COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Fairbrother’s Home Run Lifts Titans to Victory

Craig Fairbrother momentarily erased some frustrations with a three-run home run in the ninth inning, helping Cal State Fullerton to a 7-5 victory over UC Santa Barbara in a Big West Conference baseball game Sunday at Amerige Park in Fullerton.

Fairbrother, a senior outfielder, was a starter most of last season and had a .305 batting average.

But his playing time this season had been limited because of his ineffectiveness on offense. He was batting .136 (3 for 22) before Sunday.

He was called as a pinch-hitter in the fourth and walked. He stayed in the game and hit a home run in the sixth to cut UC Santa Barbara’s lead to 5-2.

He looped an RBI single to center in the seventh to make it 5-4. When he came up in the ninth, Fullerton was down, 5-4, with one out and runners on first and third.

Dante Powell had reached third on a single by Bret Hemphill. D.C. Olsen had walked with one out and was replaced by Powell as a pinch-runner.

Fairbrother earned Fullerton’s second victory in the series when he pulled the ball into the net above the fence in right-center field off losing pitcher Pat Bennett (0-1).

“The first one (home run) felt better,” Fairbrother said. “Better than the last one, but I’ll take anything. I was just trying to hit the ball hard to the right side to get the run home.”

The game also saw the teams tie an NCAA record for most hit batters at eight. UC Santa Barbara pitchers hit five Titans, including Steve Sisco twice. The teams share the record mark with Fordham-Brooklyn (1991) and Illinois-Purdue (1990).

The victory gave Fullerton a 2-1 advantage in the series in which each game was decided by a home run.

UC Santa Barbara (17-8, 2-4 in conference) won the opener Friday, 4-3, on an 11th inning home run by Jeff Elder.

Fullerton (16-6, 2-1) came back on an eighth-inning grand slam by Hemphill to win, 6-2, Saturday.

Early Sunday, it looked as if Fullerton might be beyond saving. Santa Barbara got four runs in the first inning and chased starter Bill Fitzgerald after two-thirds of an inning. Danny Lane (Laguna Beach High School) had an RBI single and Chris Johnson (Fullerton College) had a sacrifice fly in the inning for the Gauchos.

Santa Barbara got another run in the second and led, 5-0. But Fullerton got solid relief work to prevent the lead from growing.

Derek Fahs allowed a run in 4 2/3 innings and struck out four. Marcus Nelson allowed no hits and struck out six in three innings, and Paco Chavez (2-1) got the final two outs for the victory.

Phil Nevin continued his torrid hitting with three singles and a double and two RBIs for the Titans. Nevin started the weekend batting .397, but had seven hits in 11 chances in the series. He is leading the team in batting at .432, home runs with 10 and RBIs with 27.

In another Big West Conference game:

UC Irvine 5, New Mexico State 4--Joe Furukawa had a sacrifice fly in the ninth to break a 4-4 tie for host UC Irvine (13-8, 4-2). Dave Dieter had singled to start the ninth and was sacrificed to second by Jon Damush and went to third on a throwing error.

Corey Parker had two-run home run in the eighth to tie it, 4-4, for Irvine. It was Parker’s fourth home run of the season and second in the series.

Steve Ott had opened the eighth with a single and scored on a double by Furukawa.

In the Rebel Spring Games:

Chapman Loses Two--Chapman, the 13th-ranked team in Division II softball, lost to Connecticut Sacred Heart, 1-0, and Florida Southern, 4-3, in eight innings.

Sixth-ranked Sacred Heart used two Chapman errors in the fifth inning to score the game’s only run, giving Deann Ford her first loss of the season.

Trina Honea had three hits, an RBI, and a stolen base for Chapman in the second game, but fourth-ranked Florida Southern scored two unearned runs in the top of the eighth for the victory.