Anteaters to open Big West

The UC Irvine baseball team will do it’s best to let sleeping Dirtbags lie this weekend, when the Anteaters open Big West Conference play with a three-game series against Long Beach State, beginning Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Blair Field.

The 49ers (12-15), perennial Big West title contenders who were picked to finish second this season, enter on a seven-game losing streak.

UCI, on the heels of a two-game split at Arizona, is 18-10. Only Cal State Fullerton (20-7), which was picked to win the conference and won two of three from the Anteaters in a nonconference series in mid-February, has more wins among Big West teams.

Pacific (16-7), UC Riverside (14-9), Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (16-13) and Cal State Northridge (15-14) are also over .500. UC Santa Barbara is 9-10.

Coach Dave Serrano’s ‘Eaters, picked to finish third in the preseason conference coaches’ poll, have personified the little-ball, scrap-and-claw style that Serrano brought with him after eight seasons as a Cal State Fullerton assistant.

Among the few statistical categories UCI leads the conference are sacrifice bunts (45), sacrifice flies (14) and batters hit by pitch (51).

UCI also leads the conference with 12 saves and is first with 13 runners picked off. The Anteaters’ .280 team batting average ranks fifth among Big West schools and their their 3.57 staff earned-run average ranks fourth.

As expected, junior All-American closer Blair Erickson has been the team’s marquee player. Erickson is 3-0 with nine saves and a 1.27 ERA. In 21 1/3 innings, he has allowed just 14 hits and has 26 strikeouts. He has not allowed a run in his last 9 1/3 innings and he has allowed only one in his last 17 1/3 .

Freshman Scott Gorgen has quickly become UCI’s most effective starting pitcher. He is 3-1 with a 2.15 ERA. He has yielded just 35 hits in 50 innings, while striking out 36. Opponents are batting a paltry .200 against him, matching the number posted by Erickson.

Junior Justin Cassel, who will start Friday night against Long Beach ace Jared Hughes, is 3-4 with a 4.22 ERA. He has 41 strikeouts in 53 1/3 innings.

Senior Glenn Swanson is 3-2 with a 3.38 ERA, but the elbow tenderness that sidelined him last season has begun to resurface. Swanson earned the victory in relief Sunday, striking out three in 1 1/3 innings. But whether or not he can keep taking his starting turn, could make-or-break the Anteaters’ chances to claim the program’s second berth in an NCAA Division I Regional.

Offensively, sophomore Taylor Holiday, a transfer from Arizona State, and seniors Jaime Martinez and Gary Dudrey have led the way.

Dudrey ranks second among Big West hitters with a .400 average and he is tops among conference players with a .520 on-base percentage (60 at-bats).

Holiday, who has started 27 games and leads the team with 111 at-bats, is hitting .297 with two home runs and 21 RBIs.

Martinez is batting .300 with two homers and a team-leading 24 RBIs in 80 at-bats.