Smith, Owens Help Keep Fullerton Hopes Alive

Cal State Fullerton is still alive in its bid for its fifth College World Series appearance of the 1990s.

The Titans roared back Saturday night behind an unexpectedly strong pitching performance from Jon Smith and two home runs by Ryan Owens, then held on for an 11-5 victory over Ohio State that evened the best-of-three NCAA super-regional series.

Fullerton (48-12) will be seeking its 10th College World Series trip and Ohio State (50-13) its first since 1967 when the teams play today at 10 a.m. (PDT).

Owens drove in six runs, and has 11 RBIs in two super-regional games.

Smith, a left-hander who hadn’t pitched more than two innings in a game since April 10 because of soreness in his arm and shoulder, gave up only four hits through seven innings. The Buckeyes got two more off Smith in the eighth, and he was replaced by Ruben Jurado.

It was the first victory for Smith (7-0) since April 2. “Smith surpassed all our expectations,” Titan Coach George Horton said. “We would have been tickled if we could get five or six innings from him. But this was off the charts. We couldn’t have put ourselves in this position without him.”

The Buckeyes didn’t get a run off Smith until the seventh. Two more runs were charged to him in the eighth after he left with one out. Jurado gave up a run-scoring single to Chad Ehrnsberger and a two-run triple to Jason Turner.

“I’ve taken plenty of time off, and I think I’ve gotten it back just in time for the playoffs,” Smith said. “Luckily, I had all three of my pitches going, and my fastball was decent. But it’s a lot easier to pitch with runs on the board.”

Owens, Reed Johnson, Spencer Oborn and Chris Beck each had three hits to make sure that happened. Owens’ two homers gave him 23 for the season. It was the eighth time this season he has hit two in a game.

“All the guys ahead of me were getting on base,” Owens said, “and that made it easy to hit.”

Owens’ first homer off Buckeye starter E.J. Laratta gave the Titans a three-run lead in the first. Owens ripped a 3-1 fastball over the fence in left center with two out after a leadoff double by Johnson and a walk to Aaron Rifkin.

The Titans added another run in the third when Johnson singled, went to third on Beck’s double into the left-field corner and scored when Rifkin bounced out.

Shawn Norris led off the fourth with his fifth homer of the season, putting the Titans ahead 5-0.

Oborn, who had drilled two straight shots at Buckeye outfielders in the first and third, beat out an infield hit to open the fifth. Oborn moved to third on Beck’s second hit of the game and scored on Laratta’s wild pitch.

That ended Laratta’s night and doomed him to his third loss in 13 decisions. “I made too many mistakes,” Laratta said. “I wasn’t getting ahead of their hitters. Against a team like Fullerton, you have to strike them out.”

Owens nailed relief pitcher Cory Cox for his second homer later in the fifth, driving in two more.

Fullerton scored two more runs in the sixth with four consecutive hits and a Buckeye error after two were out. Beck drove in one run and Rifkin the other.

“This game was more representative of the way we played all season,” Horton said. “I was disappointed in the way we played the night before, but we were a more disciplined team, and I’m proud of them for that.”

But Horton wasn’t happy with everything. “We need to get our bench-jockeying under control,” Horton said.

Horton said he also was unhappy that Beck was thrown out of the game in the eighth inning for complaining about the umpire’s call after a strikeout. “You don’t want guys who accept failure, but you still have to control yourself,” Horton said.

Horton said that either right-hander Jordan DeJong (4-1) or left-hander George Carralejo (0-0) will probably start today’s game. Two Titan starters, Adam Johnson and Marco Hanlon, are suspended indefinitely after a rock-throwing incident in South Bend, Ind.