Titans Get Even With Long Beach

Cal State Fullerton is back in first place in the Big West Conference baseball race.

The Titans evened a three-game series with Long Beach State at a game apiece Saturday night with a 5-1 victory, keyed by Jon Smith’s effective but occasionally erratic pitching performance. Smith gave up only one hit in seven innings, but walked six and hit one batter. He struck out four.

The victory gave the Titans (22-12, 11-3) a half-game lead over Long Beach (24-13, 12-5) heading into today’s 1 p.m. series finale.

The crowd of 2,329 was the fourth-largest at the Titans’ stadium, which was renamed Goodwin Field in a pregame ceremony honoring $1 million stadium expansion contributors Jerry and Merilyn Goodwin. The 49ers didn’t get a hit off Smith (6-2) until Jeff Jones singled with two out in the fifth. Smith retired the next seven batters, but gave up his sixth walk to the leadoff batter in the eighth and was replaced by George Carralejo.

Carralejo gave up a run-scoring, one-out double to Bryan Kennedy, but struck out Abel Orozco and Joe Graham with two runners in scoring position. Carralejo also shut down Long Beach in the ninth after giving up a one-out walk.

“Smith is on the edge like that sometimes, but the good thing about him is that he doesn’t let things snowball,” Titan Coach George Horton said. “He’s tough to hit. It had to be frustrating to Long Beach because they didn’t get the clutch hit against him.”

Smith had control problems in the fourth when he gave up three walks, but escaped without a run after getting A.J. LaBarbera out on a fly ball to center.

“Smith dominated, and they got all the big hits,” Long Beach Coach Dave Snow said.

The Titans had 10 hits, and got to Long Beach starter Matt Paz (7-2) for five earned runs in 5 1/3 innings. Paz gave up eight hits, walking two and striking out five.

The Titans took a 1-0 lead in the second. Chris Beck tripled to the wall in right-center to lead off the inning and scored on Shawn Norris’ sacrifice fly.

Fullerton picked up another run in the third. David Bacani led off the inning with a double, and came home on a double by Matt Belfanti.

Norris gave the Titans a 3-0 lead when he ripped a Paz pitch for his third home run of the season leading off the fourth. The Titans added another run in the inning when Bacani singled past shortstop Bobby Crosby, who was playing up for a play at the plate, scoring Chris Stingfellow from third.

In nonconference baseball:

Chapman 6, UC San Diego 2--Chapman (19-8-1) scored six runs in the last four innings after a scoreless five innings. Alex Taylor led off the top of the sixth with a triple for the Panthers and was driven home by a double by Pat Stevens, who later went home on a sacrifice fly by Jude Chavez.

In Big West Conference softball:

Cal State Fullerton 10-7, UC Santa Barbara 4-2--Monica Lucatero went four for eight in the two games, hitting a double in each game and a home run in the second game. Lucatero had three RBIs and teammate Amanda Hockett drove in four runs. Hockett had a home run in the first game and a triple in the second game.