazur vs rSr Michael Frias

Adam Mazur continues in the Friday role for the Hawkeyes, and he ran into his first trouble last week against Wichita State. He allowed four runs in the sixth inning; however, you could argue that a couple plays could have been made to help him out. Mazur has struck out 21 in 19.1 innings of work, while walking just three and outside of that one inning against the Shockers, Adam has been outstanding.

The All-Big West performer, Michael Frias has struggled a bit to kick off the 2022 campaign, posting a 6.32 ERA over three starts. He has struck out 22 in 15.2 innings pitched, but has allowed 18 hits, including four home runs. His 3.32 ERA and 1.04 WHIP last season shows what he is capable of.

Saturday Pitching Matchup – rSr Dylan Nedved vs rSoph Nick Pinto

With Connor Schultz dealing with shoulder soreness, Dylan Nedved will get the start on the mound on Saturday. This isn’t shocking to see him get a start, as Coach Heller mentioned Nedved in talks for the getting a start, but they wanted him in the back end of the bullpen more. Over 10.0 innings, Dylan has posted a 1.80 ERA, including 14 strikeouts and just five hits.

Nick Pinto will go to the mound for UCI on Saturday and the redshirt sophomore will be looking to bounce back from a rough outing last week against Oregon State. In 4.2 innings, Pinto allowed six runs on seven hits, while walking three Beavers. However, the week before, he put together a great outing against Grand Canyon, going 6.1 innings, allowing just one run on six hits, while striking out six. He was named to the All-Big West Second Team last season as a redshirt freshman.

Sunday Pitching Matchup – TBA vs Fr Danny Suarez

The Hawkeyes do not have a starter announced for Sunday yet and with Marcus Morgan struggling with giving up free bases, we could see a new starter in this spot. Ty Langenberg has been very good in two appearances, so he is my pick for the start if it the coaching staff goes away from Morgan.

Suarez will be making his fourth start of the season, as he eases further into his first season of collegiate baseball, and he’s been pretty good. Despite a 1-2 record, Suarez has posted a 3.00 ERA and struck out 15 over and walked just four over 15.0 innings pitched. His start last Sunday vs Oregon State was his best so far going 6.0 innings, allowing a single just on six hits, while striking out five and walking none.

Breaking down the Anteaters

The Anteaters are still trying to find their way on the offensive end, as they are batting just .230 as a team and while their strikeout percentage went down after this week’s midweek games, it still sits at nearly 25%. Their lineup includes just two players with over a .300 batting average and are led by RF Nathan Church. The sophomore was named to the All-Big West First Team, as well as the Collegiate Baseball Third Team All-American team last season and is batting .302 to start the 2022 campaign. Church leads the team in hits, total bases and is tied for the least strikeouts among the starters.

DH Jacob Castro leads the team with a .310 batting average and 10 RBIs. Expect him to swing the bat, as he has walked just one time in 43 plate appearances. 2B Woody Hadeen is batting .250 on the season, but has drawn a walk/hbp 12 times to give him a .411 on-base percentage. He is also a big threat on the base paths, where he is 5/5 on the season. Hadeen also stole 12 bases this summer with the Anchorage Bucs in the ABL Summer League.

C Thomas McCaffery (.256) is the only other Anteater with double digit hits, while C Abraham Garcia-Pacheco has a .423 on-base percentage in six starts. Pacheco could be a Sunday starter and will be available in a pinch-hit role all weekend.

The rest of the UCI lineup is still looking to get things rolling. SS Taishi Nakawake has struck out a team-high 14 times in 38 plate appearances and is hitting .242. OF Luke Spillane (.200), OF Justin Torres (.195), 1B Ben Fitzgerald (.167) and 3B Connor McGuire (1.56) are all normal starters that are still looking to get rolling at the plate. Torres does have a .340 on-base percentage courtesy of drawing some walks.

The Iowa pitchers will have to try to take advantage of some struggling Anteater bats, but much like Wichita State, this is not a lineup to take lightly. There is a reason why this team was in an NCAA regional last season.

The UC Irvine bullpen has posted a 3.43 ERA over 34 appearances and 44.2 innings of work. The walk numbers are up a bit compared to the starting staff, but they are allowing less hits.

Unlike early weekends where the Hawkeyes are playing a team once, we can run through a handful of names for UCI since it is a three-game weekend. Gordon Ingebritson has been the best reliever for the Anteaters so far this season and he’s been outstanding. Ingebritson has appeared in six games, posting a 0.53 ERA over 17.0 innings, including 11 strikeouts to just one walk and four hits. He is holding opponents to a .073 batting average.

Cameron Wheeler has appeared in five games with a 1.93 ERA over 14.0 innings, including 11 strikeouts to just one walk, with a WHIP of 0.57. Wheeler is holding opponents to a .140 batting average. Michael Stanford has appeared in six games, throwing 12.0 innings with a 4.50 ERA. Teams are hitting a scorching .348 off of Stanford this season, but have only converted 23 base runners into six runs.

Andre Antone, Jake Spillane and Troy Wentworth have all appeared in five games, but have combined for just 12.2 innings of work. The three have combined for a 4.28 ERA.

Jacob King was named to the All-Big West First Team last year, while he also landed on the Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American team last season. He posted an impressive 1.98 ERA in 41.0 innings, but has struggled (6.75 ERA) over four appearances this season.

Midweek at San Diego State

Quick preview of the midweek contest against the Aztecs. SDSU is 4-8 on the season and will be hosting UNLV over the weekend. The pitching staff has posted a 4.50 ERA and while they have struck out 123 in 110.0 innings, they have allowed 109 hits and walked 52.

INF Caden Miller leads the team in a number of offensive categories, including a .464 on-base percentage, .333 batting average, 18 total bases, 15 hits and seven runs scored. C Poncho Ruiz is batting .267, while he is tied for the team lead in total bases and second in hits (12).

The Aztecs have given up 13 unearned runs and 15 errors in 12 games, so far this season.

Final Thoughts

Set the California trip Over/Under at 2.5 wins. I think it’s reasonable for the Hawkeyes to grab a win this weekend against UCI, while two wins would have a huge boost. The midweek game at SDSU is very winnable. It was unreasonable to think Iowa was going to keep up the play they showed during their first four games, while on the flip side, it’s unreasonable to think they will continue to play like they have over the last week or so.

This is the first weekend of a huge month-long stretch for the Hawkeyes and at 6-5 on the season, they cannot afford to have a bad month. UCI, San Diego State, Texas Tech, Central Michigan, Illinois State and Michigan all await.