UCI Baseball Preview: ‘Eaters set for opener

In the aftermath of a College World Series appearance that many considered unfathomable at both the beginning and end of the 2014 regular season, UC Irvine baseball coach Mike Gillespie said Wednesday that he was unwilling, just yet, to suspend any disbelief in the 2015 Anteaters.

“This is a believe-it-when-you-see-it year,” Gillespie said of his eighth season, which opens Friday with the first of a three-game nonconference series at Fresno State at 6:30 p.m.

Last season, UCI opened with what some believed was its worst team in more than a decade, then won 15 of its first 16 Big West Conference games to seize command of first place. But the ‘Eaters then dropped their final eight conference games to fall to third, and were among the final four at-large entries in the 64-team NCAA postseason tournament.

Behind heroics of senior All-American and Big West Pitcher of the Year Andrew Morales, as well as subsequent major-league draftees Taylor Sparks, Connor Spencer and Chris Rabago, UCI stormed through national top seed Oregon State in the Corvallis Regional, then stunned Big 12 champion Oklahoma State in the super regional to earn its second trip to Omaha and finish 41-25.

All four of those players are gone, as are a handful of others, leaving big shoes to fill, and corresponding question marks about this season’s unit.

“This team is a group of some returning players who haven’t really done much,” said Gillespie, for whom only three full-time starting position players return, one of which is not assured a similar role this season.

Senior catcher Jerry McClanahan (.304 with 36 runs batted in last season), and junior left-handed starter Elliot Surrey (8-5 with a 2.32 earned-run average in 18 starts) anchor the returning stalwarts, who also include junior infielder Jonathan Muñoz (.281 with 18 RBIs en route to second-team all-conference laurels in 2014).

Surrey, the recognized ace who will start Friday’s opener, will be joined in the weekend rotation by Saturday starter Matt Esparza, a transfer from Cypress Community College via the University of Tennessee, and senior returner Evan Manarino (4-4 with a 2.66 ERA with 11 starts and 23 appearances), Gillespie said.

Muñoz takes over at third base for Sparks, while junior Grant Palmer, who hit .268 with 13 RBIs in 61 starts last season, will start at second base Friday.

Senior Sam Moore, who led the nation with 23 saves as a junior, but faltered down the stretch and has struggled in the preseason, Gillespie said, will get first crack at the closer role.

Returners with some seasoning slated to start Friday include junior Mikey Duarte (shortstop), center fielder Evan Cassolato and right fielder Adam Alcantara. But that trio produced a mere 25 combined RBIs in 246 at-bats, spanning 120 games and 75 starts last season.

Alcantara, whose 20 hits in 2014 were all singles, is the projected cleanup hitter

Esparza, whom Gillespie considers a strong professional prospect, and freshman left fielder Keston Hiura, who led California high school players with 14 home runs last spring, lead a group of newcomers that must make an impact.

Esparza was 7-5 with a 3.14 ERA at Cypress College, where he fanned 70 and allowed 50 hits in 63 innings.

“He throws 90-92 [mph] with an electric curveball,” Gillespie said of Esparza. “He did well at Cypress and he did well over the summer and from a character standpoint, it’s hard not to like the guy.”

Gillespie said Hiura, who hit .500 with 27 extra-base hits in 96 at-bats and amassed a 1.678 OPS at Valencia High in Valencia in 2014, could be among the best hitters he has coached at UCI.

“He is just really good at getting the bat to the ball,” Gillespie said of the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Hiura, whom the coach called the best hitter on the team and said will be in the No. 3 hole. “Now he played last year in a ballpark that is smaller than ours, and the wind blew out [at Valencia]. But he has hit four home runs this fall and every one of those, he hit very far.”

Cassolato, who hit .238 in 105 at-bats last season, opens in center, where seniors Kris Paulino and Ryan Cooper also figure to see playing time, Gillespie said. Cassolato will bat leadoff.

Paulino started 62 games and hit .216 with five home runs and 25 RBIs as a junior. He could also see time in the other outfield spots.

Cooper hit .200 with 11 RBIs in 80 at-bats spanning 47 appearances in 2014.

Duarte, who played second base last season when he hit .241 in 79 at-bats, has won the shortstop job and ranks behind McClanahan as the primary team leaders, Gillespie said.

“[Duarte] put up spectacular numbers over the summer [.353 with six homers, 31 RBIs and 20 extra-base hits in 131 at-bats for Walla Walla of the West Coast League] and he is our best defensive infielder,” Gillespie said.

Saddleback Community College transfer Mitch Holland takes over for Spencer at first base and Gillespie calls the unheralded recruit a Godsend.

“He looks like a football offensive guard [6-0, 215 pounds] and he has earned the respect of everybody with his solid play in the fall,” Gillespie said.

Palmer, by virtue of experience, held off strong challenges at second base from sophomore John Brontsema, as well as freshmen Parker Coss (the CIF Southern Section Division 6 Player of the Year with Capistrano Valley Christian last season) and Cole Kreuter. Gillespie said all should get an opportunity.

Kreuter, the son of former big league catcher and USC head coach Chad Kreuter, is Gillespie’s grandson.

Wyatt Castro, a junior transfer from San Joaquin Delta Community College, and Andrew Martinez, a 6-4, 250-pound redshirt sophomore, are among the possibilities at designated hitter.

Gillespie said sophomore returner Sean Sparling and Matt Majors, a freshman right-hander from Trabuco Hills High, top the list of potential mid-week starting pitchers.

Freshmen Shaun Vetrovec, a Newport Harbor High product, Cameron Bishop, Michael Agramonte and Alonzo Garcia are additional mound prospects, while returner Matt Fielding is another projected contributor in the bullpen.

UCI, picked to finish fourth in the Big West behind, in order, Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and UC Santa Barbara, is ranked No. 33 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Assn. preseason poll.

“I full-well realize there are a lot of question marks,” Gillespie said. “But if our coaching staff — and I more than anyone, because I am not the most patient guy — can kind of see down the road a little bit, then we’ll be better [later in the season]. Some of these guys just need to go through it, particularly those freshmen pitchers.”

UCI’s first regular-season home game is Feb. 27, when Tennessee, under former UCI head man Dave Serrano, visits for a three-game series.

UCI opens Big West play at home against Hawaii on March 27.