COLLEGE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Hemphill’s Grand Slam Gets Titans Past Gauchos

It may not change the course of Cal State Fullerton’s season, but one swing of the bat by designated hitter Bret Hemphill certainly altered the Titans’ direction out of the Big West Conference starting blocks.

Hemphill hit the first pitch thrown to him by UC Santa Barbara’s Armando Delsi in the eighth inning over the 40-foot screen in right-center field for a grand slam that gave Fullerton a 6-2 victory over the Gauchos Saturday at Amerige Park in Fullerton.

That, combined with a complete-game, five-hit, 11-strikeout performance by pitcher James Popoff, evened Fullerton’s conference record at 1-1 and improved the sixth-ranked Titans to 15-6.

“It was a real pivotal game,” said Hemphill, who has four home runs and 20 runs batted in. “If we would have started 0-2 in conference, it would have been a real downer.”

The Titans were down, 2-0, Saturday, as Santa Barbara’s Chris Johnson hit a bases-empty home run in the second inning and Danny Lane, a former standout at Laguna Beach High School, added a bases-empty homer in the fourth.

Fullerton never really threatened Delsi, a right-hander, until the sixth, when Frank Herman reached base on an error and Phil Nevin lined a homer to right-center field, his 10th this season, to tie the score, 2-2.

Nevin started the eighth-inning rally with a one-out single, and Jason Moler’s double down the left-field line put runners on second and third. After Tony Banks popped to third for the second out, D.C. Olsen walked to load the bases.

Hemphill then drilled a Delsi fastball for the home run and a 6-2 lead.

“I was looking fastball all the way,” Hemphill said. “Augie (Garrido, Titan coach) told me to look for a fastball in my zone and adjust to the curve. The pitch happened to be right in my zone, and when I hit it, I knew it was out.”

That was plenty of cushion for Popoff, a senior right-hander who mixed his fastball, slider, curve and changeup to keep the Gauchos (17-7-1, 2-3 in conference) off balance. Popoff, who walked only one, has shown improvement over last season, when he struggled with a 4.81 earned-run average.

Saturday’s game marked his first nine-inning complete game since he shut out Texas, 3-0, in the 1990 NCAA Central Region championship game.

“Last year I never really found my groove, as opposed to my sophomore year,” Popoff said. “I went up and down and was really inconsistent. But I’m not throwing the knuckleball as much this year, and I’ve been relying more on the slider. I have more quality in my pitches than quantity.”

In another Big West Conference game:

UC Irvine 7, New Mexico State 6--Matt Filson hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning, his sixth of the season, to give Irvine (12-6, 3-2) a 7-4 lead. Joe Furukawa had two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored. New Mexico State is 8-14, 0-2.

In nonconference baseball:

Chapman 7, UCLA 6--Chapman (15-7) rallied from a 4-0 deficit, scoring two runs in the top of the seventh for the victory. Larry Stahlhoefer and Cliff Anderson homered for the Panthers, and James Thomas pitched 3 2/3 innings and struck out seven in relief of Pete Coleman to earn the victory.

In the Golden State Athletic Conference:

Christ College Irvine 0-4, Cal Baptist 5-0--Armando Diaz threw a six-hitter and Jim Vlcek hit a two-run double to highlight a four-run fourth inning for host CCI (13-6, 4-2) in the second game of the doubleheader. Cal Baptist is 1-15, 1-3.