Fullerton’s Irvine Settles Down, Defeats Brigham Young

Cal State Fullerton pitcher Kirk Irvine said the worst pitch he threw Thursday night at Titan Field was the first one.

Brigham Young third baseman Ryan Roberts drilled it over the left-field fence for a home run, but Irvine was solid after that, and Fullerton went on to a 6-2 victory in the first game of a three-game series against the Cougars.

The nonconference victory lifted the Titans to 19-2, the best record in school history after 21 games. BYU is 12-8.

“I’ve been a little inconsistent up until now, and the coaches wanted me to be more aggressive tonight,” said Irvine, who gave up eight hits in 8 1/3 innings while striking out four and walking two. “The defense really helped me.”

Titan Coach Augie Garrido also was pleased with the defense. “Irvine set a good tempo in the game, and the defense responded,” Garrido said.

Associate head coach George Horton said he wanted Irvine (6-1) to challenge BYU’s hitters. “He was trying to be too fine the last time he pitched at Pacific, trying to hit too many corners,” Horton said. “That first pitch they got the home run on was a nothing fastball, but he was challenging the hitter, and that’s what we wanted him to do.”

After the leadoff homer, Irvine got the next three batters in order and held the Cougars scoreless the next seven innings. Irvine gave up a leadoff hit in the ninth, and Mark Chavez came on in relief. A throwing error by shortstop Jack Jones gave BYU its second run before Chavez retired the side.

“I thought Irvine might be able to go all the way, but he went into the ninth with 106 pitches, and we didn’t want to take any chances of them getting anything going,” Horton said.

The Titans, who had 10 hits, scored three runs in the first. Jeremy Giambi drove in the first run, stole second and scored on C.J. Ankrum’s single. Ankrum scored later on Brian Loyd’s base hit.

Fullerton added another run in the third. Ankrum singled with two out, stole second, then came home when the catcher’s throw went into center field and the BYU outfielder over-ran the ball.

The Titans scored two more runs in the fifth for a 6-1 cushion. Mark Kotsay tripled off the right-field wall to open the inning and scored on Giambi’s base hit. Another run came across when Tony Martinez singled in Ankrum, who reached on a fielder’s choice.

The Cougars had two hits and a walk in the seventh, but didn’t score. Loyd, the Titan catcher, picked D.G. Nelson off first, and Kotsay threw out Micah Williams at the plate when he tried to score from second on Chris Circuit’s single.

“I thought the outfield, in particular, played well the whole game,” said Garrido, “and the offense came back well after that first run they scored.”

Horton said Brent Billingsley (5-0, 4.11 ERA) will be the starting pitcher tonight with Scott Hild (3-0, 4.67) set for Saturday night. Matt Wise (1-0, 5.63) will start Sunday against Loyola Marymount.

In another nonconference baseball game:

Southern California College 19, Whittier 1--Kevin Doyle had three hits, scored four runs and drove in three for visiting Southern California College (4-18). Joe Rivera had two hits, drove in three runs and Steve Dolias and Mike Caston each had three hits for SCC.

Concordia 9, Wisconsin La Crosse 2 (7)--Jon Korzen pitched a three-hitter with six strikeouts and one walk and Derrick Bly had two hits and two RBIs, extending his hitting streak to 17 games for host Concordia (8-10-1).

In nonconference men’s tennis:

UC Irvine 5, Illinois 2--Marc Tardif and Julian Foxon upset Illinois’ Jerry Turek and Brady Blain, ranked 30th in the nation, 9-8, in No. 1 doubles. Tied at 2-2, the Anteaters clinched the victory with victories from their top three singles. In nonconference women’s tennis:

In nonconference women’s tennis:

Fairfield 4, UC Irvine 3--Candice Srubar defeated Alexis Brown, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, at No. 5 singles, to clinch the victory for Fairfield. UCI is 6-7.