Titan third baseman Ronnie Prettyman’s RBI-single off of the second
baseman’s glove in the top of the ninth inning drove in the winning
run, lifting No. 1 Cal State Fullerton over Long Beach State 5-4 in a
non-conference college baseball game at Blair Field Friday night.
With the win, Fullerton improves to 17-5 overall, dropping the 49ers to
17-10.
Blake Davis, who led all players with three hits, got the Titans on the
board early by knocking the first offering of the game from Marco Estrada
to the wall for a triple. Davis then scored on and errant throw by Estrada
two batters later giving the Titans a 1-0 lead.
Fullerton came right back and used four consecutive hits, capped by a
two-run double by Justin Turner to take a 3-0 in the top of the second.
Ryan Schreppel started for the Titans and allowing two runs, while striking
out two, over five innings of work. He left the game with a 3-2 lead giving
way to reliever Brian Stevens. Stevens allowed a leadoff double to 49er’s
first baseman Brandon Godfrey who advanced to third on a groundball and
then scored the tying run on a passed ball charged to John Curtis.
Fullerton and Long Beach traded runs in the eighth inning setting up the
ninth for another dramatic finish between the two teams at Blair Field.
Serigo Pedroza led off the top of the ninth by being hit by a Steve Hammond
fastball. Brett Pill then sacrificed himself and moved Bobby Andrews,
Pedroza’s pinch runner, to second base. After a walk to Danny Dorn,
Long Beach brought in Neil Jamison who promptly struck out pinch-hitter
Trevor Mortensen for the second out of the inning. Prettyman then stepped
to the plate and chopped a hard ground ball up the middle just off the
glove of a diving Chuck Sindlinger bringing the eventual winning run around
to score.
Steve Hammond picked up the loss having only faced three batters in the
game and fell to 0-2. Vinnie Pestano ,who pitched a scoreless eighth and
ninth, was the victor and improved to 2-1.
Both pitching staffs hit nine batters on the evening with Long Beach pitchers
plunking five of the nine, including four from Brian Anderson. Two eventually
came on to score, both of them by the Titans in the eighth and ninth innings.
Turner, with his RBI-double in the second inning, extended his hitting
streak to 15 games. Only Ronny Prettyman (17 games) had a longer streak
this season.
The rubber match of the non-conference series between Fullerton and Long
Beach will take place Saturday night at Blair Field with the first pitch
coming at 6:30 p.m. Fullerton’s Wes Roemer will get the start and
face 49er Jared Hughes.
