IRVINE — UC Irvine baseball coach Mike Gillespie said doctors are still trying to correctly diagnose what is believed to be a skin ailment sidelining senior center fielder Christian Ramirez.
And, after a frustrating 3-2 nonconference loss to UNLV in the Anteaters' home opener in front of 1,105 at Anteater Ballpark on Monday, Gillespie is hoping that the cure for what was ailing the lower half of his lineup against the Rebels can be easily prescribed.
The Anteaters (3-1), who scored five runs in each of thier three weekend victories at the Urban Invitational in Houston, left eight runners on base against the Rebels (2-2). Six of those stranded were in scoring position and three occurred when the hosts loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh inning and failed to score.
"It's frustrating," Gillespie said after venting some of that frustration verbally with his players in the traditional postgame conference in shallow left field. "I think it was a borderline-poor performance. The way we gave up those runs magnifies it. We have to win, 3-2, not lose, 3-2."