COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Sunday Jinx Continues for the Titan Baseball Team

Cal State Fullerton’s Sunday woes continued as the Titans lost, 7-6, in 12 innings to Fresno State in a Big West Conference baseball game at Amerige Park in Fullerton.

It was the third consecutive Sunday that Fullerton (25-10, 8-4 in conference) lost, after winning games Friday and Saturday.

Fresno State’s Brant Brown opened the 12th with his fifth home run to put the Bulldogs ahead, 7-6. The homer came off Paco Chavez (2-3), who has taken each of the Sunday losses.

The Titans then went down in order in the 12th to winning pitcher Todd Johnson (2-0). Johnson, who is usually Fresno’s catcher, pitched the final 2 1/3 innings, allowing one hit. He caught the first 9 2/3 innings.

Steve Sisco had a two-run double and Jeremy Carr had an RBI triple as Fullerton took a 5-2 lead in the seventh.

Fresno rallied to score four unearned runs in the eighth.

With two outs, Terance Frazier reached first when his grounder went under the glove of reliever James Popoff for an error. Popoff had pitched a five-hitter Friday as Fullerton won, 2-1.

Brown then had an RBI triple, Johnson an RBI double and John DaSilva hit a two-run home run to put Fresno ahead, 6-5.

Fullerton’s Craig Fairbrother had a two-out RBI single in the eighth to tie it, 6-6. The Titans then loaded the bases with two outs, and Bret Hemphill was sent up as a pinch-hitter.

He hit a grounder toward right field but Fresno first baseman Brown made a diving play near the line and threw out Hemphill.

Fullerton had chances to win the game in the ninth, 10th and 11th as well.

Phil Nevin opened the ninth with a single but was forced out when Jason Moler’s attempt to sacrifice failed. Chris Powell flied deep to right for the second out and Jim Betzsold grounded into a force play to end the inning.

Tony Banks flied to the fence in right to start the 10th, but Jeff Ferguson singled. One out later, Sisco singled to left.

Pinch-hitter Jeff Jordan hit a grounder toward first but Brown went well to his right, gloved it, and threw out Jordan.

Nevin singled to start the 11th, Moler got the sacrifice down this time and Chris Powell was walked intentionally, bringing up Betzsold. He hit the ball hard, but right at second baseman Philip Romero, who turned it into an easy double play.

“It was a great game,” Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido said. “We hit the ball hard, but it was right at them. We just couldn’t make it work. . . We continue to make strides and are a better team than we were three weeks ago.”

In another Big West Conference game:

Pacific 13, UC Irvine 4--Keith Johnson had four hits and drove in four for visiting Pacific (13-21, 4-11). UC Irvine is 15-14, 5-7.

In a nonconference game:

Chapman 7, UC Riverside 2--Junior right-hander Collin Klein (4-0) pitched a nine-hitter with nine strikeouts for host Chapman.