Oborn’s Streak Ends at 37 but Titans Win

The bid by Cal State Fullerton’s Spencer Oborn to tie the Big West Conference record 38-game hitting streak came up one short Friday night at Titan Field.

Oborn went 0 for 4 with a sacrifice fly in five plate appearances, but Fullerton coasted to a 9-1 victory over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo behind the three-hit, 13-strikeout pitching of Adam Johnson.

“We won, and that’s what matters,” Oborn said. “I’m kind of relieved now that it’s over, so I won’t have to think about it. It’s been fun, but sometimes you just don’t hit the right part of the ball. That’s baseball.”

But Oborn said it was disappointing to come so close with a 37-game streak, and not tie the 11-year-old record set by former Titan Brent Mayne, now with the San Francisco Giants.

“It’s too bad that he couldn’t have at least tied the record,” Titan Coach George Horton said. “But it probably will be good for him now to put it behind him and take some of the weight off.”

Fullerton (31-8, 14-2) retained its 3 1/2-game lead over second-place Nevada in the conference race, and Horton was especially pleased with the effort by Johnson (6-2).

“Tonight was a big step forward for Adam,” Horton said. “He hasn’t been as dominating lately as he was earlier. He kept his curveball down.”

Oborn had a sacrifice fly in the first inning, lined out in the second inning, and grounded out in the fourth. In the sixth, he flew out. In his final at-bat in the seventh, Oborn came up with two outs and the bases loaded, but grounded out to second.

Oborn had not been hitless since he went 0 for 2 with two walks in the season opener against Stanford.

The Mustangs (17-19, 6-10) scored a run against Johnson on two hits and an error in the first, but the Titans came back for six runs in their half of the inning. Johnson was in control after that.

Cal Poly starter Mike Shwam (0-5), a junior right-hander from Huntington Beach, didn’t make it out of the first inning. One Titan run scored on a wild pitch and another came across on Oborn’s sacrifice fly. Aaron Rifkin, who had three hits in the game, doubled in the third run, and Craig Patterson’s high chopper double down the third-base line drove in three more.