College Baseball : Titans Waste Scoring Chances, Lose Chance to Sweep Pacific

Cal State Fullerton’s baseball team left its chance for a three-game sweep of University of the Pacific standing at third base--four times.

Pacific finally scored a run in the 10th to win, 3-2, in a Big West Conference game Sunday in front of about 250 at Titan Field.

Pacific (11-18 overall and 1-2 in conference play) scored a run in the fifth to tie it, 2-2.

Fullerton got a runner to third in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Fullerton had 10 hits, but left 11 runners on base.

“Pathetic,” Fullerton Coach Larry Cochell said. “We didn’t deserve to win. We had good pitching, but we didn’t swing the bats very well.”

Fullerton’s Paul Bunch doubled in the fifth, and reached third with two outs, but Brent Mayne grounded out to end the inning. Dave Staton singled, was sacrificed to second, went to third on a passed ball but watched as Ralph Ramirez popped up and Bobby Jones flied out in the sixth.

John Paboojian tripled to start the seventh. Mate Borgogno grounded out to a drawn-in infield, Bunch struck out and Rex Peters grounded out to end the inning.

More frustration followed in the eighth as Mayne opened with a double and went to third on a fly ball. Rich Gonzales struck out, chasing what would have been been ball four. Ramirez then grounded out to end the inning.

Mayne walked with one out in the 10th, but Staton and Trevor Neighbors both flied out and the game was over for Fullerton (21-11, 2-1.) Fullerton had won Friday, 2-0, and, 10-2, Saturday in the first two games of the series.

Pacific pitcher Todd Deck (2-3), a junior right-hander from Fresno College, went the distance for the victory, getting five strikeouts and walking four.

“There was a lot of concern on my part,” Deck said about all the runners in scoring position. “They have a lot of good hitters and I was fortunate to get the kind of outs I did.”

Fullerton scored two runs in the fourth inning.

Gonzales had a two-out single and Ramirez was jammed but still able to bloop a fly ball that fell for a double near the foul line in short right field.

Jones then followed with a double to the fence in left field and Fullerton led, 2-1. Paboojian singled to center, but Jones was thrown out at home on a strong throw by center fielder Mike Troutner.

Tim Quinn had an RBI double in the third and Dan Denczek had an RBI single in the fifth for Pacific.

Both runs came off Fullerton starter Danny DeVille. Sam Colarusso replaced DeVille to start the seventh and pitched three strong innings.

But Colarusso walked Denczek to open the 10th, and after a sacrifice, intentionally walked Robert Flippo. Chris Robinson then replaced Colarusso and gave up the game-winning single to Troutner. Robinson got a double play to end the inning on his next pitch, but it was one pitch too late for Colarusso (2-3), who took the loss.

“Being on the road and playing a team that can hit as well as Fullerton makes it a great win,” Pacific Coach Keith Snider said. “We got the bunt down and were fortunate to get the hit when we needed it.”

In another Big West Conference game:

UC Irvine 7, San Jose State 6--Host Irvine opened a 6-1 lead after two innings, but had to hang on. Irvine led, 7-4, going into the ninth. San Jose used three consecutive singles to score a run to open the inning. Irvine’s Steve May then replaced Zac Krislock on the mound. May got a strikeout and a fly out, then shortstop Al Rodriguez made an error on a ground ball to allow another run. But May struck out Mike Gonzales, a former Rancho Santiago College standout, to end the game.

Brian Young had an RBI single and El Luna hit a sacrifice fly as Irvine (11-17-1, 1-2) scored two runs in the first. Jon Skaggs had a two-run single, Luna had an RBI single and Rodriguez had a sacrifice fly as Irvine added four more runs in the second.

Irvine scored what turned out to be the winning run in the eighth. Jon Berger had a two-out double and scored on a two-base throwing error by San Jose catcher Kevin Tannahill. San Jose is 28-6, 2-1.