Sacramento State Stuns Titans in 9th

Sacramento State shocked Cal State Fullerton Friday night in the Big West baseball tournament, scoring three runs in the bottom of the ninth for a 6-5 victory in a madcap finish at Titan Field.

Two errors and an interference call on a game-ending play doomed the Titans.

With the bases loaded, relief pitcher Adam Johnson fielded a ground ball back to the mound, but his throw to the plate hit the top of catcher Craig Patterson’s glove and one run scored.

Patterson chased down the ball, but threw wildly to the plate when no one was covering and another run scored. Patterson’s throw was recovered on the infield, but an interference call at third base gave Sacramento State the winning run.

The loss sent Fullerton into an elimination game today at 3 p.m. against Nevada.

The Titans took a gamble in the game by holding back one of their regular starting pitchers. The Titans went with Ruben Jurado, who had pitched five scoreless innings in an exhibition game against the Angels March 30 but had pitched only 4 1/3 innings earlier during the regular season.

Jurado, a transfer from Riverside College in January, held Sacramento State scoreless for four innings, but ran into trouble in the fifth when the Hornets scored three runs.

Jurado gave up three consecutive one-out singles to Omar Prieto, Aurelio Jackson and Josh Payne before Saarloos came on in relief. Saarloos struck out the first batter he faced, but Dan Elorduy tripled into the right field corner to give the Hornets a 3-2 lead.

Fullerton scored a run in the sixth to tie the score at 3-3 on a walk to David Trentine and an RBI single by Greg Jacobs.

Fullerton scored runs in the seventh and eighth to make it 5-3.

The game didn’t start until 9 p.m., two hours later than scheduled, because the Long Beach-Nevada game went 12 innings and took nearly 5 hours to complete.

The Titans stranded two runners in the first, but Pete Fukuhara gave Fullerton a 1-0 lead with a leadoff home run--his eighth homer of the season--in the second.

Fullerton scored another run in the third, but the Titans had a chance for more.

The Titans had the bases loaded with none out after Steve Chatham singled, David Bacani was hit by a pitch and Greg Jacobs walked. Aaron Rowand drove in one run with a sacrifice fly, but Kevin Duck struck out and Fukuhara was out on a foul fly.

Fullerton stranded three more runners in the fourth. Sacramento State pitcher Bryan Ballenger walked two batters and hit Bacani for the third time in three at-bats to load the bases, but Ballenger got Greg Jacobs on a deep fly to left.