UC Irvine survived inning after inning Sunday night. Catcher Ronnie Shaeffer endured it all behind the plate, then was given the chance to make the journey worthwhile.
Shaeffer dunked a single to right field, driving in pinch-runner Scott Gottschling in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 4-3 come-from-behind victory over UCLA at Jackie Robinson Stadium to win the NCAA Los Angeles Regional.
The Bruins, the top-ranked team in one preseason poll, were three outs from forcing a final game Monday, but crumbled in the ninth inning.
Jordan Leyland doubled home pinch-runner Dillon Moyer to tie the score, 3-3. Tommy Reyes then beat out a sacrifice bunt, moving Gottschling to third base and bringing up Shaeffer, the Anteaters' No. 9 batter.
"It seemed like a grind all night," Shaeffer said. "We'd get a little momentum, they'd take it back."
Shaeffer finally put the Anteaters over the top with a half-swing on a 2-and-2 pitch.
"I just punched it," Shaeffer said. "There were two strikes and I wasn't going to leave it in the hands of the umpire."
The Anteaters (42-16) will play Virginia in a super regional, their third in five seasons. Irvine advanced after falling behind, 3-0, before scraping out key hits, something UCLA was unable to do throughout the regional.
"This is huge for the program," said Shaeffer, who also had a run-scoring double in the fifth inning. "People are expecting us to be in the tournament. We're expecting to be there, and we except to go deep."
The Bruins (35-24) had two pitchers expected to go high in the first round in Monday' major league amateur draft, Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer, and couldn't get through a regional to which they were playing host.
Freshman right-hander Adam Plutko threw 72/3 scoreless innings in a 4-1 victory over San Francisco Sunday afternoon to hold off elimination for a few hours. Zack Weiss put in eight-plus innings against Irvine, giving up three runs.
But UCLA was half a baseball team, lurching along. The offense made only cameo appearances, as was the case much of the season.
The Bruins had chances to put Irvine away, but stranded 13 runners and was two for 14 with runners in scoring position. For the regional, the Bruins were seven for 40 with runners in scoring position.
"That really seems like the story of our season," Coach John Savage said. "We couldn't seem to bring guys in. We get guys on base but, for whatever reason, we couldn't produce runs."
chris.foster@latimes.com
twitter.com/cfosterlatimes
Shaeffer dunked a single to right field, driving in pinch-runner Scott Gottschling in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 4-3 come-from-behind victory over UCLA at Jackie Robinson Stadium to win the NCAA Los Angeles Regional.
Jordan Leyland doubled home pinch-runner Dillon Moyer to tie the score, 3-3. Tommy Reyes then beat out a sacrifice bunt, moving Gottschling to third base and bringing up Shaeffer, the Anteaters' No. 9 batter.
"It seemed like a grind all night," Shaeffer said. "We'd get a little momentum, they'd take it back."
Shaeffer finally put the Anteaters over the top with a half-swing on a 2-and-2 pitch.
"I just punched it," Shaeffer said. "There were two strikes and I wasn't going to leave it in the hands of the umpire."
The Anteaters (42-16) will play Virginia in a super regional, their third in five seasons. Irvine advanced after falling behind, 3-0, before scraping out key hits, something UCLA was unable to do throughout the regional.
"This is huge for the program," said Shaeffer, who also had a run-scoring double in the fifth inning. "People are expecting us to be in the tournament. We're expecting to be there, and we except to go deep."
The Bruins (35-24) had two pitchers expected to go high in the first round in Monday' major league amateur draft, Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer, and couldn't get through a regional to which they were playing host.
Freshman right-hander Adam Plutko threw 72/3 scoreless innings in a 4-1 victory over San Francisco Sunday afternoon to hold off elimination for a few hours. Zack Weiss put in eight-plus innings against Irvine, giving up three runs.
But UCLA was half a baseball team, lurching along. The offense made only cameo appearances, as was the case much of the season.
The Bruins had chances to put Irvine away, but stranded 13 runners and was two for 14 with runners in scoring position. For the regional, the Bruins were seven for 40 with runners in scoring position.
"That really seems like the story of our season," Coach John Savage said. "We couldn't seem to bring guys in. We get guys on base but, for whatever reason, we couldn't produce runs."
chris.foster@latimes.com
twitter.com/cfosterlatimes
Congrats to Irvine. I hope the UCI superfan will be able to make the trip to Virginia. I, meanwhile, got stuck watching Stanford destroy Illinois in the rain. Oh well...
Go Dirtbags.