Titans Defeat Hornets, Hang on to First

Cal State Fullerton, the nation’s fifth-ranked team, was in danger of slipping into second place in the Big West Conference baseball race.

But the Titans finally got it together Sunday for a 6-4 victory over Sacramento State after the surprising Hornets had won the first two games in a three-game series at Titan Field.

The victory left Fullerton (21-10, 10-2) with a half-game lead over Long Beach State. The Titans and 49ers play a three-game series beginning Friday at Fullerton. Sacramento State (14-19, 8-4) is two games behind the Titans.

“We’ve created a bit of a problem for ourselves, but this way complacency shouldn’t set in,” Titan Coach George Horton said. “That’s a good baseball team we played. Those first two games weren’t flukes. But I had no idea before this series that they were playing that well.”

It took a strong effort by Titan relief pitcher Kirk Saarloos to stop Sacramento State on Sunday. Saarloos (6-3) shut out the Hornets on two hits in the final 3 1/3 innings and picked up the victory.

The Titans broke a 4-4 tie with a run in the seventh inning on a walk to David Bacani and an RBI single by Jake Epstein. Fullerton added another run in the eighth when Shawn Norris singled and scored on Chris Stringfellow’s second hit of the game.

The Titans had scored two runs in the first. Consecutive hits by Bacani, Steve Woodward and Jason Corapci brought in one run, and Aaron Rifkin drove in another with two out.

Fullerton added two more in the third. Epstein’s double brought in Bacani, who had reached on an infield hit. Rifkin’s single brought in Corapci, who was hit by a pitch.

Rifkin and Epstein each had three hits to go with two RBIs.

The Hornets got to Titan starter Matt Sorensen for runs in the first and second, then tied the game with two in the sixth before Saarloos came in to get the final out of the inning. Sorensen gave up four runs, two of them unearned, on eight hits in 5 2/3 innings.

“Matt pitched well, but Kirk changed the momentum of the game when he came in,” Titan pitching coach Dave Serrano said. “Sacramento State is a very disciplined team. They hit well in the first two games, and they were 27 tough outs again today.”

The Hornets also earned the respect of Fullerton’s players.

“They’re definitely a good hitting team,” Saarloos said. “They were tough to get out with two strikes. They seemed to be looking for sliders from me, so we had to go with the fastball a lot.”

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Big West Baseball Standings

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Conferenc Overall Team W L Pct. W L Pct. CS Fullerton 10 2 .833 21 10 .677 Long Beach State 11 4 .733 23 11 .677 Sacramento St. 8 4 .667 14 19 .424 UCSB 7 5 .583 17 15 .531 Cal Poly SLO 8 7 .533 17 17 .500 Nevada 5 7 .417 21 14 .600 Pacific 2 10 .167 19 15 .559 New Mexico State 0 12 .000 15 22 .405

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