Cal State Fullerton senior right-hander Jason
Windsor completely dominated a powerful South Carolina lineup, striking
out a career-high 14 batters and scattering just three hits to lead the
No. 4 Titans to a 2-0 victory over the No. 3 Gamecocks in the opening
game of the 2004 College World Series for both teams on Saturday afternoon
at Rosenblatt Stadium.
Fullerton improved to 43-21 overall on the season, winners of six in a
row and 18 of 21. The Titans improved to 7-6 all-time in College World
Series openers. South Carolina fell to 50-16 overall.
Eight of Windsor's final nine outs came via the punch out, striking out
the side in the seventh and eighth innings. The top four batters in the
South Carolina order struck out nine times on the night, including three
each by Steve Tolleson and Bryan Triplett, and went a combined 0-for-12.
Windsor (12-4), tossed his 10th complete game of his career and third
shutout of the season in claiming his 11th consecutive victory. He walked
only four and stranded seven USC runners on base, six of those in scoring
position.
Windsor tossed the first complete-game shutout at the College World Series
since June 3, 1994, when Georgia Tech's Brad Rigby bested Cal State Fullerton
en route to a runner-up finish that season.
Matt Campbell (10-5) suffered the loss, going just 5 2/3 innings, allowing
only four hits and two runs, but he walked a career-high eight batters
before being lifted for Jason Fletcher in the sixth. Fletcher pitched
well in relief, allowing just one hit and striking out three in 3 1/3
innings.
It was a pitcher's duel into the fourth when the Titans finally broke
through on the scoreboard with their first run of the game. Junior Kurt
Suzuki led off the inning with a walk and moved to third on a nicely exectued
hit-and-run with P.J. Pilittere. Suzuki would score one batter later on
a double to the wall in left by Danny Dorn for the 1-0 lead.
The Titans threatened again in the sixth with one out, loading the bases
thanks to a pair of one-out singles and a hit batter. After Campbell got
the second out at the plate on a fielder's choice by Ronnie Prettyman,
he fell behind to Justin Turner 2-0 before being lifted from the game
in favor of Fletcher, who walked Turner on his next three pitches, plating
Bobby Andrews from third for the 2-0 lead.
However, Fletcher wriggled off the hook, avoiding any further damage by
getting Clark Hardman to strikeout swinging on five pitches to end the
inning.
South Carolina mounted its best rally against Windsor and the Titans with
two outs in the seventh thanks to a single and a pair of walks. Windsor,
working deep into the count against leadoff hitter Steve Tolleson, promptly
got out of the jam, ringing up Tolleson for the third time on the afternoon
to end the threat.
Five different Titans accounted for Fullerton's hits while Michael Campbell
went 2-for-4 to lead USC's offense.
Cal State Fullerton next meets the winner of the LSU-Miami matchup on
Monday night (June 21) at 6 p.m. CDT (4 p.m. PDT). Fans can listen to
the live broadcast on the Internet with Rob Buska handling the play-by-play
by logging on to www.TitanSports.org.
EXTRA BASES: Fullerton had the leadoff hitter reach base
in four of the nine innings, only one of those coming around to score...
the Titans stranded at least two runners on base five times, stranding
11 on base including six in scoring position... Windsor's 14 strikeouts
gave him 133 for the season, putting him in seventh place on the school's
single-season charts (Next up: James Popoff with 134 in 1992)... the 10
complete games by Windsor are tied for the third-most on the single season
charts with two other Titans (Tim Thompson & Longo Garcia)... Windsor
improved to 7-0 all-time in the postseason with 1.11 ERA and 52 strikeouts
in 56.2 innings (4-0, 0.22 ERA this season).
