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Baylor at UC Irvine Feb. 15-17, 2013 | Irvine, Calif. | Anteater Ballpark GAME NOTES
FRI. | 8:30 P.M. Probable Starters: BU - RHP Ryan Smith 2012: 3-1, 3.14 ERA, 28.2 IP, 15 K UCI - RHP Andrew Thurman 2012: 8-3, 2.66 ERA, 98.0 IP, 69 K		SAT. | 3:00 P.M. Probable Starters: BU - RHP Max Garner 2012: 3-3, 4.89 ERA, 46.0 IP, 43 K UCI - LHP Matt Whitehouse 2012: 0-2, 4.15 ERA, 13.0 IP, 17 K		SUN. | 1:30 P.M. Probable Starters: BU - RHP Dillon Newman 2012: 4-4, 2.40 ERA, 45.0 IP, 44 K UCI - RHP Evan Brock 2012: 2-1, 2.12 ERA, 34.0 IP, 25 K

Opening day is here at last! Baylor plays a three game set this weekend against UC Irvine in sunny Southern California. My previous post was written Wednesday night, before Baylor had released its preview for the series. Now that they've released it, I can say that calling Ryan Smith a "dark horse" for the rotation was a terrible understatement.

Smith is the Bears' opening day starter, followed by Max Garner on Saturday and Dillon Newman on Sunday. Seeing Garner and Newman in the rotation isn't surprising in the least, but I must say that I'm a bit shocked to see Smith on opening day as a sophomore. I don't doubt his talent, but I expected the Bears to go with more experience.

Here is the official preview from baylorbears.com.

Last year, Baylor played UCI twice in the QTI Baylor Classic. Those games ended well for the Bears as they defeated UCI by the scores of 4-2 and 6-1. Be sure to follow @BaylorBaseball for Twitter updates during all three games. Feed the Beaver!