CS Fullerton’s Silva Pitches No-Hitter : Baseball: It’s the Titans’ first for a complete game and it comes in a 5-0 victory over Pacific.

Cal State Fullerton has a rich baseball history. But until Sunday, no Titan had pitched a nine-inning no-hitter.

Junior Ted Silva, a star reliever a year ago who took over as the top starter this season, became the first to complete the task. Silva just missed a perfect game when he issued a walk with two outs in the eighth inning.

With Silva leading the way, Fullerton, the nation’s No. 1-ranked team, won its ninth consecutive game, 5-0, and completed a three-game sweep of Big West Conference-rival University of the Pacific (24-21). The Titans (39-6) lead the conference with a 13-2 record.

Fans at Titan Stadium were standing and cheering Silva in a dramatic ninth inning. “They seemed to be a lot more happy than I was right then,” he said. “I just thought: ‘If it happens, it happens.’ ”

It did, with Silva striking out the side. His teammates mobbed him on the mound. The only other Titan no-hitter was a five-inning one by Longo Garcia against Long Beach State in 1987. The game was stopped by rain.

Silva (11-1) struck out 11 and threw only 91 pitches, with his skidding slider the most effective.

“I felt I was going backward in my last two starts, but the more strikes I threw today, the better I felt,” Silva said.

Silva said he felt he pitched aggressively and with confidence all the way. “I pitched more inside, and that set up the outside half of the plate for my slider,” he said. Silva was ahead of batters throughout the game.

“We’ve been asking him to pitch more inside to hitters,” said associate head coach George Horton, who calls all the pitches. “He fights me on that sometimes, but it’s hard to be critical because he’s so effective. But today he shook me off only a couple of times. Sometimes he averages 12 to 15 times a game shaking me off.”

Horton said he could tell Silva was tiring slightly in the seventh. “But when he got through that inning, the adrenaline kicked in,” Horton said.

Jeremy Giambi finally provided the offensive fireworks with a three-run home run in the sixth. Giambi’s towering homer drove in Tony Miranda and Mark Kotsay. Both had singled.

Giambi also had a run-scoring hit in the Titans’ two-run eighth. Catcher Brian Loyd’s single drove in Giambi.

The Titans missed on good scoring opportunities earlier. In the second, D.C. Olsen singled and Mike Lamb doubled, but Jack Jones missed a squeeze-bunt attempt and Olsen was caught in a rundown. Fullerton also had two runners thrown out in the third.

“We tried to manufacture some runs early, but all we manufactured were outs,” Coach Augie Garrido said. “But I think all the elements of the game probably helped Ted. The other pitcher (Dan Reichert) was throwing well early, and Ted doesn’t like being second to anyone. And then we weren’t getting him the runs we should have early in the game. We didn’t give him any room to let down.”

Garrido also gave Loyd and Jones, the Titan shortstop, some of the credit for Silva’s no-hitter. “Brian did an outstanding job behind the plate, and Jack made a couple of fine plays defensively to help him.”