Rowand Leads Titans Past Bruins

Cal State Fullerton’s baseball winning streak shifted into high gear Tuesday night.

Not even fourth-ranked UCLA could stop it with four home runs.

Aaron Rowand homered twice for Fullerton and drove in six runs to lead the resurgent Titans to an 11-8 victory over the Bruins at Titan Field. It was Fullerton’s seventh consecutive victory and eighth in the last nine games.

UCLA had the bases loaded with no outs in the ninth against Fullerton’s top relief pitcher Mike Greenlee, but Casey Cloud hit into a double play and Greenlee struck out the final batter, Rob Schult.

“That double play was huge,” Titan Coach George Horton said. “It seemed like we did whatever it took to win. It was a good win for us, coming against a talented team like that.”

Rowand hit a three-run homer in the third and two-run shot in the fifth and now has nine hits in his last 12 at-bats. Steve Chatham was four for four with two runs scored.

“The last time we played them they got two homers in the first inning, and were in shock for about four or five innings, but this time we came right back,” Horton said. “I think that’s a sign of the change in this team.”

UCLA jumped on Titan starter Michael Garner for two homers in the first inning. Three batters into the game, the Bruins led, 2-0, on shots by Eric Byrnes and Troy Glaus. It was Glaus’ 27th homer of the season.

Fullerton, however, came back for two runs in the first, and continued reloading. Pete Fukuhara and C.J. Ankrum singled to open the inning, and Chatham’s sacrifice fly drove in one run. Rowand’s hit brought in another.

Rowand’s third-inning home run inside the right field foul pole gave the Titans a 5-2 lead. Chatham’s single and Mike Lamb’s double set the stage for Rowand. UCLA got consecutive hits off Garner in the fourth, and Scott Hild (3-4) came on in relief and picked up the victory, although he ran into trouble in the seventh.

Rowand’s second homer of the game with Chatham on base made it 7-3 in the fifth. The Titans scored another run in the sixth when Nakia Hill doubled, took third on a balk and scored on Fukuhara’s sacrifice fly.

Eric Valent’s three-run homer put the Bruins back in the game in the top of the seventh. Hild gave up two walks before Valent’s 17th homer and was replaced by Tim Baron after yielding a double to Peter Zamora. Baron got the Titans out of trouble, retiring the next three batters, the last two on strikeouts.

The Titans came back for three runs in the bottom of the inning. An error by Glaus on a possible double-play ball opened the door. Owens’ squeeze bunt produced one run and pinch hitter Chris Beck’s single brought in another. A skirmish at third base between Owens and Pinto, the UCLA third baseman, emptied both benches, but order was restored with no ejections, and Hill drove in the third run.

Valent hit his second homer of the game with the bases empty in the top of the ninth, but the double play killed UCLA’s hope of a rally.

In another nonconference game:

Long Beach State 10, Cal State Northridge 3--Freshman Daryl Grant earned his first victory, allowing four hits, three walks and one earned run and striking out seven through six innings for host Long Beach (31-18).

Paul Day hit his third home run and J.J. Newkirk and Jaron Madison each had two RBIs for the 49ers, how scored 10 runs on 10 hits in 2-plus innings against Northridge starter Erasmo Ramirez.