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College Baseball: ‘Eaters falter in 10th

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The UC Irvine baseball team found yet another way to lose a game on Friday in the Big West Conference opener against visiting Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

The Anteaters, who came into the game leading the nation in fielding percentage (.986), with 11 errors in 21 games, committed the second of two errors in the top of the 10th inning, which led to the winning run in a 3-2 Mustangs victory.

Cal Poly (9-16, 1-0 in conference) lost its 2-1 lead when Cole Kreuter drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh. But the Mustangs got second life when senior shortstop Mikey Duarte bobbled a bouncer to his right with one out in the 10th.

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Michael Sanderson followed the miscue by lacing an opposite-field double into the right-field corner to drive in the winning run and extend UCI’s losing streak to six games.

UCI (11-11, 0-1) has now lost its conference opener for the second straight season. The Anteaters have lost 11 of their last 14 Big West series openers, dating back to 2015.

On Tuesday, UCI lost a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning of a 4-2 loss to Loyola Marymount when closer Calvin Faucher blew his first save chance in nine opportunities this season.

“We faced A-No. 1 pitching and we got dominated at the plate,” UCI Coach Mike Gillespie said of his squad, which had seven hits, all singles, and was zero for seven with runners in scoring position.

“Their starting pitcher [junior right-hander Erich Uelmen] is real legit,” Gillespie said. “I can see that the guy can pitch in the big leagues.

“I think [UCI starter Jordan] Bocko hung in there pretty well and I think Andre [Pallante, who absorbed the loss] pitched real well,” Gillespie said. “And that’s kind of where the good things end.

“We were the team that cracked, so it’s one of those hard losses.”

It was just the third error in 86 chances this season for Duarte, who handled three ground balls cleanly against three of the previous four Cal Poly hitters.

The first UCI error, a low throw by third baseman Parker Coss that skipped past first baseman Adrian Damla in the fifth inning, did not figure in the scoring.

The Mustangs, coached by former OCC player Larry Lee, took the lead in the first inning on Sanderson’s RBI single and tacked on when Nick Meyer singled in a run in the third.

UCI got on the board in the fourth, thanks to the second of two Cal Poly errors.

After Adam Alcantara was hit by a pitch with two outs, Coss’ single to right rolled under the Mustang outfielder’s glove, allowing Alcantara to score and Coss to reach second.

Matt Reitano led off the UCI seventh by being hit by a pitch and advanced to second when Evan Cassolato walked. After Duarte’s groundout to short moved both runners up, UCI designated hitter Keston Hiura was walked intentionally to load the bases.

Kreuter, hitting cleanup for the first time in his career, drove the first pitch to center for his team’s only RBI.

Bocko allowed both two runs on seven hits in 6 1/3 innings, the longest outing of his career.

Ryan Johnston retired both hitters he faced to end the seventh and Pallante set down the first seven he faced, until Duarte’s fateful error.

Damla was two for five to pace the UCI offense that left nine runners on base.

Cal Poly, which was two for 12 with runners in scoring position, left 10 on base.

The series continues on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Big West Conference

Cal Poly SLO 3, UC Irvine 2

(10 innings)

SCORE BY INNINGS

CPSLO 101 000 000 1 – 3 8 2

UCI 000 100 100 0 – 2 7 2

Uelmen, Clark (7) and Meyer; Bocko, Johnston (7), Pallante (8) and Guenette, Reitano (4). W – Clark, 3-0. L – Pallante, 2-2. 2B – Beesley (CPSLO), George (CPSLO), Sanderson (CPSLO).

barry.faulkner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BarryFaulkner5

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