CS Fullerton Goes Bottoms Up to Win : College baseball: The seventh, eighth and ninth hitters in the batting order lead the Titans to a 6-1 victory over UC Irvine.

Cal State Fullerton got outstanding performances from its top pitcher and the bottom of its lineup in a 6-1 victory over UC Irvine on Sunday in a Big West Conference baseball game at Fullerton.

Titan junior left-hander Huck Flener pitched a six-hitter, walking four and striking out five, in raising his record to 5-1 before a crowd of about 250.

The supposed weak third of the Fullerton batting order did the rest.

Frank Charles (No. 7 hitter), Domingo Mota (No. 8) and Kevin Farlow (No. 9) combined for an eight-for-11 performance at the plate with five runs and all six runs batted in. The trio went eight for eight before it made all three outs in the eighth inning.

Much of the damage was done by Farlow, a junior transfer from USC. He had a three-run home run in the second inning, an RBI single in the fourth and a sacrifice fly in the sixth. Farlow’s five RBIs were a season-high. He now has 16 RBIs and is batting .221.

Farlow’s home run came after Charles started a two-out rally with a single. Mota followed with an infield single and the pair moved up a base on a balk by Irvine starter and loser David Bladow (4-2). Farlow then hit an inside fastball over the left-field fence for his third home run.

“I wasn’t sure if it was out,” Farlow said. “But as I was going down to first, I peeked and saw it was gone.”

Fullerton (17-13, 2-1), which collected 10 hits, struck again in the fourth after two were out. Charles hit an infield single, Mota singled Charles to second and Farlow singled to left for another RBI.

In the sixth, Fullerton got two more. Matt Hattabaugh singled, was sacrificed to second, and scored on an RBI single to left by Charles, who had three hits.

Mota got his third hit as well and Charles went to third. Farlow then hit a fly ball to center, deep enough to score Charles with the final run.

After Farlow’s home run, UC Irvine’s offense was little more than a memory against Flener, who retired 11 in a row before Al Rodriguez’s leadoff single in the ninth. But Flener recovered quickly, getting Fred Combs to fly out to right, and Osmar DeChavez to ground into a double play.

Flener retired 15 of the final 17 batters and lowered his earned-run average to 2.89. His relative ease in handling Irvine in the final innings made it hard to believe how much he struggled at the outset.

Flener gave up a hit and a walk in the first inning, then threw a wild pitch with two outs, allowing the runners to advance. DeChavez lined a single to right for one run, but Flener was saved any further struggle when Rich Gonzales’ throw got Combs at the plate.

In the fourth, Rodriguez singled and went to third on Flener’s wild pickoff throw. Then Flener got tough. Combs struck out, DeChavez popped to third and, after Mike Goodcase walked, Craig Plumley popped to first to end the inning.

“I wanted to prove to myself I could leave him at third,” Flener said. “I saw it as a challenge . . . I made a few adjustments with my stride today to throw strikes after the first few innings. I couldn’t throw a curveball for a strike to save my life, but I was able to spot the fastball.”

Fullerton took the final two games of the three-game, weekend series as Irvine fell to 22-13, 1-2.

“This ballclub’s been knocked down and kicked around before,” Irvine Coach Mike Gerakos said. “But we’ve gotten up before. There’s no reason to panic. There are a lot of games left to play.”