Box Score

IRVINE, Calif. -- Senior right-hander Spencer Koopmans scattered just seven hits in his first career complete game while Izaak Silva and Tino Lipson each collected three hits on the night, lifting UC Davis to an 8-3 win over No. 19 UC Irvine in the opener of a three-game Big West Conference series on Friday night at Anteater Ballpark.

UC Davis snapped a three-game losing streak overall and a seven-game skid in the series with the Anteaters, improving to 21-14-1 overall and evening its record at 5-5 in league play. It was the first win in the series for the Aggies since May 26, 2012, and only the seventh win in the series overall (7-27) dating back to 1970.

League-leading UC Irvine dropped its third straight contest, falling to 21-13 overall and 8-2 in the Big West.

Koopmans (4-3) was stellar in allowing just one earned run to win his second straight start, holding the host Anteaters hitless over the final three innings and doing his part in a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play to end the game. It was the first complete game for an Aggies pitcher since Harry Stanwyck went the distance against Hawai'i on May 16, 2014.

"Obviously, it was important for me to get ahead and I did that for the most part," Koopmans said. "My teammates have played great defense behind me all the time and, if they slip up, it's my job to go back out there and pick them up, and I was able to do that tonight."

Elliot Surrey (4-3) suffered the loss, tagged for six runs on 12 hits over 5.2 innings, walking one and striking out four.

It was Silva's team-high fifth three-hit game of the season and the third of the year for Lipson, helping the Aggies bang out 16 hits on the night -- the 17th time this season they have hit double figures in the hit column and the most since they collected 17 hits in a win over UC Riverside on March 29.

Tanner Bily, Austin March, Brad Pluschkell, and Evan Heptig, each added two hits in the win as eight of the nine UC Davis starters finished with at least one hit.

Back-to-back singles by Bily and Lipson put runners on the corners to start the game and UC Davis cashed in the first run of the contest on a double play ball to make it 1-0. After a Silva double, March made it 2-0 with a single through the right side.

An error and a ground ball cut the Aggies' lead in half in the bottom of the first, but Nick Lynch's nation-leading 21st double of the year and a single by Silva drove in two more in the third, as UC Davis went up 4-1.

Andrew Martinez made it a one-run game in the home half of the fourth with a two-run single, but that would be as close as Irvine would get. Alex Aguiar added an RBI single in the fifth, Bily scored on a wild pitch in the sixth, and the Aggies added two more on a squeeze by John Williams and an RBI single by Heptig to cap the scoring.

Koopmans and the UC Davis defense stranded nine UC Irvine base runners for the game -- four of those in scoring position

Mikey Duarte, Mitchell Holland, and Martinez, combined for six of the Anteaters' seven hits on the night.

"We're just going to take it one game at time and not look forward too much," Koopmans said. "We're just going to go out there tomorrow and try and win the series."

Game two of the series is scheduled for Saturday afternoon (April 18) at 1 p.m., as senior right-hander Raul Jacobson is scheduled to take the mound for the Aggies against the Anteaters' Matt Esparza. The game will be streamed live via ESPN3.com.

UC Davis 8, UC Irvine 3 (Apr 17, 2015 at Irvine, CA)
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UC Davis............ 202 011 200 - 8 16 2 (21-14-1, 5-5)
UC Irvine........... 100 200 000 - 3 7 3 (21-13, 8-2)
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Pitchers: UC Davis - Koopmans, Spencer and Silva, Izaak. UC Irvine - Surrey, Elliot; Vetrovec, Shaun(6); Sparling, Sean(8); Fielding, Matt(8) and McClanahan, Jerry.
Win-Koopmans, Spencer(4-3) Loss-Surrey, Elliot(4-3) T-2:49 A-970