Orange County College Baseball : Long Beach Falls Again to Fullerton

Larry Casian turned in the third impressive pitching performance in as many days for Cal State Fullerton Sunday, as he pitched a four-hitter with 14 strikeouts to lead the Titans to a 7-2 victory over Cal State Long Beach at Fullerton.

The victory completed a series sweep for Fullerton (5-1, 25-12), which outscored the 49ers, 23-2, and outhit them, 32-6, in the three games. It was Fullerton’s 12th consecutive victory over Long Beach since the 1984 season.

Casian, a senior left-hander, followed Longo Garcia’s rain-shortened, five-inning no-hitter on Friday and Mike Harkey’s two-hitter Saturday.

“I felt pretty good warming up,” Casian said. “But I knew it was going to be pretty hard to show anybody up with the way Longo and Mike pitched.”

Long Beach hitters were constantly stepping out of the box, calling timeout, or meeting with coaches in an effort to disrupt Casian’s rhythm. But Casian, who walked four and had four other three-ball counts, seemed to disrupt Long Beach hitters as he struggled to find his control.

Although Casian (5-1) struck out the side in the second and fourth, he had to work around walks each time. In the second, he struck out the first hitter, then walked two. After a visit from Augie Garrido, the Fullerton coach, he rallied to strike out the next two hitters.

In the fourth, he issued a two-out walk before a strikeout ended the inning.

He was back in command in the ninth when he struck out the side.

“I think that was part of what kept him effective today,” Garrido said of Casian’s occasional wildness. “He popped out of his groove at times so they had no way of getting into theirs.”

Fullerton built a 6-0 lead in the third on Keith Kaub’s grand slam and Ken Garcia’s two-run home run.

Mark Baca opened the fourth with a single and advanced to third on a double by Greg Mannion. Mike Ross walked to load the bases and after a fly out, Kaub drove a 3-1 pitch well over the left-center-field fence for his fifth home run of the season.

Andy Mota walked on four pitches and Garcia hit his first home run of the season.

Mannion doubled home Baca in the eighth for the final run. Baca was 3 for 5 and scored two runs and Mannion was 2 for 5 with an RBI.

Long Beach (1-4, 10-28-1) scored in the fourth on a RBI single by Chris Gill and an error.

In other PCAA play:

UC Santa Barbara 7, UC Irvine 4--Dan Peters (3-0) worked the first five innings and left with a 5-2 lead as the Gauchos won at Santa Barbara. Jeff Oberdank hit a home run for the Anteaters (3-3, 16-17-1) to cut the Santa Barbara lead to 3-2 in the fifth, but Santa Barbara (3-3, 18-14-2) scored twice in the fifth and twice in the sixth. Oberdank, a junior transfer from Fullerton College, was 4 for 5 with an RBI.

Dean Douty (2-2), who lasted 4 innings, took the loss.