COLLEGE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Long Beach State Gets Back at the Titans

Nothing can be taken for granted when Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State come together on the baseball field.

That was obvious again Saturday night when Long Beach jumped on Fullerton ace Mike Parisi for five runs in the first four innings and went on to a 10-2 Big West victory in front of 1,826 at Blair Field. It was the largest home crowd ever for Long Beach State baseball. The 49ers turned the tables on the Titans, who won the opener of the three-game series Friday, 9-1.

The victory left Long Beach at 24-8, 5-3 in the Big West, and gave Coach Dave Snow his 400th collegiate coaching victory. Fullerton fell to 27-7 and 6-2 in the conference. The deciding game of the series is at 1:05 p.m. today.

Parisi, who had a 1.44 earned-run average, gave up nine hits after allowing only six in his previous 15 1/3 innings. Long Beach pitcher Scott Rivette ran his record to 7-1, giving up six hits before leaving at the start of the eighth with an eight-run lead. Parisi fell to 7-2.

“It was a good show of character on our part,” said Snow, taking note of his team’s lopsided loss in the series opener. “It was good to see our club bounce back the way they did.”

The Titans had runners in scoring position in each of the first two innings but failed to capitalize.

In the first, Dante Powell walked and stole second, then advanced to third on a fielder’s choice, but Jeff Ferguson struck out and Bret Hemphill grounded out. In the second, Jeremy Giambi doubled off the glove of a diving Rolando Avila in center field and Jason Gill walked, but Rivette struck out Jack Jones to end the inning.

The 49ers clipped Parisi for two hits in the first inning. Eric Martins singled up the middle and, with two out, Jeff Liefer’s hit advanced Martins to third. But Parisi got Jeff Tagliaferri to bounce out, ending the threat.

Three more solid hits gave the 49ers two runs in the third. Avila singled, stole second and scored on Martins’ line drive just inside first base. Liefer doubled off the bottom of the center-field wall, bringing in Martins. Parisi escaped without further damage when he struck out the next two batters.

The Titans got one run back in the fourth. Hemphill lined a triple off Avila’s glove to open the inning and scored when Mark Kotsay grounded out.

Long Beach State unloaded on Parisi for four runs in the fourth. Consecutive hits by Nate Vopata and Tim Falsken and a walk to Avila loaded the bases.

Vopata scored on an error by Titan third baseman Gill, whose throw to the plate was in the dirt. Ryan Miller doubled in two more runs and sent Parisi to the bench in his earliest exit of the season. Chad Rolish came on in relief and gave up two consecutive walks, the last to Ramon Smith, which forced in another run.

The Titans scored a run in the sixth. Ferguson led off the inning with a double and scored on Adam Millan’s one-out single. The Titans stranded two runners in the inning.

In Golden State Athletic Conference baseball:

Concordia 7-7, Point Loma Nazarene 3-5--Jake Miller gave up two earned runs in seven innings and Alex Vicario had two hits and two RBIs to lead Concordia (14-19-1, 4-5) to the sweep. Point Loma, ranked No. 3 in NAIA, is 22-10, 4-5.

In nonconference baseball:

UC San Diego 7-9, Chapman 3-3--Donny Disbro hit a two-run homer in the second game for Chapman (10-20-1), which gave up 23 hits in the two games.