Anteaters Prevail in Wild 13-12 Walkoff Win - UCI Athletics (2024)

CORVALLIS, Ore. --- UC Irvine baseball opened their NCAA Regional with a victory in a back-and-forth 13-12 win over Nichollson a walk-off, two-run single by Caden KendleFriday afternoon at Goss Stadium.

• The Anteaters had led virtually the entire game scoring three in the bottom of the first after allowing a first-inning run to the Colonels, and built a 9-1 lead after four innings
• Nichollsmounted their comeback with runs in four of the next five innings chipping away at the lead until the ninth inning
  • The Colonels put the tying runs on for their conference player of the year, Edgar Alvarez, who deposited a ball over the right field scoreboard to give Nicholls a 12-11 lead
  • UC Irvine was back to bat in the bottom of the ninth and got some life with one out from a pinch-hit single by Jacob Stinson
    • Jo Oyama beat out a double play ball to keep a runner on base with two outs
    • Woody Hadeen worked a walk to get it to Myles Smith who had five RBIs going into the at-bat
    • A hard grounder to third base all but seemed to be the third out, but Gerardo Villarreal dropped it making everyone safe and the bases loaded
    • Caden Kendlecame up and got the big hit singling through the right side to score Oyama and Hadeen to win the game, 13-12
• The 'Eaters improve to 7-3 in NCAA Division I Regional openers and have won the last four dating back to 2011
• UC Irvine improves to 19-10 all-time in Division I Postseason baseball playing its 16th postseason one-run game, seventh decided on a walk-off, and fifth that the 'Eaters won.
• The win this season is UCI's is the fifth game won when losing in the ninth inning and seventh win in the final at-bat
• The Anteater offense busted out 13 runs on 17 hits on the afternoon including a six-run fourth inning
  • Myles Smith reached five times on the afternoon including his third two-home run game of the season and driving in five
  • Caden Kendle matched him with three hits going back-to-back on home runs in the first and driving in three
  • Woody Hadeen out of the leadoff spot reached four times including a two-run single, and he scored the game-winning run for his third of the game
  • Chase Call lifted up the bottom of the order with a 3-for-3 day and three runs scored as the bottom of the Anteater order went 7-for-13 with an RBI and six runs
• Anteater pitching held it together as long as they could starting with Nick Pinto striking out seven in 4.2 innings
  • Pinto's start is his 62nd in his career to set the Anteater career record
  • His seven strikeouts surpassed Scott Gorgen on the all-time list, and puts him at 332 tying him with Daniel Bibona for the program's all-time record
  • Ricky Ojeda and Ricky Tibbett were tagged for seven runs between them in 3.2 innings
  • David Utagawa earned the win when all was said and done striking out his two hitters
  • The staff struck out 12 on the afternoon and in the process set a program record surpassing the 2021 squad and now sit with 531 on the season
• UC Irvine awaits their next opponent between Oregon State and Tulane, but will play Saturday, June 1 at 7:00 p.m. in Goss Stadium

Head Coach Ben Orloff - "What a way to win. This is just a special team. We've had a couple of these. When that thing was 9-1, it didn't feel like it could get to 13-12, but Nicholls kept coming and give them a lot of credit especially losing their starter after four outs and having this thing be what it was. Special team, we have really good players and I'm sitting here with two of them. Myles Smith, conference player of the year and Caden Kendle who got drafted last year in the 10th round and chose to come back to school."

Myles Smith - "I was pretty relieved. I hit it and I knew it was right at him, and I just knew I had to get on my horse, but when I saw him boot it, I knew the game was over because we got Caden behind me so I wasn't too worried after that, but emotions were running high."

"I feel like we've done this a lot where we're down or it's tied in the last inning and come back and won. S I don't think anybody in the dugout was really worried when we got back in from that third out, but there's absolutely no quit in this team, there's just so much fight so it's almost a no-brainer at this point that we're going to make something happen."

Caden Kendle - "I got a fastball away and I just tried to put a good swing on it and hit it hard."

"You just never give up. We keep coming no matter what, there's no quit in us. We're just always going to find a way to win no matter what."

"I knew we were going to win. There's no quit in us. Even the bench players like Stinson comes off the bench and puts up a great at-bat to get the rally going."

HOG OUTTA HERE #RipEm pic.twitter.com/QBj3oFTqhf

— UCI Baseball (@UCIbsb) May 31, 2024

Big Woody single! #EatersGottaEat pic.twitter.com/rg3dCiEjZo

— UCI Baseball (@UCIbsb) May 31, 2024

Eaters are EATING ??@UCIbsb x @mylessmith__ pic.twitter.com/28kFgIa1Fm

— D1Baseball (@d1baseball) May 31, 2024

Big spot for Ricky foo!! 2 Ks to keep 2 on base #RipEm pic.twitter.com/AiPVoyrkxf

— UCI Baseball (@UCIbsb) May 31, 2024

'EATERS WINNNNNNN HOG WALKS IT OFF!!! 13-12 ANTEATERS #EATERSGOTTAEAT pic.twitter.com/dAt5K6cH5K

— UCI Baseball (@UCIbsb) May 31, 2024