Ricky Romero pitched seven strong innings and Kurt Suzuki was 2-for-3
with two RBI as Cal State Fullerton handed No. 7 Long Beach State its
worst loss of the year, a 9-3 setback at Goodwin Field Sunday afternoon.
With the win, the Titans avoided their first home series sweep since 2002
and improved to 16-16. The 49ers, who had not been outscored by more than
four runs in a game this season, fell to 20-8.
Romero(5-3) allowed three runs on nine hits in 7.0 innings while striking
out nine and walking two. It was the second victory over a top-10 team
for Romero, who hurled a complete-game win over No. 5 Georgia Tech in
February. Mike Martinez pitched two scoreless innings to finish the game.
Long Beach starter Jason Vargas took the loss to fall to 3-5.
The Titans grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second when Felipe Garcia hit Vargas'
first pitch of the inning over the right field fence for a solo homer,
his fourth of the season. Garcia and Vargas were teammates at Cypress
College last year and were co-MVPs of the state community college tournament.
Ronnie Prettyman led off the fourth with a triple and scored on Suzuki's
sac fly to give the Titans a 2-0 lead, but Long Beach would cut the lead
in half in the fifth on John Bowker's RBI-double to right field.
But the Titans broke open the close game with two runs in the bottom of
the fifth and three more in the sixth to take a 7-1 lead. Each team scored
a pair of runs in the seventh.
Justin Turner, Garcia and Sergio Pedroza also had two hits each for Fullerton,
while Clark Hardman had a pinch-hit two-run single. Brad Davis and Bowker
each had a pair of hits for Long Beach, which had not allowed more than
seven runs all season.
Fullerton opens Big West Conference play at Pacific on Thursday.
