UC Irvine’s Pinto pitches angry with success
Nick Pinto’s season was going well through his first nine starts for the UC Irvine baseball team. Then the left-handed pitcher got knocked out of the box early against Oregon State on April 24 and again by Long Beach State on May 1.
Undaunted, Pinto has come back with three consecutive outstanding starts – he struck out nine in a 5-1 victory at UC Santa Barbara on May 8, struck out 12 in a 5-2 victory over UC Riverside on May 15, and struck out 10 on Saturday in a 2-1 victory at Cal State Bakersfield.
They are the three highest strikeout totals of the season for the second-year freshman, whose 2020 campaign was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic but didn’t cost him a year of eligibility, as per the NCAA.
Pinto’s previous high in strikeouts was eight, so getting 31 in three games is noteworthy.
Asked to explain the rise in whiffs, Pinto touched on the aforementioned games against Oregon State and Long Beach State in which he lasted a combined 3-2/3 innings while allowing 12 earned runs.
“I’ve had a couple of poor outings against Long Beach and Oregon State — I had some of my shortest outings,” said Pinto, whose first-place team has a three-game lead over secondplace UC Santa Barbara with four to play. “I wasn’t doing as well as I was. And I remember at practice, our pitching coach, Dan Bibona, was telling me that I just had to, like, pitch angry.
“And I feel like my mindset’s completely different than what it was and I’ve been throwing my fastball and curveball with way more intent to get people out rather than have them put it in play.”
Pinto said his curve, in particular, is being unleashed with a bit more viciousness.
“I’ve just been throwing it way harder, my curveball,” he said. “It’s been a lot better. The harder I throw it, I feel like it moves way more and gets the strikeouts.”
Pinto said has fastball has been ranging from 87-89 mph, with a few clocked at 90.
Pinto is 6-3 with a 3.66 ERA. He has 74 strikeouts in 76-1/3 innings. His 10-strikeout performance at Bakersfield on Saturday earned him Big West Pitcher of the Week honors, his second such award this season. He allowed just one unearned run in 7-1/3 innings.
“Yeah, it’s awesome to be recognized,” said Pinto, out of Tesoro High in Rancho Santa Margarita. “It’s cool, but I don’t think about it too much because I want it to be just like every other week. I want to have the same preparation and the same focus whether I win Pitcher of Week or have a bad outing.
“I still want to have that same focus for the next week.”
UCI’s Peabody also honored
UCI junior Mike Peabody on Monday was named Field Player of the Week by the Big West. He went 10 for 18 in the four-game series at Bakersfield – the Anteaters (36-16 overall, 28-8 Big West) took three of four – with a home run, two doubles and six RBIs while extending his hitting streak to 14.
Peabody is batting a team-high .356 with eight home runs and a conference-best 51 RBIs.
Climbing the rankings
The Anteaters this week moved up four spots to No. 14 in the Baseball America Top 25 poll. NCAA rankings find UCI at No. 17, up from No. 20.
UCI’s magic number to clinch the Big West title outright and earn the conference’s automatic berth in the 64-team NCAA tournament is one. The Anteaters, who own the head-to-head tiebreaker with UCSB (35-18, 25-11) should they conclude the season tied atop the standings, close the regular season with a four-game series against visiting Cal State Fullerton (20-31, 13-19) beginning Friday at 3 p.m.
This and that
Long Beach State (24-15, 22-14) took three out of four games at rival Fullerton over the weekend, which leaves them in third place in the Big West, three games behind UCSB. The Dirtbags finish with four home games against last-place UC Davis (14-39, 8-28) beginning Friday . ... Fourth-place Cal State Northridge (20-16, 2016), which has won 11 of its last 12, will complete its campaign with four games at UC San Diego (2127, 18-18) . ... UC Riverside (14-33, 12-28) has slumped badly of late, having dropped its last 13 games. The Highlanders have completed conference play and will finish their season with four nonconference games against Cal Baptist beginning Thursday.