Cal Poly

MEN'S BASKETBALL Cal Poly 77, UC Irvine 74 SAN LUIS OBISPO - The Anteaters erased a 22-point first-half deficit before falling in the Big West Conference game Saturday night. Michael Wilder led UC Irvine (9-16, 5-7 in conference) with 21 points, including five three-pointers. Adam Folker added a career-high 20 points and pulled down eight rebounds, and Daman Starring scored 12 points. Derick Flowers tied his career high with nine assists. UCI was tied, 73-73, with 1:33 remaining but the Mustangs went back up. A potential tying three-point attempt with four seconds left was off the mark.

Former Corona del Mar High three-sport standout Tim Thurman, an All-Mission Conference tight end the last two seasons at Golden West College, has verbally committed to continue his football and baseball careers at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, his father Tim Thurman said Tuesday. The younger Thurman, a 6-foot-7, 250-pound sophomore, will play baseball at Golden West this spring and obtain his associate arts degree, before transferring with a full scholarship.

Two Sean Iliff goals helped UC Irvine defeat the Cal Poly men's soccer team Wednesday night, 3-0, on the loser's field. UCI took a 1-0 lead in the first half when Iliff scored off passes from Jason Thompson and Scott Bowman at 28:41, and the margin expanded two goals when Lerato Simelane scored off a Bowman pass five minutes later. Iliff scored his second goal at 49:38, launching a lob shot from 40 yards out, which sailed over the head of goalkeeper Greg Blevins.

SAN LUIS OBISPO ? Scott Gorgen tied a career-high with eight strikeouts as UC Irvine defeated Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 4-1, in a Big West Conference baseball game Saturday. Gorgen, a freshman, held the Mustangs to one run over seven innings as the Anteaters won their first Big West Conference series of the season. Gorgen and Gary Nakashima limited Cal Poly's offense ? which had been leading the conference in runs scored with 235 ? to one run on eight hits. Gorgen picked up his fifth win of the season and Nakashima pitched the final two innings for his second save of the season.

CORONA DEL MAR - Corona del Mar High senior Mike Hayes, a first-team All-Pacific Coast League fullback last fall, has signed a national letter of intent to play football at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound two-year starter, also played several positions on defense for the Pacific Coast League co-champion Sea Kings. Expected to be a leading receiver out of the backfield heading into the season, Hayes broke his thumb in the preseason scrimmage, hampering his pass-catching much of the year.

IRVINE — Those eager to dismiss the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo baseball team as a pretender in the Big West Conference race this season may want to take a SLO, hard look at Friday's performance against No. 17-ranked UC Irvine. The Mustangs (19-17, 6-1 in conference) strengthened their position atop the Big West standings with a 5-4 victory before 1,280 at Anteater Ballpark. The loss dropped UCI (24-9-1), which many had anointed as the team to beat after early conference series wins over Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State, two games behind the Mustangs.

SAN LUIS OBISPO - UC Irvine freshman designated hitter R.J. Brown went 4 for 5 with three doubles and four RBIs to pace the Anteaters' 10-3 Big West Conference baseball victory at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Sunday. The win allowed the Anteaters (24-18, 6-3 in conference) to win the three-game series, two games to one. Freshman first baseman Matt Anderson also went 4 for 5 and scored three runs for UCI, for which junior center fielder Jon Horwitz had three hits and junior catcher Chris Miller went 2 for 5, including a two-run homer.

The UC Irvine women's soccer team salvaged a split on its weekend Big West Conference road trip by blanking Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 2-0, Sunday. It was the first conference loss of the season for the host Mustangs, who had won their five previous Big West contests. Junior Caroline Kabe knocked in her fourth goal of the season for the game-winner in the 23rd minute, converting an assist by Hayley McNallan. Kabe then earned the assist on freshman Kim Lloyd's insurance tally in the 57th minute.

Barry Faulkner UC Irvine Coach Pat Douglass acknowledged that rebuilding was an applicable term for his men's basketball program this season, after it lost 10 of its final 12 Big West Conference games last season to miss the eight-team conference tournament. But with the overhauled Anteaters (5-2) set to tip off conference play tonight at 7:05 at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (2-5), there are those who believe a run at a third conference crown in five seasons is not out of the question.

Editor's note: The following are from the SOY Scholarship Program alumni. Minimal edits have been made to preserve the writers' voices as it originally appeared at a December fundraiser. Dear Guest, First allow me to thank you for attending this event. My name is Juan Miguel and I am a former student of the SOY program. SOY to me was many things. It was the place where I would go do my homework after school. It was the reason I was so successful in my academics. SOY was the place I would go socialize with my friends.

