Ramirez Helps CS Fullerton Halt Long Beach State Streak

Cal State Fullerton ended Long Beach State’s 12-game baseball winning streak Friday night--and the Titans did it decisively.

Fullerton lashed out 12 hits and cruised to a 9-2 victory behind the pitching of Erasmo Ramirez in the opener of a three-game Big West Conference series in front of 1,164 at Titan Field.

It was the first conference loss after six victories for Long Beach (14-9). The victory kept Fullerton (19-7) unbeaten in seven Big West games. The second game of the series is tonight at 7 with the finale Sunday afternoon at 1.

Ramirez (4-3) gave up only seven hits in nine innings. “Long Beach has a good offensive club, but Mo’s stuff got better as the game went along,” Titan Coach George Horton said. “And we played solid defense behind him.”

Outfielder Aaron Rowand saved the Titans and Ramirez two runs in the fifth when he banged into the right-field wall to make a running catch on Paul Day’s drive. Fullerton was ahead, 5-1.

The Titans made no errors; Long Beach made four. Daryl Grant, the 49ers’ starting pitcher, walked five and gave up 11 hits in six innings.

“They pitched with much better control, and played better defense than we did,” Long Beach Coach Dave Snow said of the Titans.

The 49ers got to Ramirez for a run in the top of the first, but he came back strong after that.

In the first, Chuck Lopez’s bloop hit to left and Day’s single up the middle put two runners on base before Paul Kennedy lined a two-out single off first baseman Kevin Duck’s glove, scoring Lopez.

But Long Beach didn’t get another run off Ramirez until the eighth.

“My breaking pitch worked well,” Ramirez said. “It’s something I’ve been fooling around with all season, but I broke it out a couple of weeks ago. It gives me more variety.”

The Titans tied the score in the bottom of the first when Reed Johnson had a leadoff single, advanced on a passed ball and a sacrifice, then scored on Chris Beck’s bad-hop single. Fullerton picked up another run in the third when Beck led off with a walk, advanced on a wild pitch and sacrifice and scored on an error.

The Titans nailed Grant for three runs in the fourth. Ryan Moore led off with a homer to right field before a walk and consecutive doubles by Rowand and Pete Fukuhara produced two more runs.

The Titans added two more runs in both the sixth and seventh. In the sixth, Rowand singled up the middle for one run and another scored on Craig Patterson’s two-out squeeze with the bases loaded. Johnson’s triple was the big hit in the seventh.