Fullerton Bats Doom Temple

Cal State Fullerton, the nation’s No. 1-seeded team heading into the NCAA playoffs, coasted past Temple in its opening regional tournament game Friday night at Fullerton, but the Titans face a much bigger challenge today against the regional’s second-seeded team, Arizona State.

Fullerton scored twice in the first inning, 10 in the second and blasted the Owls, 17-3, in front of 2,312 at Goodwin Field. It was the most runs for Fullerton in an NCAA game since scoring 19 against Delaware in 1996 at Wichita.

The Titans (42-15) are set to send ace right-hander Kirk Saarloos (13-2, 2.26 ERA), the Big West Conference pitcher of the year, against the Sun Devils in the winners’ bracket at 4:30 today. Saarloos has won 13 consecutive decisions and has not been beaten since Feb. 4, by Stanford.

Junior left-hander Jon Switzer(5-5, 3.75) is scheduled to start for Arizona State. Switzer and Saarloos were teammates on Team USA last summer.

Arizona State (37-18-1) defeated third-seeded Texas Tech, 12-3, in the other first-round game Friday, pulling away with a nine-run rally in the seventh inning.

Texas Tech (40-19-1) will play Temple (27-30) in an elimination game at 1 p.m. today.

For Fullerton, the best part of its victory over Temple was not having to use one of its top starters.

The Titans went with senior Mike Nunez, who made his first start after nine relief appearances. Nunez was sidelined for the first 2 1/2 months of the season because of soreness in his elbow.

Nunez’s assignment enabled the Titans to keep two other top starters, senior Jon Smith (9-2) and freshman Darric Merrell (6-3), available to pitch later in the double-elimination regional.

Nunez went to the sidelines after 3 1/3 innings after giving up two hits, and sophomore Nick Lovato took over.

“We had hoped to get three or four innings out of Mike, and he did a great job of helping us set the momentum early,” Titan Coach George Horton said. “We’ve still got a long way to go against some fine teams, but hopefully saving those two regular starters will help us.”

Nunez struck out three and walked two while being charged with one run in the fourth.

“I was excited about it,” Nunez said. “I just wanted to try to throw strikes and help our team win.”

The game had the look of a mismatch even before it began, and the Titans turned it into a rout early.

David Bacani belted a leadoff triple to start the Titan half of the first and scored on Jason Corapci’s single. The Titans loaded the bases against Temple starter Greg Powell on a hit by Aaron Rifkin and a hit batter. Powell walked Mike Rouse to force in another run.

Fullerton had its biggest inning of the season in the second, sending 14 batters to the plate.

Shane Costa and Shawn Norris each had two hits in the inning, with Norris getting a three-run homer in his second at-bat. Brett Kay also delivered a two-run double in the inning.

Norris was three for four with seven RBIs. The Titans had 20 hits against three pitchers.

Temple scored a run off Lovato in the fourth and another in the fifth. Lovato (2-4) gave up four hits in 4 2/3 innings and picked up the victory. Sean Martin replaced him in the ninth.

Horton began moving reserves into the game in the middle innings to keep his top players fresh for the Sun Devils.

Fullerton and Arizona State split two previous games this season, both at Fullerton.

Arizona State 12, Texas Tech 3--The Sun Devils scored nine runs in the seventh inning and coasted to victory. Catcher Casey Myers led Arizona State, going four for five with three runs batted in and scoring two runs.