Morales, Irvine take Game 1

Andrew Morales. Really good pitcher. By Owen Main

This weekend’s Big West showdown between UC Irvine and Cal Poly started just about how you’d imagine. Aces Andrew Morales and Matt Imhof battled for eight innings with the Anteaters coming out on-top 3-2.

Irvine’s execution was impeccable. They took advantage of a few Cal Poly miscues, including an error by Imhof and a few plays that should have been made.

One of Cal Poly’s two runs came as a result of a bad hop grounder, but other than that Irvine made just about every play they were supposed to.

The game featured two players on the final 30 for the Golden Spikes award, which is given to the nation’s top collegiate player.

Morales is good

Andrew Morales was as-advertised. The senior from Covina, CA struck out eight Mustangs, only walked one, and had a bunch of innings where he threw around 10-15 pitches.

Morales, who came into the game with an ERA under 1.00, hasn’t lost a game as an Anteater. Cal Poly has done a great job of having good at-bats, drawing walks, and getting guys on-base all season. Morales, who poured in strike after strike was having none of that.

Morales, who looks about as unassuming as anyone, has a motion that is slightly unique. He hides the ball as well as anyone.

Andrew Morales was on-point when he needed to be against Cal Poly on Friday. By Owen Main

Imhof has another solid outing

Cal Poly ace Matt Imhof also had another solid outing. The lefty labored in the first few innings and when he gave up two runs in the fifth, it looked like his day might be cut-short. But in the sixth through eighth innings, Imhof found his groove and the junior ended up with 13 strikeouts.

Imhof also walked four batters, including at least one that came around to score.

Warning track power?

The three hardest-hit balls of the game turned out to be outs.

Sophomore Brian Mundell didn’t seem fooled by Morales, driving two balls to the warning track in deep center field. Two or three years ago, these are balls that probably would have been home runs, but with the new bats, they were just long outs. Credit UC Irvine center fielder Justin Castro for also running down a ball hit to the wall at the 385 sign by Mark Mathias and making all three plays.

Cal Poly, now 2 1/2 games back of Irvine, will try to claw back into the series tonight at 6:00.

Photos by Owen Main