UC Irvine baseball fails to capitalize on chances in NCAA regional loss
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Jacob McCombs had been arguably UC Irvine’s best hitter all season. The sophomore transfer from San Diego State transformed into an All-Big West selection with his .350 batting average and team-high 1.070 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
So when he came up to the plate in the bottom of the fifth, down one run against a taxed Arizona State southpaw in Ben Jacobs — McCombs provided a real chance to break open the game in favor of the second-seeded Anteaters with runners on first and second.
Coach Ben Orloff called for McCombs to bunt. A picture-perfect tap toward third base sent both runners into scoring position with one out — and the Irvine dugout into raucous cheers. When his team needed it, one of its stars stepped up.
UC Irvine baseball coach Ben Orloff has made the Anteaters one of the top programs in the country, something coaching great Mike Gillespie knew he was capable of achieving.
“I thought it was real impressive,” Orloff said. “McCombs has zero sacrifice bunts on the season, zero attempts on the season, to execute there, left on left… puts pressure on the other team. You can score a run with an out in that situation where you’re down 3-2.”
It didn’t matter to Jacobs. Facing the pressure, the former UCLA Bruin — pitching back at Jackie Robinson Stadium, where he played in 2023 — shut down Chase Call with a strikeout and forced Blake Penso — his former battery mate at Huntington Beach High — to weakly fly out to right field on the 105th pitch of the lefty’s night. “Full circle,” Jacobs said.
McCombs’ small-ball heroics were for naught. When Irvine’s offense worked another opportunity to score in the bottom of the eighth after Penso placed down a sacrifice bunt, Alonso Reyes hit into a 4-6-3 double play with the bases loaded to end the rally. It was one of those nights for the Anteaters, at a time of year when it matters most, as UC Irvine fell 4-2 to third-seeded Arizona State in the Friday nightcap of the Los Angeles Regional.
“I thought it was a well played college game,” Orloff said, adding he would have called the game the exact same way in retrospect. “We’d like to come out on the top, on the other end of it obviously.”
UC Irvine moves to the losers bracket where it’ll face fourth-seed Fresno State at noon Saturday. To win the Los Angeles Regional, the Anteaters will have to win out — four games across Saturday, Sunday and Monday — if they want to reach the NCAA super regionals.
While UC Irvine’s offense could only produce two runs and mustered just five hits, Trevor Hansen — their ace — tried his best to put the Anteaters on his back. Despite giving up solo home runs in the second inning to Jacob Tobias and Isaiah Jackson, the right-hander settled down to toss 6⅓ innings, giving up six hits and three earned runs while striking out eight and walking two.
“I think just using the mix more was something that I talked to [assistant coach Daniel Bibona] about,” Hansen said when asked about working into the seventh after the two home runs. “Not terrible pitches [on the home runs]. I mean, the fastball, 3-2, got hit a little bit, but the curveball and change up were working good after that.”
Hansen turned the ball over to Big West pitcher of the year Ricky Ojeda with runners on first and second in the seventh. Ojeda made quick work — inducing a groundout and a strikeout — to escape the inning. The lefty pitched through the ninth, giving up one run on 40 pitches overall, which could impact his availability in Saturday’s win-or-go-home contest against the Bulldogs.
Ojeda threw on back-to-back days just once in 2025, tossing 32 and 35 pitches against UC San Diego on May 3-4. Orloff said Ojeda often badgers him about entering games on days that are supposed to be off days. Now, facing a must-win situation, it’s all hands on deck, the Anteaters coach said — Ojeda included.
“I think that you kind of manage stuff as conservatively as you can throughout the course of the season,” Orloff said. “So when it gets to this point, you can push, and with [Ojeda] on 40 pitches, him being back tomorrow would not be egregious.”
UC Irvine will turn to redshirt sophomore right-hander Riley Kelly against Fresno State on Saturday. Kelly is 4-1 with a 3.92 earned-run average but has not pitched beyond the fifth inning in his last four appearances.
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