Garrido Wins His Homecoming : College baseball: Seven-run inning helps Illinois defeat Cal State Fullerton, 10-4, in former coach’s return.

Augie Garrido returned to Cal State Fullerton Thursday night and was welcomed by the applause of about 1,100 spectators as he presented the lineup card before the game.

He wore No. 16 on the back of his Illinois uniform, the same number that is painted in tribute on the left-center field fence of Titan Field.

Garrido, whose teams made Fullerton an unpopular place for visitors for 15 seasons, made it an uncomfortable place for the home team this time.

Illinois scored seven runs in the second inning of a 10-4 victory over Fullerton.

“I was pretty excited about it,” Garrido said about returning to Fullerton for the first time since 1987. “There’s a lot of familiar faces, 50-60-70 or more former players in the stands. It makes me really proud to see them and see what they have accomplished.”

Things didn’t start too well for Garrido. Fullerton scored three runs in the first inning.

After Phil Nevin and David Ayala singled, Mate Borgogno’s double scored Nevin. Ayala scored on an error and Steve Sisco’s squeeze bunt scored Borgogno.

But in the second, Illinois scored seven runs, getting contributions from four former county players.

Emmitt Cohick, who played at Esperanza High School and Fullerton College, singled with one out to start the rally.

A walk and a hit batter loaded the bases and Jason Moler, a sophomore from Esperanza, drove a run-scoring ingle to right field to cut Fullerton’s lead to 3-1.

Larry Sutton, a sophomore from Mater Dei, pulled a one-hop grounder toward right field that second baseman Borgogno dove for and got.

Borgogno threw to second for the force out, but Sutton just beat shortstop Kevin Farlow’s relay. That allowed a run to score.

“That was the key play in the inning,” Fullerton Coach Larry Cochell said. “We just didn’t get the call. I thought we had him.”

Wil Parsons singled to tie it, 3-3. Andy Small walked to load the bases again.

Brian Roberts, a junior from Loara, followed with a two-run double up the gap in left-center to give Illinois a 5-3 lead. The final two runs of the inning came in when Fullerton first baseman Sisco made a fielding error on a ground ball hit by Mark Dalesandro.

Illinois (13-8) added single runs in the fourth, fifth and ninth and got a strong pitching performance from Bob Palacio (3-2), who allowed seven hits and three earned runs in nine innings.

James Popoff (3-3) pitched 3 1/3 innings and took the loss. Fullerton (13-10) came into the game with a four-game winning streak.