Orange County College Baseball : Fullerton Fights Off Fresno State

Cal State Fullerton scored a run in the ninth inning to break a 2-2 tie and defeat Fresno State, 3-2, in a fight-marred Pacific Athletic Assn. baseball game at Fresno Sunday.

The victory reduced Fullerton’s magic number to clinch the PCAA title to two games with six left. Fullerton (13-2, 35-14) is five games ahead of San Jose State and UC Santa Barbara, which are tied for second at 8-7. Fullerton will play San Jose State in a three-game series starting Friday at Fullerton.

With the score tied, 2-2, and one out in the ninth, as Fullerton’s Ken Garcia was hitting, his bat slipped out of his hands on a swing and flew toward the pitcher’s mound. Fresno State starter Steve Buckholz threw the bat back at him, and the players came to blows. Both were ejected.

Jim Osborn replaced Garcia and was walked by reliever Dennis Springer. He advanced to third on singles by Andy Mota and Mike Ham but twisted his ankle rounding third base and was replaced by Bobby Jones. Jones scored when Fresno second baseman Steve Pearse bobbled Mark Razook’s potential double-play ball and got only the out at first.

In the bottom of the ninth, Fresno (7-8, 30-22) used a walk and Harvey Hill’s two-out single to put runners on first and third, but Mark Beck retired Pearse on a fly ball.

Another fight occurred in the bottom of the seventh when Brandon Mitchell and Scott Blechman were hit with pitches by Longo Garcia, the Fullerton starter.

Blechman eventually charged the mound, and he and Garcia were ejected along with Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido, who heatedly objected to Garcia’s ejection. Beck replaced Garcia.

Fullerton got its first two runs in the fourth on a two-out home run by Mike Ham.

In other Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. play:

Las Vegas 6, UC Irvine 5 (10 innings)--The Runnin’ Rebels scored the tying run in the ninth and the winning run in the 10th at Irvine. Relief pitcher Sam Maatallah hit Dave Baxter with a pitch with the bases loaded in the 10th to force in Tony Aquino with the winning run.

Aquino had singled to open the inning and was sacrificed to second. After an intentional walk, the runners moved up on a ground out, and Maatallah issued another intentional walk to load the bases.

Las Vegas (7-8, 24-20) tied the score, 5-5, in the ninth when Geoff Looney singled, was sacrificed to second and moved to third on an error. He scored on a sacrifice fly by Reed Peters.

Las Vegas took a 3-0 lead after five innings, but Irvine (7-8, 20-25-1) scored four runs in the seventh to take the lead.