Fullerton Defeats Creighton : College baseball: Mota collects four hits and three RBIs in 6-3 victory. Titans take on fifth-ranked Texas today.

On a night when Creighton pitcher Mike Heathcott’s split-fingered fastball was bottoming out on most Cal State Fullerton hitters, the Titans turned to the bottom of their order to drop the Bluejays into the losers’ bracket of the NCAA Central Regional.

Domingo Mota, Fullerton’s No. 9 batter, had four hits, knocked in three runs and scored twice to lead the Titans to a 6-3 victory over Creighton Saturday night before 2,618 at the University of Texas’ Disch-Falk Field.

Junior left-hander Huck Flener (8-1) pitched an eight-hitter and struck out six to earn the victory, his first decision since April 22. Flener, who picked off two baserunners, has 13 no-decisions this season.

Fullerton had a 4-3 lead after seven innings but scored twice in the eighth off reliever Brian O’Conner. Matt Hattabaugh opened the inning with a home run that cleared the left-field fence at the 340-foot mark by at least 75 feet, and Mota, who had a two-run double in the second, added an RBI single in the eighth.

The victory moves Fullerton (34-21) into today’s 11 a.m. (PDT) winners’ bracket final against Texas, the nation’s fifth-ranked team. The Longhorns are expected to start two-time All-American pitcher Kirk Dressendorfer.

Dressendorfer, a hard-throwing junior right-hander, leads the team in victories (12) and strikeouts (148), but has pitched only three innings since April 27 because of tendinitis in his shoulder.

If the 17th-ranked Titans, who will start senior right-hander Sam Colarusso (6-3, 3.30 earned-run average), defeat Texas, they will advance to Monday afternoon’s championship game.

If they lose, they will have to come back tonight at 6 and face the winner of the Clemson-Creighton elimination game. Fullerton won a coin flip Saturday night and will be the home team against Texas.

The Titans, except in the second inning, didn’t look too good against Heathcott Saturday night. The right-hander’s split-fingered fastball and his curveball baffled many Fullerton batters.

Rich Gonzales, the Titans’ leading hitter with a .390 average, struck out three times on pitches in the dirt. Heathcott had eight strikeouts in seven innings, including a game-opening, three-pitch strikeout of Phil Nevin--the first time the Fullerton third baseman has led off a game with a strikeout this season.

But the Titans got to Heathcott for three runs in the second. Mota’s two-out double to left-center field drove in two runs, and Nevin followed with an RBI double to right-center field to give Fullerton a 3-1 lead.

The Bluejays (47-21) scored once in the first on Ryan Martindale’s RBI single and once in the second on Dave Hoover’s RBI single.

Fullerton took a 4-2 lead in the top of the seventh. Mota and Nevin opened with singles, and Mate Borgogno’s sacrifice advanced the runners. After Gonzales struck out, designated hitter Frank Charles grounded an RBI single through the left side of the infield.

The Bluejays came back with a run in the bottom of the seventh on Dax Jones’ double and Steve Hinton’s RBI single. But Hoover, attempting to sacrifice Hinton to second, popped out, and Flener got Rick Freehling and Mike McCafferty to fly out to end the inning.

Flener, who was able to throw his slow curve and changeup consistently for strikes and even zipped his fastball past a few hitters, retired the last six batters.

“Flener threw an outstanding game and was in total command of his pitches,” Titan Coach Larry Cochell said. “He got his breaking ball over, which is important because Creighton is a first-ball hitting club. Getting ahead of the batters and picking off those two runners, Huck was able to take some of their aggression away.”

Offensively, Mota took out his aggression on the Bluejays. The center fielder, who is hitting what he considers a subpar .260, had his first four-hit game of the season and accounted for a third of the Titans’ 12 hits.

“This was my best game of the year,” Mota said. “I have been struggling all year, and it’s about time something like this happened. I picked a good time.”

He also picked up the Titans on a night when their two top hitters, Gonzales and Borgogno, had just one hit in nine at-bats.

“If you go back and look at all the tight games we’ve won and the things that put us ahead, it’s guys at the bottom of the order, guys like (Kevin) Farlow, (David) Ayala and Mota, who have been coming through,” Nevin said. “They’ve been picking us up all the time.”