College Baseball : Titans Use Team Effort to Get Past Irvine, 12-6

Cal State Fullerton went to the spread offense Sunday and got a 12-6 victory over UC Irvine in a Big West Conference baseball game at Irvine.

The Titans had six players with at least two hits, five players with at least two runs batted in, and four players scored at least two runs.

Fullerton got RBI singles from Rich Gonzales and Mate Borgogno to take a 2-0 lead in the second.

Brent Mayne, playing with a hip pointer from a slide in Friday’s 5-3 loss to Irvine, singled to open the third. Rod Klopfer and Gonzales later had RBI singles and Dave Ayala and Borgogno drove in runs with fielder’s choices and Fullerton led, 6-0.

Mayne singled to open the fourth and Rex Peters followed with his conference-leading 20th double to put runners on second and third. Klopfer had a one-out single to score both and Fullerton led, 8-0.

Dave Staton hit his conference-leading 16th home run with a man on in the eighth to cap Fullerton’s scoring.

Borgogno, Mayne, Peters, Klopfer, Gonzales and Ayala had two hits each. Klopfer had three RBIs and Borgogno, Staton, Gonzales and Ayala had two RBIs.

Peters and Klopfer scored three times each and Mayne and Staton twice.

Ralph Ramirez had an RBI double in the seventh to extend his hitting streak to 15 games for Fullerton, which defeated Irvine, 11-5, Saturday. Irvine (17-31-1 overall, 3-12 in conference play) won the series-opener Friday, 6-3.

Paul Johnson (4-6) pitched the first seven innings for the victory. Jeff Haack (1-7) lasted two-plus innings, allowing six runs, five earned, to take the loss.

Osmar DeChavez and Jim Kohler had two hits each for Irvine. DeChavez had a two-run double in the seventh for Irvine.

The victory moves third-place Fullerton (29-20, 9-6) one game ahead of Las Vegas, which lost to second-place Fresno State, 6-3.

The Titans now spend the final two weekends of the regular season against the conference leaders.

Fullerton plays host to first-place Long Beach Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Fullerton ends the conference season at Fresno State.