UC Irvine Beaten by USC, 5-2; Big West Season Next

That record the UC Irvine baseball team has put together--21 victories before the conference season has even begun--has caused something of a stir.

But it is a record that could have used a little boost to its legitimacy, which could have come with a sweep of the season’s two-game series against highly ranked USC.

Instead, the Anteaters settled for a split after a 5-2 loss to the Trojans Tuesday at Anteater Field in the final nonconference contest before Irvine opens Big West Conference play this weekend.

USC (21-10) scored a run in the first inning and led, 3-0, after five. Irvine cut the lead to a run in the sixth, but the Trojans’ Brett Jenkins hit a two-run double to left field in the seventh to hold off the Anteaters.

“Whenever you go against a team as visible as (USC), you’d like to come out on top,” said Mike Gerakos, Irvine coach. But more important, he said, is being ready for the conference schedule, which begins with a series against Cal State Fullerton at Titan Field this weekend.

Irvine, picked seventh in the eight-team league in a preseason poll, has prospects of finishing far higher now.

The Anteaters, who played their fifth game in a five-day stretch that included a victory over nationally ranked Illinois, scored only two runs Tuesday despite 11 hits.

Jon Rust, a right-handed freshman pitcher, made the first start of his college career.

Rust (0-3) pitched five innings, allowing three runs on seven hits.

Steve May relieved him for two innings before Ken Whitworth, the Anteaters’ No. 1 starter, came on in the eighth. He struck out the side in the ninth.

USC, ranked seventh by Baseball America, lost to the Anteaters at Dedeaux Field earlier this season, 3-2, and was coming off back-to-back losses to Cal State Long Beach this weekend.

“For us it was a good game,” said Mike Gillespie, USC coach. “They’re a good team, and they’d already beaten us in our own yard.”

USC’s Phil Kendall allowed two runs in 7 1/3 innings, improving his record to 2-2.

Randy Powers got the final two outs in the ninth inning, earning his second save.

USC was playing without outfielder John Jackson, the split end for the Trojan football team, who was ill.

USC took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Mike Robertson doubled to left-center field, driving in Damon Buford, who had singled and moved to third on a single by Murph Proctor.

In the third, the Trojans’ Mark Smith hit a solo home run to left, his fourth of the season. They added another run in the fifth when Proctor, who had walked and gone to second on Robertson’s second double of the game, scored on Bret Boone’s two-out infield single.

Irvine avoided what would have been only its second shutout of the year by scoring two runs in the sixth. With one out, Chris Gallego singled to right. He went to second on a groundout, scoring on Osmar DeChavez’s triple off the glove of center fielder Buford, who seemed hampered on the play by Anteater Field’s unusual sloping warning track.

DeChavez scored when Mike Goodcase’s fly to shallow left fell in between left and short for a double. But the rally ended after Shelly Niss was thrown out easily after hitting a tapper back to the mound.