Cal-Irvine starting pitcher Andre Pallante entered the matchup against Iowa at Banks Field with a 2.62 ERA, but Hawkeye Izaya Fullard didn’t seem to care.

Fullard blasted 2 home runs against the No. 18 Anteaters to help the Hawkeyes to a 6-2 series-opening win on May 3.

Fullard took control early with a single to right field. Then, he made his presence felt in the third, blasting a solo shot over the left-field wall to put Iowa up 2-0. He kept his power stroke going in the fifth, clubbing another home run over the left-field fence to bring in 2 runs, giving Iowa a 4-0 lead.

By the fifth inning, Fullard was 3-for-3 with 2 home runs, 3 RBIs, and a stolen base. He finished with that stat line, plus an additional walk and run scored.

“I was seeing it well, saw a lot of pitches,” Fullard said. “I just knew there was really nothing [Pallante] could beat me with.”

Fullard’s performance marked his second multi-RBI game in the past week; in Iowa’s second game against Ohio State on April 27, he went 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs, 2 runs scored, and 2 doubles.

“I was just waiting for Izaya to start getting hot,” Iowa head coach Rick Heller said. “He’s been not in a bad slump but just off the barrel just a little bit … He picked us up big time.”

Iowa Friday starter Cole McDonald complemented Fullard’s offensive explosion with a dominant pitching performance.

McDonald tossed seven innings, giving up 2 runs (1 earned) on 5 hits, fanning 5, and walking 2 with a hit batter. McDonald kept the Anteaters off the board for the first six innings to preserve the lead Iowa held from the first inning on.

After Cal-Irvine made it 4-2 in the seventh and Iowa added two insurance runs in the eighth, Trace Hoffman took the baton and gave up 1 run in two innings of work to secure the victory.

The early runs provided by the Hawkeye offense — namely Fullard — helped McDonald pitch freely enough to record his fifth-consecutive quality start.

“It definitely gives you a little bit of relief knowing that I have a lead,” McDonald said. “But you still want to go out there and execute pitches, and you don’t want to get lazy and lose focus.”

With the victory, Iowa moved to 8-2 against top-30 teams. Cal-Irvine serves as the Hawkeyes’ last big chance to move up in the RPI, so a series win over the Anteaters would play a big part in Iowa’s quest for an NCAA regional berth.

“I think we just love competing,” Fullard said. “We feel that we’re one of the top teams in the country. When teams like that come here, we know we’re going to defend our home field.”