June 20, 2007

UCI's no-name heroes come through in big way
RANDY YOUNGMAN

OMAHA, Neb. Trailing by four runs going into the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday night, the UC Irvine Anteaters seemed as dead as the tree that produced the newsprint that made the newspaper you're reading.

My first thought when UCI coach Dave Serrano sent .143-hitting freshman Dillon Bell up to pinch hit against Arizona State closer Jason Jarvis was that he knew the game was over. Bell had all of 14 at-bats and two RBIs this season.

Even after Bell worked Jarvis for a five-pitch leadoff walk, my second thought only reinforced my first, because Serrano then sent up little-used Zach Robinson to pinch hit.

Robinson, a rotund 270-pounder nicknamed "Whammer," had eight RBIs in 58 at-bats this season and hadn't batted in 11 games, since May 26 at UC Riverside. Was this at-bat a reward to an outgoing senior before the Anteaters were eliminated from the College World Series?

Serrano would never say that, but it doesn't matter now, because Robinson worked Jarvis for a full-count walk to put runners at first and second and breathe life into a sellout crowd of 29,034 at Rosenblatt Stadium that for some reason had adopted the Anteaters as their own.

And in retrospect, those pinch-hit walks turned out to be as significant, if not more so, than everything heroic that followed.

That's because UCI rallied for four runs in the eighth to tie the score and pushed home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th on "Muhammad" Ollie Linton's bases-loaded single, lifting the Anteaters to an improbable 8-7 victory in a CWS elimination game that sent third-ranked ASU home for the summer.

"Those pinch-hit at-bats were huge," an exuberant but emotionally drained Serrano said afterward. "Everybody usually looks at whoever had the big hit, or the last hit, but sometimes things that go unnoticed sometimes are just as important. Those walks definitely were tonight."

As an example, Serrano cited the usually forgotten at-bat of Mike Davis that preceded Kirk Gibson's pinch-hit homer to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series for the Dodgers.

How many of you remember Davis drew a pinch-hit walk to start that rally against Oakland A's reliever Dennis Eckersley?

"Nobody talks about Mike Davis' at-bat before that home run," Serrano said. "That's kind of what happened tonight with our pinch hitters. Those were great at-bats."

And so were the ones that followed.day, the transfer from ASU who probably enjoyed this victory more than any of his teammates.

Holiday also coaxed a walk on a full-count pitch from Jarvis to load the bases, further revving up the crowd.

Jarvis, a freshman who was the winning pitcher in ASU's 5-4 victory over UCI in Saturday's CWS opener, continued to self-destruct, hitting Ben Orloff in the back with a pitch to drive in the first run of the inning.

Next up was senior second baseman Cody Cipriano, who had homered in the sixth and had hit a tying homer Monday in a memorable 14-pitch at-bat in UCI's marathon 13-inning victory over Cal State Fullerton.

This time Cipriano swung so hard, it looked as if he were driving to drive the ball off the planet.

"First swing was pretty outrageous and hellacious," Cipriano said, laughing, as Serrano nodded furiously in agreement. "My eyes kind of got a little big, but I was able to calm down after that. I was fouling pitches off until I could get something I could handle, and I finally got something out over the plate that I could hit back up the middle."

One run scored to make it 7-5, and it was so loud, it sounded like a home game at Anteater Ballpark 1,500 miles away.

Next up was Matt Morris, after ASU coach Pat Murphy yanked Jarvis in favor of Saturday starter Mike Leake.

"Before I went up there," Morris said, " Bergy (third base coach Greg Bergeron) pulled me aside during the pitching change and told me, 'This is what it's all about. Go up there and have fun and look for something up (in the strike zone).' "

Morris obeyed. He drove a double into the gap in right-center that drove in the tying runs and probably would have cleared the bases if Cipriano hadn't run into Bergeron rounding third. He was called out for interference with the base coach, but it didn't matter.

"I knew we were going to win the game," Cipriano said.

Linton made certain of that in the 10th, and the never-say-die Anteaters live for at least another day. Thanks to the pinch-hit walks from the nobodies who were the real heroes Tuesday night.

Next up was UCI first baseman Taylor Holi