Titans Complete Three-Game Sweep of Nevada

Cal State Fullerton’s two losses at New Mexico State a week ago looked like a small pothole in the rear view mirror to the Titans Sunday after they completed a three-game sweep of Nevada.

Fullerton (36-4) was cruising in high gear again in a 14-2 victory over the Wolf Pack, aided by strong pitching for the second consecutive game. Sophomore right-hander Scott Hild gave up six hits while shutting out Nevada through eight innings before second-line relief pitchers gave up two runs in the ninth.

It was Fullerton’s fourth victory of the week, its fifth in a row and kept the Titans a game ahead of Long Beach State in the Big West race with a 10-2 conference record. Nevada dropped to 22-13 and 4-8.

“As far as I’m concerned, all that happened last week was that we lost a couple of games,” Coach Augie Garrido said, taking note that the Titans have lost only 13 in two seasons. “But I like the way our players reacted and responded to it. . . . That was all they wanted of that.” Hild’s performance came a day after Brent Billingsley pitched a complete-game, four-hit shutout. Hild (7-0) gave up three walks and struck out seven.

Mark Kotsay and Jeremy Giambi led the 18-hit offensive surge in front of 1,385 at Titan Field. Giambi was three for three, drove in three runs and scored three, lifting his team-leading batting average to .453. Kotsay, who is hitting .410, was three for four, with a two-run homer and three RBIs. Steve Chatham and Jack Jones also had three hits, with Jones getting his fourth home run of the season.

Kotsay’s towering homer to right in the sixth was his 15th of the season and 40th of his career. Kotsay, who won the Golden Spikes award as player of the year last season, moved past the school’s other winners of the award in career homers into a tie for fifth. Tim Wallach and Phil Nevin each had 39, tied for seventh on the all-time list.

The Titan career record for homers is 50, set in four seasons by catcher Mark Pirruccello, whose college career ended in 1982.

“We were ready to play today from the first pitch,” Kotsay said, noting the Titans’ fast start. Fullerton got to starter Rico Lagattuta (3-1) quickly in a seven-run second. Chatham led off with a double to the wall in left-center and came home on a triple in the same spot by Tony Martinez, who later scored on a wild pitch.

A walk, a hit batter and an error loaded the bases, and two more runs scored when Skip Kiil doubled past third base. The Titans picked up two more runs on Giambi’s looping single, and Nevada didn’t get an out in the inning until Kotsay tried to stretch a single and was thrown out at second. That ended Lagattuta’s day before Brian Loyd singled home Giambi with the final run of the inning.

In another Big West Conference game:

Long Beach State 6, New Mexico State 4--Casey Snow doubled in three runs in the first inning for host Long Beach State (26-15, 9-3).

Kyle Wilson (3-2) pitched four shutout innings of relief for the victory.