Fast start rewards Titans

Clutch two-out hitting Saturday by Cal State Fullerton in the early innings of their NCAA baseball super regional game against UCLA turned the opener of the best-of-three series into a yawner as the Titans cruised to a 12-2 victory Saturday at Goodwin Field in Fullerton.

Evan McArthur was three for three with three runs batted in, John Curtis had three hits, including a two-run home run, and Wes Roemer pitched his third consecutive complete game as the Titans pulled to within one victory of their second consecutive trip to the College World Series.

Game 2 is tonight at 7, also at Fullerton.

The Titans (37-23) got to UCLA starter Tyson Brummett early, scoring three times in the top of the first after Brummett had retired the first two batters. Again in the second, Brummett retired the first two batters, but Fullerton strung together four consecutive hits for two more runs and a 5-1 lead.

Of Fullerton’s first 10 runs, eight scored with two outs.

“Those two-out RBIs hurt pitchers a lot,” McArthur said. “We were up there battling. We tried to waste the good pitches until we got something we could handle.”

Brummett (10-6) lasted only 4 1/3 innings, equaling his shortest start of the season. The seventh-round pick of the Philadelphia Phillies in last week’s draft gave up nine runs, all earned, eight hits and tied his career high with four walks.

“It’s frustrating,” Brummett said of giving up the two-out rallies. “You think you’ve got them out and you’re out of the inning and then they keep going. You have to give them credit. They are a good-hitting team, and they got to me.”

Meanwhile Roemer (11-6), picked as a supplemental draft selection between the first and second rounds by the Arizona Diamondbacks, was cruising. Effectively mixing speeds and locations, he gave up two runs and nine hits and won for the fifth time in his last nine starts.

And while Fullerton came through with clutch two-out hitting, Roemer stranded UCLA runners in scoring position in the first three innings. He finished with seven strikeouts as he passed Kirk Saarloos for second place on the all-time school list with 359. Adam Johnson set the record of 365 in 2000.

“They had some good at-bats early against Wes, but he just settled in and did what he does,” Fullerton Coach George Horton said. “I was really pleased with our offensive effort. Our hitters were locked in.”

For UCLA (37-23), it was a complete reversal from last week, when it used strong pitching and swept through the Long Beach regional behind two complete games and a third in which Brummett went 8 2/3 innings.

The Bruins used only three pitchers in winning that regional, but used more than that -- four -- in Game 1 against Fullerton.

It puts UCLA in a must-win situation, but Coach John Savage said he’s not worried about his team bouncing back from a 10-run loss.

“It’s best of three,” Savage said. “It could have been a walk-off home run, it could have been 4-3, and we’d be in the same boat. The bottom line is you have to win two games.”

Likewise, Horton said that while winning the first game is nice, there is still work to be done.

“We’re tickled to death to get Game 1, but we know we’re up against a formidable opponent,” Horton said. “We don’t have a bunch of pompoms out right now.”

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peter.yoon@latimes.com