UNFINISHED BUSINESS

After narrowly missing the NCAA Tournament last year, UC Irvine is determined to finish strong

- TEDDY CAHILL

At the midpoint of the season, there was only one program in the country that ranked in the top 15 nationally in run scoring, ERA and fielding percentage.

That program wasn’t Arkansas or Texas A&M or Wake Forest, the three teams this year to rank No. 1 in the Top 25. It wasn’t Clemson, Florida State or Oregon State, powerhouses that have consistently ranked in the top 10 this spring.

Instead, it was UC Irvine. The Anteaters were producing as one of the most complete and consistent programs in the country.

UCI has a rich tradition of its own, having reached the College World Series twice in the last 20 years—2007 and 2014—and won the Big West Conference in 2009 and 2021. But they have never started a season this well.

UC Irvine was 24-4 at the midpoint, the best mark in program history, and had just won a showdown series against UC Santa Barbara, which had been picked to win the conference in the preseason coaches poll.

The Anteaters were feeling good about themselves, but they knew the job was far from finished.

“We want to see how good we can be,” coach Ben Orloff said. “I told our players it’s like in your class when you get an A on the midterm. You might want to coast and get a C on the final, but that’s not what we want to be about.”

UCI stumbled a bit in the immediate aftermath of the series win against UCSB. It lost at Southern California and then lost a series at UC San Diego, the reigning conference champion, to fall to 25-7 on the season.