UCI claims first outright Big West title

IRVINE — On a night when a postgame fireworks display helped the UC Irvine baseball program celebrate clinching its first outright Big West Conference championship, the Anteaters remained diligent about sending up flares.

So after a 9-3 victory over UC Davis Friday before a season-high home crowd of 1,597 at Anteater Ballpark, it was clear that the unprecedented accomplishment won’t trigger more than some immediate satisfaction.

UCI (38-12, 18-1 in conference) began the week ranked No. 1 in all five national polls, a first this season. And it was learned Wednesday that the program will indeed bid to play host to an NCAA Regional, as well as a Super Regional.

But whether that bid is granted is based on more than rankings. UCI’s estimated standing in the Ratings Percentage Index, believed to be weighed heavily when assigning national seeds and regional host sites, is No. 12 by one popular Internet watchdog.

Further, concerns about attendance, logistics, and a still-growing facility that is below the standards of programs in the major BCS conferences, cloud the notion of whether UCI’s home turf is still worthy of welcoming a regional.

Junior starting pitcher Danny Bibona, who allowed just five hits in his first collegiate complete game to improve to 10-1 this season, said the conference crown was just the first of many goals the Anteaters hope to check off their list.

“Forty wins is one [goal],” Bibona said. “Winning the Big West is one; winning the Regional; winning the Super Regional. And not just going to Omaha [site of the College World Series], but winning a national championship. We’ve got that list of goals ahead of us.”

UCI Coach Mike Gillespie said he is not concerned that clinching with five conference games left, six regular-season games in all, will distract his players’ focus on the big picture.

“I think we understand that it has yet to be determined how the seeding [for the 64-team NCAA tournament] will go,” Gillespie said. “And I think how we continue to play and how we finish up will have an impact ... I think the [players’] makeup is such that we’ll keep playing hard. I hope it means we’ll keep playing well, but we’ll keep playing hard.”

Senior shortstop Ben Orloff, who went three for three with a walk and scored three times to key an offense that included a first-inning grand slam by junior second baseman Casey Stevenson, as well as a homer by junior first baseman Jeff Cusick two pitches later, was both gratified and philosophical.

“It’s awesome, really unbelievable,” Orloff said of the Big West crown. “It’s real special and it’s pretty neat for us to have done this right now, especially in the fashion that we’ve done it [clinching so early]. It’s something we thought we had a chance to do, but to finally do it ... I don’t think it has set in yet. But it’s awesome. Everybody is so fired up.”

Orloff acknowledged that there is plenty of work to be done.

“I think we’re kind of making a statement to people to kind of show them what we’re about; that we are a good team,” said Orloff, who also stole three bases. “We’re as good as anybody in the country. We can’t control that RPI stuff. All we can do is win. That’s kind of what we’re dealing with. We want to kind of put an exclamation point on what we’ve already done.”

Bibona, and the subsequent fireworks, provided punctuation on what has been a remarkable conference run.

“We stretched that pitch-count thing [Bibona threw a manageable 112 pitches] out a little more than we wanted, for the reason [of letting him be on the mound for the celebration],” Gillespie said.

“There’s not a guy I’d rather have out there to experience the first Big West championship,” Orloff said of Bibona. “He deserves it, for what he has done the last three years.”

Bibona, who ended a string of nine straight starts in which he had given up two or fewer earned runs, said his first nine-inning outing was all he had hoped for.

“I felt the best in the ninth,” he said after striking out five. “I never really thought about how I’d feel going [the distance], but it feels as good as I thought it would.”

Bibona also said complacency is not a threat.

“We’ve got a bunch of competitive guys and everything we do [including in practice] is a competition. We took one game at a time and we entered every weekend, every single game, with that approach. We weren’t walking around arrogant. We always had a chip on our shoulder. We want to win the next six [to end the regular season].”

Junior center fielder Cory Olson added a two-run homer for the ’Eaters, who have won 13 straight conference games.

Freshman outfielder Tommy Reyes and senior outfielder Eric Deragisch both added runs batted in for the winners.

Stevenson made a sparkling defensive play, diving to his right to snare a line drive, then springing to his feet to throw out the runner at first.

Davis fell to 10-38, 3-16.

The three-game weekend series continues today and Sunday, both at 1 p.m.

UCI will play host to UCLA in its final regular-season home game Tuesday, before wrapping up the conference slate with three games at UC Santa Barbara (May 22-24).

Big West Conference

UC Irvine 9, UC Davis 3

SCORE BY INNINGS

Chew, Slater (7), Heinig (8) and Kalush; Bibona and Donabedian. W – Bibona, 10-1. L – Chew, 1-7. 2B – Orloff (UCI). HR – Stevenson (UCI), Cusick (UCI), Schafer (UCD), Olson (UCI).