Anteaters’ win streak halted

IRVINE ? It had been more than a month since a UC Irvine starting pitcher suffered a defeat, but it had been two years since the guy who earned the victory Sunday had even started a game.

Pacific senior Steve Spurgeon not only made his first start as a Tiger, but threw a complete-game five-hitter to top the Anteaters, 4-1, in the finale of a three-game Big West Conference baseball series at Anteater Ballpark.

Spurgeon, filling in for injured senior Luke Massetti who was 5-5 in 14 starts this season, sat out last season after transferring from the University of San Francisco. As a junior at USF in 2004, he started just one game, after making six starts there as a sophomore. He spent his freshman season at San Joaquin Delta Community College in Stockton.

“He made us look like we should have been starting him all year,” UOP Coach Ed Sprague said of Spurgeon, who struck out eight and walked two to help end UCI’s nine-game winning streak.

“He started the year as our closer, then we moved him to a set-up role and he has been pitching some in long relief,” Sprague said. “He has been good, at times, in short relief, but he has been really good the last few times in long relief.”

Spurgeon threw 118 pitches, 81 for strikes. He gave up only two singles through four scoreless innings.

UCI (32-18, 7-8 in conference), sliced a 2-0 deficit in half in the fifth inning, when Gary Dudrey singled with two outs, stole second and scored on Cody Cipriano’s double into the left-field corner.

But the Anteaters managed one more hit ? a pinch-hit single by Josh Tavelli with one out in the eighth ? as Spurgeon overshadowed a quality start by UCI freshman Scott Gorgen.

Gorgen, who gave up seven hits and three runs in 7 1/3 innings, struck out eight, matching his career-high, and did not walk a batter. He fell to 6-3, becoming the first Anteater starter to absorb a loss since Justin Cassel was the tough-luck loser in a 2-1 setback against UC Santa Barbara on May 13.

Anthony Jackson opened the scoring for UOP (26-22, 6-12) with an inside-the-park home run off the right-field fence in the second inning.

Will Brindza’s RBI single in the fifth doubled the lead for the Tigers.

Matt Berezay led off the Pacific eighth with a home run to left. After the next hitter flied deep to left, prompting UCI Coach Dave Serrano to summon reliever Blair Erickson, Justin Baum greeted the All-American closer by clouting the Tigers’ third homer of the game off the scoreboard in left-center field.

UCI stranded two runners in the second and third innings and hindered a potential rally in the sixth when Taylor Holiday, who reached to open the inning on an infield error, was forced at second on a would-be bloop single to right by Jaime Martinez.

Holiday broke toward second on the pitch and appeared never to find the ball. He slammed on the breaks near second and began sprinting back toward first. When the ball fell in front of a charging right fielder, Holiday was unable to beat the throw to second and Spurgeon retired the next two hitters to end the threat.

“The whole coaching staff felt we were a little bit out of sync today,” Serrano said. “We missed more signs than we have lately. We’ve been going pretty well, offensively, because we’ve been disciplined. But we kind of threw that discipline out the window today. It was almost like we were trying too hard to win, early, instead of just playing to win.”

The loss cost UCI a chance to pull into a third-place tie with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (8-7 in conference) and dropped the ‘Eaters into a fourth-place deadlock with UC Riverside, which defeated Cal State Northridge on Sunday.

UCI, attempting to earn a berth in an NCAA regional, has six conference games remaining. The Anteaters visit Cal State Northridge for a three-game series beginning Friday. They close the regular season with three games against visiting UC Riverside, May 26-28.

The Anteaters play host to UCLA, coached by former Anteater skipper John Savage, on Tuesday. UCI also meets the Bruins on May 23 at Westwood, in a makeup date of a game rained out earlier this season.