COLLEGE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Good Pitching, Homers Beat Titans

Outstanding pitching and a couple of flashes of power Saturday helped Stanford defeat Cal State Fullerton, 2-0, in a at Amerige Park in Fullerton.

Fullerton (1-2) countered with strong pitching from starter Dan Naulty and reliever Jack Bailey, but each allowed a home run.

Stanford’s Jeffrey Hammonds, a sophomore center fielder, hit his third homer in five games to right field leading off the second. Last season, Hammonds was the first freshman in Stanford history to be named a first-team All-American.

Naulty (0-1) was also in a serious jam when Stanford (5-0) loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, but he escaped by getting Ryan Turner to ground into a double play.

Bailey replaced Naulty in the seventh and worked the final three innings, giving up a home run in the eighth to David McCarty, a three-year starter. McCarty was All-Pacific 10 player last season and a member of the U.S. team in the Goodwill Games.

The Titans had chances to score in the fourth through seventh innings.

Frank Herman broke a zero-for-nine slump with a double to left center to start the fourth, but he never advanced past second.

In the fifth, a base-running mistake prevented Fullerton from scoring. Craig Fairbrother singled with one out and moved to second when Frank Charles was hit by a pitch. But Fairbrother was picked off second by catcher Troy Tallman. Trevor Rush and Chris Powell walked to load the bases, but Herman flied out to end the inning.

In the sixth, Fullerton’s Phil Nevin singled with one out and moved to third when Matt Hattabaugh singled to right on a hit-and-run. Steve Sisco followed with a sharply hit grounder, but shortstop Roger Burnett turned it into an inning-ending double play.

Fairbrother singled to start the seventh, and Stanford starter Jamie Sepeda (1-0) was replaced by Aaron Dorlarque. Charles popped up an attempted sacrifice bunt for the first out. The failure to move the runner hurt more when Rush singled to left. Dorlarque got the next two batters to end the inning.

Dorlarque retired six of the final seven batters he faced.

“We put enough pressure on them to make mistakes,” Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido said. “But they didn’t.”

Stanford won Friday, 5-2, in the first game of the series, which ends today with a 1 o’clock game.

In other nonconference games:

UC Irvine 4, UCLA 1--Joe Furukawa hit a homer to lead off the game, and Chris Huber pitched a complete game, striking out eight and walking three for visiting UC Irvine (1-2). Al Rodriguez had two hits and scored twice, Mike Goodcase had two hits and two runs batted in and Matt Filson had two hits and two RBIs for Irvine.

Chapman 7, Southern California College 6--After Doug Yates doubled to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning, Rob Thompson ran for him, and Thompson eventually scored on Eric Garcia’s one-out squeeze bunt to give host Chapman (2-0) the victory.

Mike Giuseffi, who had three hits and two runs batted in, bunted to move Thompson to third and reached first safely on an error by the first baseman. Giuseffi stole second, and Mike Kelly, who also had three hits, walked to load the bases. One out later, Garcia squeezed in the winning run. Doug Rystrom had three hits, including two bases-empty home runs, for Southern California College (0-1).

Christ College Irvine 7-3, La Verne 2-7--Rodney Nelson had two hits and scored twice, Terry Robinson had a two-run single, and Lou Simon had two hits and two RBIs in the first game for Christ College Irvine (1-1).