Long Beach Edges Titans to Win Big West Opener

Steve Doherty drove in Keith Cowley with a single to right in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift Long Beach State to a 2-1 victory over Cal State Fullerton in a Big West Conference baseball opener Friday at Blair Field.

Cal State Fullerton (12-9, 0-1) scored in the eighth on a grounder by Nakia Hill to tie the score, 1-1.

Long Beach State (8-10, 1-0) took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning after Jaron Madison, who reached on an error, stole second and moved to third on a sacrifice, scored on sacrifice fly by Casey Martin.

Ara Petrosian (2-1), from Fountain Valley High School and Cypress College, pitched three innings in relief to earn the victory. Rocky Biddle, who started for the 49ers, pitched six innings and struck out 11.

Matt Wise (0-1) pitched 8 1/3 innings, struck out five, gave up four hits and one earned run for the Titans.

In the Southern California Intercollegiate golf championship:

UC Irvine in third after first round--UC Irvine shot a first-round 302. Irvine’s Andrew Wen shot a one-over-par 73 at Torrey Pines and is in second place.

In nonconference softball:

Chapman 6-5, Wartburg (Iowa) 3-4--Heather Peters’ pinch-hit, two-run double in the sixth inning drove in the winning run for Chapman (9-3) in the second game.

After Chapman had taken a 3-1 lead, Wartburg tied it in the fourth on a two-run error by the Panthers and then scored the go-ahead run in the fifth when Jaime Hamann singled to drive in Kara Caspers, who had singled to open the inning.

Stephanie Carew hit her second home run of the night--and the season--for Chapman, capping a five for six, seven runs-batted-in performance in two games.

In the first game, Carew drove in five runs on a single, double, and a home run, as Chapman opened up a six-run lead and held off a Wartburg (0-8) rally to preserve the 6-3 win.