College World Series

OMAHA, Neb. — With its 15th appearance in the College World Series, Cal State Fullerton and its fans have a decided home-turf advantage over CWS newcomer UC Irvine when it comes to navigating Rosenblatt Stadium and the surrounding environs. The Titans rent "Titan House," located across the street from the stadium, every year they are in Omaha, where parents, fans, family members and alumni gather to share experiences and cheer the team on. But Craig Holiday, the father of UC Irvine junior standout Taylor Holiday, used some of his son's trademark hustle to help the Anteaters play catch-up with their Big West Conference rivals.

OMAHA, Neb. — The UC Irvine baseball team, which has not worked overtime all season, came up big in the longest game in the 61-year history of the College World Series Monday. The No. 4-ranked Anteaters eliminated Big West Conference and Orange County rival Cal State Fullerton, 5-4, in 13 innings before 16,451 people at Rosenblatt Stadium. Junior right fielder Bryan Petersen capped the five-hour, 40-minute game by lining a single to center that drove in Cody Cipriano from third with the winning run. It was the Anteaters' first extra-inning game since they were eliminated from the 2006 Malibu Regional in a 5-4 loss to Missouri in 14 innings.

The UC Irvine baseball program has been tabbed No. 2 among the "Top 10 Rising Programs," by Rivals.com. In his third season as head coach, Dave Serrano's Anteaters earned their second NCAA berth in three years after winning 13 regular-season series and placing second in the Big West Conference. UCI made its first Division I College World Series appearance after the team posted an unblemished 5-0 record in regional and super regional action. In Omaha, UC Irvine became the first team to win back-to-back, extra-inning games, including emerging victorious from the longest game played in the 61-year history of the CWS when the Anteaters defeated Cal State Fullerton in five hours, 40 minutes.

The veteran core of the UC Irvine baseball team knows what it’s like to get to Omaha and experience the College World Series. Just as importantly, they also know what it’s like to come up tantalizingly short of their game’s ultimate destination. “Three outs away” is a mantra that consumed many Anteaters fans in the recent off-season, after UCI took a 7-4 lead into the ninth inning of a would-be-clinching Super Regional game at LSU last season, only to see the Tigers rally for a 9-7 win. LSU then sent the ’Eaters packing with a 21-7 trouncing in the decisive third game to advance to Omaha.

WICHITA, Kan. — The biggest victory in the Division I history of the UC Irvine baseball team was all about reversal. The first reversal — an overturned out call at first base that set up a dramatic two-run ninth-inning Wichita State rally that tied the score — was soon trumped by a one-out rally by the No. 4-ranked Anteaters (45-15-1) that reversed the good vibrations emanating from Shocker Nation. And, also led to a fist-pumping 3-2 victory Sunday to sweep the best-of-three Super Regional before 8,153 at Eck Stadium.

Parker Serrano, who like most 3-year-olds waddles as much as he runs, is frequently unleashed onto the field after UC Irvine baseball games at Anteater Ballpark. He teeters under the weight and volume of an adult batting helmet that he has taken to, much like his peers cling to their favorite blanket. It's never long before his dad, third-year UCI Coach Dave Serrano, scoops him up like a slow-rolling grounder, and greets him with a kiss and a squeeze. Soon thereafter, the elder Serrano greets his wife Tracy, while son Kyle, 11, is often tidying up the dugout to complete his duties as team bat boy. Middle son Zachary, 9, is sometimes part of the postgame welcoming party as well.

OMAHA, Neb. — Anteaters are mostly nocturnal creatures, so maybe that's why some people are confused that UC Irvine's baseball program has, with its unexpected run to the College World Series, shuffled into the glow of the national spotlight. All week, the university's coaches and athletic department officials have been dealing with reporters mangling the school's name — Cal-Irvine, California-Irvine, you name it. Coach Dave Serrano even addressed the preferred usage of the school's name — UC Irvine or UCI — when the coaches talked to hundreds of reporters Thursday at Rosenblatt Stadium.

UC Irvine is working to fill its baseball coaching vacancy before fall practice begins, Oct. 4, interim athletic director Paula Smith said. The baseball program, which reached the College World Series in 2007 and set a school record for wins with its 47-17-1 record under Coach Dave Serrano, lost Serrano, as well as assistants Greg Bergeron and Sergio Brown to Cal State Fullerton. UCI was listed Wednesday on Rivals.com’s top 25 programs to watch for 2008. Smith, who heads the baseball search committee, said a national search has attracted interest from as many as 24 prospective candidates and UCI Associate Athletic Director Paul Hope said at least 12 candidates have applied.

The UC Irvine baseball team is ranked No. 15 in the CSTV.com fall Top 25 poll. UCI returns 21 letterwinners, led by junior All-American pitcher Scott Gorgen and second-team All-Big West Conference selections Ollie Linton, an outfielder, and shortstop Ben Orloff. Also returning from a team that finished 47-17-1 and tied for third at the College World Series, is senior catcher Aaron Lowenstein and outfielder Sean Madigan, both of whom received honorable mention in all-conference voting last season.

