UC Irvine is catching on to ‘play ball’ at last
At Cal State Fullerton, trips to baseball’s College World Series in Omaha have become so predictable that its boosters have taken to renting a house there every year to serve as party headquarters for Titan fans.
No such worries across the Orange County at UC Irvine, a university more noted for its academics.
But this year, Irvine’s Anteaters are ranked fourth in the nation and only a step from advancing to Omaha for the first time, even though some students on campus seem barely aware their school even has a baseball team.
With finals week approaching, there was no palpable baseball buzz at Starbucks -- the campus gathering spot. And the fact that the Anteaters were playing Wichita State on ESPN today in a super regional game was lost on most students.
“Really, they’re still playing?” said Natalie Guantone, a junior public health major from Lodi, sitting at an outside table on campus while furiously writing an epidemiology case study. “I can’t believe I didn’t know that.”
Kathryn Albo, a junior biological studies major from San Diego, wasn’t surprised that the student body hadn’t been swept up in the baseball team’s historic season.
“This school doesn’t have a buzz about any sport,” said Albo, a member of the university’s rowing team. “I bet only 10% would even know we had a baseball team. I think students here are preoccupied with the academic curriculum because it’s so hard.”
At UCI, people are more likely to celebrate Nobel Prizes and national science awards than national championships. But lately, the athletic program has attracted national attention.
The men’s volleyball team captured the program’s first national championship last month, and last weekend the baseball team upset perennial powerhouse Texas twice on its way to its first regional title.
A rally was held for the victorious mens’ volleyball team and some 300 students and educators showed up.
“For us, that’s a mob,” said Dave Tomcheck, associate executive vice chancellor, who has been at the school more than three decades.
When the baseball team went on the road and beat Texas before more than 10,000 hostile Longhorn fans, about 100 Anteater fans made the 1,500-mile trek. But with Saturday and Sunday’s games being televised, boosters have organized breakfast viewing parties at a pizza place across the street from campus. Another 100 or so UCI fans are expected in Wichita this weekend.
By comparison, Fullerton officials say they often draw up to 500 fans for regular season games in Las Vegas or San Luis Obispo and 1,000 for games in Long Beach or Irvine. Last weekend at the San Diego regional, some 700 Titan fans made the 100-mile journey down Interstate 5, outnumbering fans for host University of San Diego.
“This is brand new to us, being successful at athletics and what that means,” Tomcheck said. “People are slowly but surely picking it up. But for most people, it’s not on their radar.”
But for a growing number of die-hards, UCI baseball is becoming a hit on the Internet.
The regional in Round Rock, Texas, wasn’t televised, but when UCI’s campus radio station streamed its play-by-play broadcast over the Web, the station more than doubled its previous record for listeners.
One of those following intently was former Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone, now president of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.
“It’s been fun,” Cicerone said. “We’ve had three Nobel Prizes and this ranks right up there.”
Cicerone cleared his Monday morning schedule so he could listen to the regional title-clinching victory over Texas.
“I was trying to write and read stuff at the same time, but it was hard,” he said. “You could feel the tension. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to celebrate. I had played hooky long enough and I had to get back to work.”
When Cicerone took over as chancellor in 1998, UCI’s baseball program didn’t even exist -- it was buried in 1992 because of statewide budget cuts.
Before school officials disbanded the program, great moments in Anteater history were limited to two NCAA Division II championships won during the 1970s.
Baseball was revived 10 years later when students voted in 1999 to increase student fees by $100 a year for athletic funding so baseball and three women’s sports could be added.
Irvine reintroduced baseball to great fanfare in 2002 before a capacity crowd at its new 3,000-seat stadium, Anteater Ballpark.
In an effort to draw more fans and entertain them during three-hour games, students last year formed the Diamond Darlings, a 23-member female spirit squad dressed in jeans and baseball jerseys.
Lately, there has been plenty to cheer about. Since its return, the program has qualified for the NCAA Division I playoffs three of the last four years. The fan base is also increasing, up 23% this year to nearly 1,000 a game.
Adding to its credibility as a talent-producer, UCI had a school-record eight players selected in the Major League Baseball draft this year.
It is somewhat ironic that the man leading UCI baseball into uncharted territory is Dave Serrano, who spent eight seasons as the pitching coach and lead recruiter at Cal State Fullerton under George Horton.
No one at UCI expects the Anteater baseball program to rival its neighbor to the east, Fullerton, which has won four World Series titles, advanced to Omaha 14 of the last 32 years and will go again if it beats UCLA this weekend.
But some Anteater fans are beginning to dream.
Cicerone said he found himself checking flights to Omaha this week.
If the Anteaters take two out of three from Wichita State, they might see their former chancellor at the World Series the following week.
“If I can tell everybody who’s got me scheduled for meetings to rearrange them,” he said, “I might get there.”
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