Nick Pinto Award Pitcher of the Week Week Of 5/29/2023 Sport Baseball School UC Irvine Year Position Pitcher Hometown Coto de Caza, Calif. High School Tesoro HS Veteran arm Nick Pinto was brilliant pitching into the ninth inning of fourth-place UC Irvine’s 9-1 home victory over UC Riverside on Friday night to pick up a fourth career Big West Pitcher of the Week honor. The fourth-year junior southpaw went a season-long 8.1 frames and fanned eight, allowing an unearned run on three singles and two hit-by-pitches without a walk. Pinto finished the year with a 7-2 win-loss mark. For a second straight home start, Pinto entered the sixth inning with a perfect game, retiring the first 15 Highlanders prior to a single to lead off the sixth, and took that one-hit shutout into the ninth. Pinto faced five batters over the minimum and threw 89 pitches. The native of Coto de Caza and 2019 graduate of Tesoro High School’s previous long for 2023 was 7.2 innings, with a career best of 8.2 frames in 2021. Pinto finishes 2023 with two Big West Pitcher of the Week awards over the last four weeks, having already been recognized on May 8. Pinto’s first two weekly honors came during the 2021 season, on March 22 and then on May 24. Senior teammate Michael Stanford was the only other Anteater hurler chosen this year, back on March 6.