The UC Irvine baseball team?s College World Series run was selected as the Greatest Moment of 2007 for Division I schools other than UCLA or USC at the third annual L.A. Sports Awards, presented by the Los Angeles Sports Council. Outfielder Ollie Linton accepted the trophy on behalf of the team Jan. 20 during a special awards presentation televised live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel on FSN Prime Ticket. Linton was joined at the ceremony by teammates Ben Orloff and Scott Gorgen as well as Associate Athletic Director Phil Wang and UCI men?

One strike away. Those three words will haunt the 2011 UC Irvine baseball team, much the same way "three outs away" provided a similarly painful reminder in 2008 that no trip to Omaha is secure until the 27th out is recorded in the second win of an NCAA Super Regional. UCI came within one pitch of upsetting No. 1 national seed Virginia in Game 3 of their Super Regional, winning the best-of-three series and earning the program's second trip to the College World Series on Monday at the Cavaliers' Davenport Field.

While former UC Irvine baseball coach John Savage prepares his UCLA team for its College World Series opener today, Anteaters head man Mike Gillespie and his staff are following the development of players who will try to help UCI make a run at Omaha in 2011. Gillespie said seven of the eight UCI players selected in the Major League draft last week have signed and departed for their minor league assignments, while All-American pitcher Danny Bibona is still negotiating with the St. Louis Cardinals.

W ho better than Francis Larson to wax philosophical about the 2010 UC Irvine baseball season? UCI Coach Mike Gillespie says the senior catcher is the only player he has ever had who can tell you the difference between Socrates and Plato. "This is how baseball works," said Larson, a philosophy major who blasted three home runs and drove in eight runs in four games at the NCAA Los Angeles Regional that ended Sunday with a 6-2 loss to UCLA. "Sometimes you lose; sometimes you win. But it has been a lot of fun. It has been a fun group of guys to be with.

UC Irvine baseball coach Mike Gillespie will be inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Assn. Hall of Fame Friday at the ABCA Hall of Fame/Coach of the Year banquet in Dallas, Texas. Gillespie, who took over the reins at UCI in the fall of 2007, has had a storied career. He ranks No. 24 in victories among active coaches at the Division I level with a an 850-504-2 record. He has a .627 winning percentage. In 2009 Gillespie was named Big West Conference Coach of the Year after the program claimed its first conference title with a 22-2 mark, the second-best winning percentage in conference history at .917.

For UC Irvine All-American pitcher Danny Bibona, a shot at a national championship and a college degree are worth more than the more than $100,000 signing bonus offered by the St. Louis Cardinals. So, the lethal left-hander, drafted in the 16th round by the Cardinals (No. 489 overall) in June after earning Big West Conference Pitcher of the Year laurels, made it official Monday that he will anchor the Anteaters’ rotation in 2010. “When I decided I was going to come back to school [in mid July]

Regional turns profit The Irvine Regional, the first time UCI played host to NCAA Division I postseason baseball competition, produced a modest profit, said Phil Wong, a UCI associate athletic director in charge of business and finance. Though UCI payed the minimum hosting fee of $50,000 to the NCAA, a total six-game attendance of just more than 13,000 helped the school exceed its goal of breaking even, Wong said. “It was not a significant amount, but we made a profit of a few thousand dollars,” said Wong, who noted the surplus was less than $5,000.

In the recesses of their office facility in Newkirk Pavilion, the UC Irvine baseball coaches were quietly high-fiving one another Thursday, when the last of the three-day Major League draft had concluded without ravaging the Anteaters’ projected 2010 depth chart. For while the reigning Big West Conference champions will face large holes left by the matriculation to the professional ranks of Big West Player of the Year Ben Orloff and Big West Pitcher of the Year Danny Bibona, there is a chance that the rest of the personnel cupboard that, a week ago looked to be significantly raided, will be wearing Eaters across their chest next season.

When UC Irvine shortstop Ben Orloff was drafted last June in the 19th round by the Colorado Rockies, there were risk-reward factors involved with his decision to return for his senior baseball season with the Anteaters. That reward list will become significantly more substantial today, when the College Baseball Foundation will announce that Orloff has won the Brooks Wallace Award, given annually to the nation’s top collegiate shortstop. Orloff, the Big West Conference Player of the Year, hit .358 with 62 runs, 91 hits, 28 runs batted in and 18 stolen bases to help lead the Anteaters (45-15)

Though the UC Irvine baseball team saw its season end in May for the first time in the last three years, the month of June will mean losses for the Anteaters’ roster with the advent of the Major League Draft, held today through Thursday. UCI Coach Mike Gillespie, who has seen hundreds of his players drafted in 22 seasons as a Division I coach, including 20 years at USC, said several Anteaters will be awaiting word about a possible opportunity to play professionally. All-Americans Danny Bibona, Ben Orloff and Eric Pettis are expected to be drafted, as are juniors Christian Bergman and Francis Larson, Gillespie said.