College Baseball

ANTEATER BALLPARK - UC Irvine pitcher Glenn Swanson continues to make Anteater Coach John Savage look like a genius. Swanson, who was recruited solely by UCI and Savage, has earned All-America honors as one of the top freshmen starting pitchers in the country in Baseball America's 2002 College Midseason Update. Swanson, from Morse High School in San Diego, was one of four starters named to the All-American Freshman Team and shares the honor with Garry Bakker (North Carolina)

COSTA MESA - The Vanguard University baseball team has added two players to its roster, Lions Coach Kevin Kasper said. Sean Moglia and Jason Searle have both signed letters of intent to play for the Lions. Moglia comes from North Idaho College as a junior transfer. The second baseman had a .959 fielding average while at NIC and earned the North Idaho College Male Academic Athlete of the Year honor. "Sean will be an outstanding addition to our program," Kasper said.

COSTA MESA - Vanguard left fielder Joe Carnahan smacked two home runs, providing four runs, and Matt Caston pitched seven scoreless innnings to lead the Vanguard baseball team to an 8-3 Golden State Conference victory over visiting Concordia Tuesday. Carnahan's two home runs came in consecutive at-bats, as he finished 2 for 4 with four RBIs, while Jason Searle went 1 for 4 with a run scored and two RBIs for the Lions (17-19-1, 12-10 in the GSAC). Concordia dropped to 19-22, 8-13.

HONOLULU - The host Hawaii Warriors scored four in the last of the ninth to tie the game, then scored in the 12th to earn a 6-5 nonconference baseball win over UC Irvine Sunday. Steve Guthrie went 3 for 6 with two doubles, a homer and three RBIs to pace the Anteaters (11-10). UCI also got two hits apiece from Chris Miller, who belted his second homer in two days, Chris Klemm, Jon Horwitz and B.J. Eucce. William Quaglieri pitched 6 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, allowing just two hits and striking out seven, to earn the victory for Hawaii (6-9)

Steve Virgen UC IRVINE - Like the construction trucks that continued to break ground and build the UCI Baseball Stadium, so too did the UC Irvine baseball team begin with its own groundbreaking in its first practice Wednesday. The new Anteaters stretched and then ran in their new outfield. Since 1992, UCI has been without a baseball team, but after the school's students passed a referendum May 19, 1999, Anteater baseball is back, along with the addition of three women's sports, golf, water polo and indoor track.

MYRTLE BEACH, S. C. — The UC Irvine baseball team is counting on fifth-year senior Kyle Necke to step into the role of primary closer this season, now that two-time All-American reliever Eric Pettis has joined the weekend starting rotation. Necke, however, failed to finish Friday, allowing five runs in one-third of an inning to squander what had been a 4-2 lead in a 7-4 nonconference loss in 10 innings to designated host North Carolina in the Baseball at the Beach Tournament at BB&T Coastal Field.

He has become almost as big a fixture in the program as squeeze bunts and ace pitchers, though few know his name and fewer still know his story. Yet almost anyone who has attended a UC Irvine baseball home game the last seven seasons, knows his voice. Keith Franklin, also known as Super Fan, may sit about three rows up from the backstop screen, between home plate and the Anteaters' on-deck circle, but he is the epicenter of UCI baseball fandom. Chanting incessantly, eliciting giggles with his sometimes nonsensical nicknames for players, always relentlessly positive about his Anteaters, yet unflinchingly respectful of the opponent, the 46-year-old Costa Mesa resident continually stirs a notoriously sedate collection of ticket holders.

UC Irvine junior pitcher Scott Gorgen, a third-team All-American last season, is among 75 of the nation’s top collegiate players named to the preseason Golden Spikes Award Watch List. Gorgen is the only player from the Big West Conference to appear on the initial list. The right-hander was 13-3 with a 2.83 earned-run average last season, when he had 117 strikeouts in 132 2/3 innings and limited opponents to a .235 batting average. Gorgen also pitched six complete games including postseason wins over Texas and Wichita State.

UC Irvine senior Ronnie Shaeffer is one of 15 semifinalists for college baseball's 2013 Johnny Bench Award. Shaeffer entered the final week of the regular season hitting .298 with three home runs and 34 runs batted in. Through May 15, he ranked No 28 in the nation in the "Toughest to Strikeout" category and defensively, had allowed just 14 stolen bases, holding opposing teams to a .467 steal average, second best among the semifinalists....

Though it was, arguably the biggest phone call of Scott Gorgen’s life, the flight attendant working the UC Irvine baseball team’s flight to Baton Rouge, La., was unmoved Thursday evening. So, the Anteaters’ junior All-American pitcher, knowing he could receive word any moment on when he was selected in the Major League First-Year Player Draft, said he was just about to turn his cell phone off, per pre-flight instructions, when a representative of the St. Louis Cardinals called.