IRVINE - In a conference in which one-upmanship regularly jostles the standings, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo did itself one better to earn a series split with UC Irvine on Thursday at the Bren Events Center. The Mustangs followed an 11-2 run to end the first half with a 13-0 surge to begin the second. By the time the Anteaters ended a scoring drought of 7:15 with 15:21 left in the game, Cal Poly had a 46-32 advantage that never dipped below 10 the rest of the way. The result was a 76-63 Big West Conference women's basketball triumph that further complicated the conference tournament seeding scenario for UCI (11-15, 7-6)

MEN'S BASKETBALL Cal Poly 77, UC Irvine 74 SAN LUIS OBISPO - The Anteaters erased a 22-point first-half deficit before falling in the Big West Conference game Saturday night. Michael Wilder led UC Irvine (9-16, 5-7 in conference) with 21 points, including five three-pointers. Adam Folker added a career-high 20 points and pulled down eight rebounds, and Daman Starring scored 12 points. Derick Flowers tied his career high with nine assists. UCI was tied, 73-73, with 1:33 remaining but the Mustangs went back up. A potential tying three-point attempt with four seconds left was off the mark.

IRVINE - It wasn't the box score, so much as the roster that UC Irvine men's basketball coach Russell Turner used to sum up his team's 66-50 Big West Conference loss to visiting Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Thursday. "The one thing I take from this is that we need to get stronger," said Turner, whose team (6-11, 3-2 in conference) was hurt most by Cal Poly big men Will Taylor (16 points), David Hanson (16 points and 12 rebounds and four assists) and Chris Eversley (11 points and eight boards)

MEN'S SOCCER UC Irvine 1, Cal Poly 0 SAN LUIS OBISPO - Miguel Ibarra scored in the 56th minute to help the No. 11-ranked Anteaters earn a Big West Conference Tournament berth Tuesday. Christian Hernandez assisted on the goal. The Anteaters (14-5-1, 6-3-1 in conference) have the top spot in the Big West with 19 points. UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis have 15 points. UCI played its final regular season game. UC Davis plays against Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside.

IRVINE - Cal Poly San Luis Obispo defenders appeared to get a piece of most of the 18 shots posted by host UC Irvine in the Big West Conference opener Wednesday. This, as well as a penalty kick that amounted to the Mustangs' lone shot on goal, allowed the unranked visitors to post a 1-0 men's soccer upset of the No. 7-ranked Anteaters. The win also left Cal Poly with a piece of the Big West lead. "Everything," UCI Coach George Kuntz said of well-positioned Cal Poly defenders, who helped the visitors (4-3-2)

IRVINE — Listed at 5-foot-9, 165 pounds, both of which may be a stretch, UC Irvine junior center fielder Christian Ramirez has been typecast as a key practitioner of small ball. And while he played that role well Friday night in the Anteaters' 6-2 Big West Conference series-opening baseball triumph over visiting Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, it was Ramirez' three-run triple over the right fielder's head that helped break things open in a four-run seventh inning. Ramirez, who had two sacrifice bunts to help produce runs in the fourth and sixth innings, also stole home to finalize the seventh-inning rally on a trick play.

IRVINE — First, things went fortuitously foul for the UC Irvine baseball team Saturday against Big West Conference visitor Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Then, they simply went south. After apparently catching a monumental break when a would-be, go-ahead, two-run home run near the left-field foul pole was ruled foul, Anteaters closer Brian Hernandez was rocked for four earned runs in a five-run ninth-inning uprising by the Mustangs. The result was a 7-3 win for Cal Poly (21-10, 10-7 in conference)

IRVINE — UC Irvine men's basketball coach Russell Turner said his game plan called for speeding the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Mustangs up in order to slow them down. It made sense the way he explained it. But it was clear, once again, after UCI dropped its fifth straight Big West men's basketball game Thursday at the Bren Events Center, that the Anteaters are anything but in rhythm. Cal Poly had just seven turnovers in its 80-71 triumph Thursday, to 11 for UCI. The Anteaters won the turnover battle, 15-8, in their 65-53 win in San Luis Obispo less than a month ago. That first-round victory over the Mustangs initiated a three-game conference winning streak.

IRVINE — Growing pains or just excruciatingly painful losses? UC Irvine women's basketball coach Molly Goodenbour said it may be too soon to tell Saturday, after the Anteaters dropped their second crucial Big West Conference game in three days to fall from a tie for first place into a three-way tie for third. Visiting Cal Poly San Luis Obispo maintained sole possession of first place by rallying from an eight-point second-half deficit to claim a 72-70 triumph and improve to 9-7, 5-0 in conference in front of a season-best home crowd of 1,575 at the Bren Events Center.