SOFTBALL / COLLEGE WORLD SERIES : Fullerton Gets No Mercy From Arizona

The Cal State Fullerton’s softball team ran into a runaway train from Arizona Friday in the second round of the Women’s College World Series, and it wasn’t pretty.

Top-seeded Arizona belted a series record 14 hits and embarrassed the Titans in front of 2,627 at Hall of Fame Stadium with an 11-0 victory in a five-inning game, shortened because of an eight-run rule.

“What can you say when you give up 11 runs?” Fullerton Coach Judi Garman said.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been [in the World Series]. And we were playing a team that’s been here year after year.”

Arizona (65-5), two-time defending national champion and winner of three of the last four titles, made Fullerton the sixth consecutive victim--and 26th this season overall--dismissed by the mercy rule.

Arizona, which last week outscored opponents, 32-1, in three shortened regional games, defeated Princeton, 9-1, in five innings in the first round Thursday.

“It was truly a magnificent performance offensively for us,” said Arizona Coach Mike Candrea, whose team has outscored its last six opponents, 67-3. “We came out and put some pressure on early and kept it on.”

Fullerton had only two hits.

“I think we were a little off today,” Fullerton first baseman Rose Garces said. “Maybe a little overanxious. Everyone was seeing the ball, we were just missing it.’

Arizona however, wasn’t missing a beat.

Right-hander Jennifer Mortensen (23-7) lasted only one inning, which was longer than her first outing against Arizona on Feb. 16 when she was roughed up for four earned runs on four hits in a third of an inning.

This time, the Wildcats turned four hits and an error into a 4-0 lead.

Brandi Isgar retired three of the first four batters she faced in the second. But the third was a different inning entirely.

With one out, Arizona pounded five consecutive hits, including a double by All-American Amy Chellevold, for three runs and a 7-0 lead.

After Leah O’Brien singled to drive in the eighth run in the fifth, the Wildcats put an exclamation point on the victory with Jenny Dalton’s three-run home run, Arizona’s NCAA record 100th of the season.

At 6:30 (PDT) tonight, Fullerton (46-16) will face the winner of today’s Michigan-Iowa losers’ bracket game.

Traci Fischer and Tracie Noggle were the only Titans with hits off Carrie Dolan (33-1).

“I love pitching on this team,” said Dolan, a sophomore from Los Alamitos High. “There’s a lot of comfort pitching here.”