College Baseball : Fullerton Drops Another to Arizona State, 7-3

Using some timely hitting, sixth-ranked Arizona State scored three runs in the fifth inning to hand third-ranked Cal State Fullerton another defeat, 7-3, Saturday evening in a nonconference game in Packard Stadium at Tempe.

The Titans (2-3) started well, as second baseman Jose Mota hit Gilbert Villanueva’s first pitch for a home run to lead off the game. ASU (5-3) countered with a run of its own in the first inning. Brent Hahn singled to right then advanced to second on a balk by Fullerton’s Dion Beck. With two outs, Louie Medina doubled Hahn home.

Mota came through again in the third inning, leading off with a triple to right. Shane Turner’s bunt brought Mota home to give Fullerton a 2-1 lead.

In the fourth inning, Arizona State’s pitching weakened. With two outs, Fullerton’s Blaine Larker and Keith Watkins walked. ASU brought in right-hander Mike Thorpe to replace Villanueva. The first batter Thorpe faced, Mota, singled home Larker to up the Titans’ lead to 3-1.

ASU came back with a run in the bottom of the fourth. Shortstop Keith Bennett led off with a walk. Bryan Beals’ sacrifice fly sent him to second, and, with two out, Hahn drove Bennett home with a single to right. That made it 3-2, Fullerton.

In the bottom of the fifth, ASU’s Medina doubled to right. Rick Morris’ ground-rule double brought Medina home to tie the score, 3-3. Don Wakamatsu singled to center, driving in Morris. The final ASU run in the fifth came on an infield grounder by Bennett, giving the Sun Devils a 5-3 lead.

Titan pitcher Beck left the game in the bottom of the eighth inning with two out. He was replaced by Dean Yamashita, a junior right-hander. Beck (0-2) took the loss. Thorpe (3-0) got the win for ASU.

Mota was was 4 for 5 for Fullerton, accounting for more than half of the Titans’ seven hits. ASU was led by Medina, who was 3 for 4 with two doubles.

The Titans lost to the Sun Devils, 16-5, on Friday, and today’s concluding game of the three-game series will be televised on ESPN at 5 p.m.

Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido, who has managed to make 10 consecutive appearances in the NCAA playoffs, has three-fourths of his 1984 Division I championship team’s infield back, but he has just two returning pitchers (with a combined 66 innings of major-college experience) and two returning outfielders (who combined for 71 at bats in 86 games last season).

“A high number of the people on last year’s team were rewarded with professional contracts and that opened the doors for new people to come in,” Garrido said. “It keeps things fresh. It has sort of a cleansing effect.”

New faces or not, the folks at Collegiate Baseball are the ones who ranked Fullerton No. 3 in the country in their latest poll. “The Titans lost a bundle of players . . . but don’t shed any tears. They also had the fifth-best recruiting year in Division I,” the newspaper reported in it’s preseason look at the Top 30 teams in the country.

Fullerton’s traditionally strong recruiting year has made the Titans--who have won or shared 11 consecutive conference titles--the favorites in the newly realigned Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. They spent the last eight years in the Southern California Baseball Assn.