Ducks can't take advantage of another Yovan strong start

Friday, May 4

Irvine, Calif.

6:30 PM

University of Oregon

21-22

UC Irvine

26-18

Oregon

UC Irvine

Photo by: Ben Crawford

Ducks can't take advantage of another Yovan strong start

05/04/18 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score: UC Irvine 2, Oregon 1

Irvine, Calif. – Kenyon Yovan gave Oregon another quality start but the Ducks' offense came up short in a 2-1 loss at UC Irvine in a nonconference game on Friday night.

Yovan (4-3) allowed just two runs on six hits in seven innings while striking out nine and walking two.

How it happened: Oregon (21-22) gave Yovan an early one-run lead. Sophomore Spencer Steer hit a solo home run over the left field wall in the top of the third inning.

Yovan made the lead hold up until UC Irvine (26-18) scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh. Konnor Zickenfoose tied the game with a leadoff home run. The Anteaters manufactured the go-ahead run with a Ryan Fitzpatrick walk starting the rally. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and then scored on a base hit by pinch hitter Adrian Damla.

UCI starter Andre Pallante (7-1) picked up the win allowing just one run on three hits in seven innings with nine strikeouts and two walks. Sean Sparling got his first save throwing a scoreless 1.1 innings.

Duck notes: Yovan's nine strikeouts gave him a total of 24 in the last two games, the sixth most in back-to-back games in Oregon history … David Peterson holds the two-game record with 31 combined strikeouts against Mississippi State (17) and Santa Clara (14) in 2017 … Peterson is also second (30) and fifth (25) on the back-to-back strikeout list with both coming last season … Tyler Anderson has two back-to-back totals of 26 strikeouts which rank tied for third on the list … Yovan's quality start was his sixth straight of the season, as well as his sixth in seven career starts … Steer's home run was his second of the season and the fourth of his career … The 2-1 loss was Oregon's fourth of the season by that score, as well as the fourth in the last 12 games … The Ducks have played eight 2-1 games in 2018 … Oregon dropped to 4-14 in games where they scored two or fewer runs … UO is 2-18 when being outhit by its opponent … The loss was just Oregon's second of the season when leading after six innings … The Ducks are now 16-2 when leading after six.

On deck: Oregon and UC Irvine play game two of their series on Saturday at 2 p.m. Matt Mercer (4-5, 3.31) takes the mound for Oregon while Tyler Rashi (3-3, 2.70) will pitch for the Anteaters.