Riverside—Wee Willie Keeler put together a Hall of Fame career for the New York Yankees by "hitting 'em where they aint," and UC Irvine put together a 12-4 victory over UC Riverside Friday evening by implementing the same philosophy. The Anteaters reached base in nearly every conceivable fashion—Baltimore chops, bleeders through drawn-in infields, bloops down the line, as well as a pair of home runs off the bat of Evan Cassolato. In all, they collected 19 hits en route to their second highest run total of the season.

Ryan Lillie (2-6) got the start for the Highlanders, and UC Irvine (20-30, 7-12) touched him for eight runs over his 3.1 innings of work. Trenton Toplikar pitched two and two third innings in relief, and gave up a single run; Johnny Breidenthal allowed two runs in his inning on the hill; Jacob Worrell gave a run in his inning of work; and Kevin West kept the Anteaters off the board in the top of the ninth.

The Highlanders (19-29, 5-14) banged out 11 hits of their own, but were able to parlay them into just four runs. Louis Raymond (4-5) scattered nine of those hits in his seven innings for the 'Eaters. Michael Martin logged a scoreless eighth inning, and Kaz Akamatsu allowed two runs before recording the final outs of the ninth.

The Highlanders and Anteaters play game two of their three-game Big West Conference series on Saturday beginning at 6 pm PT. The game is being broadcast around the world on ESPN3.