IRVINE — Among the myriad fundamentals in which the UC Irvine baseball players are well-versed, home-run trot is not one. Senior second baseman Tommy Reyes, then, could surely be forgiven for pleading ignorance on the finer points of the four-base circuit required to complete a fence-clearing blast.
Reyes had, in fact, compiled 431 collegiate at-bats without a dinger, before jettisoning a pitch over the left-field barrier at Nevada on Saturday. Only nine at-bats later, he produced his second career big fly by launching a 1-2 pitch over the fence in left field for a two-run shot that wound up being the difference in the Anteaters' 5-4 nonconference win over visiting Dartmouth on Friday.
"I'm kind of new at it," said Reyes, who doesn't exactly have anyone to confer with regarding post-homer behavior, since Friday's clout was only the third hit this season by an Anteater in 655 at-bats. "I'm just trying to touch all the bases."