Titans’ Billingsley Shuts Down Wolf Pack, 6-0

Left-hander Brent Billingsley pitched the first complete-game shutout for Cal State Fullerton on Saturday night against Nevada since Ted Silva’s 1995 no-hitter.

Billingsley gave up four hits and struck out a season-high 13, and the Titans rolled to a 6-0 victory in front of 2,453, the biggest crowd of the season and only three fewer than the Titan Field record set last season against Long Beach State.

Billingsley’s performance helped lift Fullerton (35-4) and kept the Titans in the Big West Conference lead with 9-2 record, a game ahead of Nevada Las Vegas and Long Beach.

“It was definitely one of our best games of the season, with the pitching and the offense,” Titan Coach Augie Garrido said.

Nevada fell to 22-12, 4-7 in the conference. The loss was the eighth in the last 10 games for the Wolf Pack, which hasn’t held an opponent to fewer than six runs during the stretch. The final game of the series is at 1 p.m. today.

“Brent’s pitch count was way up there in the ninth, but he really wanted to go for the complete game, so we let him,” said Titan associate head coach George Horton, who is in charge of the pitching staff. “He did a great job. We might normally take him out late in a 6-0 game, but he had worked so hard, he deserved it.”

Billingsley, who walked six batters, picked up his ninth victory of the season without a loss. “I was able to keep my slider and fastball down and that helped,” Billingsley said. “I knew those guys could really hit. They showed their power with those homers in the first game.”

Both starters pitched well early, and neither team could get much going on offense until the Titans scored a run in the fourth and chased Brian Dudley (2-2) with a four-run fifth.

Dudley walked Steve Chatham to open the fourth, and Chatham moved to second when Tony Martinez was safe on a bunt, his first of three hits for the night. The runners advanced on C.J. Ankrum’s sacrifice, and Chatham scored when Mike Lamb bounced into a fielder’s choice.

Dudley was suddenly behind, 2-0, in the fifth when Skip Kiil led off the fifth inning with a home-run shot that cleared the 25-foot high scoreboard in left-center, 370 feet from the plate.

Fullerton scored their second run in the inning, thanks to some madcap base-running by Mark Kotsay. He reached bases on an error, and ended up stealing second and third when Dudley threw behind him in pickoff attempts when Kotsay took big leads. Brian Loyd’s single scored Kotsay from third.

The second error of the inning by Nevada shortstop by Darren Baugh put Chatham on base, and Martinez drove in both runners with a double down the left field line, making it 5-0.

“I think their pitcher got a little rattled after that homer,” Kiil said. “He had been pitching real well up until then, and was moving the ball around well, but I got into a changeup.”

The Titans added another run in the sixth when Loyd singled, advanced on an infield out and scored on Martinez’s third run batted in.

“It took a lot of effort to get those runs tonight,” Garrido said. “We worked hard for them.” The Titans had nine hits.

In another Big West game:

Long Beach State 4, New Mexico State 2--The 49ers took the lead in the third inning on Jeff Tagliaferri’s two-run homer to right field.

Keith Kowley also homered and Steve Hueston improved to 2-2 with 6 1/3 innings of five-hit pitching for Long Beach State (25-15, 8-3). Ryan Brannan earned his eighth save, finishing the game with two scoreless innings.