UCI has Holiday in L.A.

LOS ANGELES — With a baseball team that often calls for its No. 3 and No. 4 hitters to bunt, perhaps it should be no surprise that the UC Irvine RBI leader is none other than senior leadoff man Taylor Holiday.

Holiday, in his 29th appearance in the leadoff spot Tuesday in 33 games, drove in four runs, including the game-winner, to propel the Anteaters to a 5-4 nonconference victory at UCLA.

Holiday’s two-run single in the fourth inning erased a 2-1 deficit. It was his 28th and 29th RBIs of the season for Holiday. Those RBIs, along with the RBI he recorded in the third inning, when he delivered a successful squeeze bunt, allowed him to surge ahead of teammates Matt Morris (27 RBIs) and Cody Cipriano (26) to reestablish his team lead in the all-important category.

But Holiday’s hard ground ball through the middle of the infield with two outs and a runner on second base in the eighth, allowed the No. 17-ranked Anteaters (24-8-1) to maintain the momentum created by the series victory over Big West Conference rival Cal State Fullerton over the weekend.

Holiday’s hit, on a low curveball, came off UCLA ace Tyson Brummett, who was making his first relief appearance this season after nine starts.

“I wanted to make sure I didn’t chase anything and he did a good job of burying that first [two-strike] curveball in the dirt,” Holiday said. “I thought he might come back with [the curve] again and I stayed on it. I think I hit it off my shoe laces, but I got it through the infield.”

It was the 12th win in 15 games for the Anteaters, who avenged a loss to the Bruins (15-16) in last year’s NCAA regionals. It was also the first time UCI has beaten UCLA since former Anteaters head man John Savage assumed the Bruins’ helm before the 2005 campaign. UCI Coach Dave Serrano is now 1-5 against Savage, who was 4-0 against UCLA in his three seasons at UCI.

UCI senior closer Blair Erickson insured it was a momentous occasion by pitching the ninth for his ninth save of the season and the 49th of his career. He is now tied with Jack Krawcyzk for the NCAA career record. Krawcyzk pitched at USC from 1995-98.

It was Erickson’s first save since March 11 and marked a solid recovery from his last outing, when he hit a batter and walked two before being bailed out by teammate Dylan Axelrod in a 2-1 triumph at Fullerton Thursday.

Axelrod, who saved both wins in the Fullerton series, earned the win in relief to improve to 2-2.

Axelrod entered in the seventh and allowed one unearned run in his two innings. He surrendered two hits and struck out two.

Junior Wes Etheridge, who absorbed the only loss in his nine decisions Friday at Fullerton, started the game, allowing two runs and four hits in three innings.

Senior Gary Nakashima pitched the middle three innings, surrendering one run on three hits.

Nakashima stranded five runners during his stint, including a runner at third in each inning.

UCLA, in fact, left a runner at third base in five of the first six innings, when the Bruins left nine overall.

After UCLA scored twice in the first, Holiday’s squeeze bunt plated Francis Larson, who opened the inning with a double and went to third on Tyler Vaughn’s subsequent bunt single.

After Holiday put the Anteaters up, 3-2 in the top of the fourth, UCLA used three straight two-out singles to tie the score in the home half of the inning.

An error, a sacrifice and an RBI single by Will Penniall put the Bruins back in front in the seventh, creating an uphill road for the visitors.

UCI had been 1-8-1 when trailing after seven innings, before Ollie Linton began the eighth-inning rally with a one-out triple off the right-field wall. A 2-2 pitch to Larson got past catcher Ryan Babineau for a passed ball and allowed Linton to score the tying run. Larson then walked on the next pitch. He moved to second on a Vaughn sacrifice and came around to score on Holiday’s second hit of the night.

“Me and [Morris] joke about our RBIs,” Holiday said. “But, hopefully, we both have a bunch more this year.”

UCI, tied for second in the Big West with Cal State Fullerton, begins a three-game series against conference-leading Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Friday at 6 p.m. at Anteater Ballpark.

Nonconference

UC Irvine 5,

UCLA 4

Score by Innings

UCI 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 2 0 - 5 10 2

UCLA 2 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 - 4 10 2

Etheridge, Nakashima (4), Bibona (6), Axelrod (7), Erickson (9) and Larson, Lowenstein; Claypool, Novak (4), Murphy (7), Brummett (8) and Babineau. W -- Axelrod, 2-2. L -- Murphy, 2-2. Sv -- Erickson (9). 2B -- Holiday (UCI), Larson (UCI). 3B -- Linton (UCI).