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Titans
Open NCAA Regionals With 3-0 Victory May 16, 2002 – Fresno, Calif. Box Score Cal State Fullerton junior Jodie Cox (Lancaster, Calif./Quartz Hill HS) threw seven strong innings and senior Yasmin Mossadeghi’s RBI fielder’s choice in the sixth jumpstarted a three-run inning as the top-seeded Titans opened 2002 NCAA Regional play with a 3-0 victory over the sixth-seeded Evansville Purple Aces on Thursday afternoon at Bulldog Diamond. Fullerton improved to 51-11 overall and advanced in the winners bracket to face an opponent to be determined on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. The Titans have now won their last 10 consecutive games, and 42 of their last 44 contests, since dropping a pair to Pacific in late April. Evansville fell to 34-26 overall and will play in tonight’s elimination game against the loser of No. 2 Stanford-No. 5 Pacific. Cox (18-4) scattered four hits in the complete game effort en route to her seventh shutout of the season. She also walked just one batter and struck out five in the victory. Evansville freshman Katie Markle (19-12) pitched a gem of a game in the loss, allowing three runs (only one earned) on four hits and walking two. With their bats stymied through five innings, the Titans finally got something going in the sixth. With one out, Cox helped her own cause by singling up the middle and advanced to second on a walk to Jenny Topping. Senior Monica Lucatero then drew a walk on four straight pitches to load the bases and bring up Mossadeghi. On a 2-1 pitch, Mossadeghi looped a little routine fly ball into foul territory behind the first base bag, but it was dropped by the second baseman, allowing Mossadeghi to remain at the plate. She promptly hit a sharp ground ball to the shortstop, whose only play was to get the force at third and allowed Cox to cross the plate for the eventual winning run. After a wild pitch moved runners to second and third, Fullerton added two more runs as junior Amy LaRocque singled up the middle on a full count to bring Topping and Mossadeghi home for the 3-0 lead. Joni Woods singled with two outs in the seventh to snap a streak of 11 straight batters retired by Cox, but the Titans were just too tough as Cox got Nicole Chatman to strikeout swinging to end the game. Four different Titans accounted for their hits as Topping and Krista O’Hanian each added a hit on the day. Four different players also had hits for the Purple Aces. POST-GAME QUOTES Head Coach Michelle Gromacki: "We are excited to have that first one under our belt. Like I told the team, Jodie (Cox) gave us every opportunity to win that ballgame. And that is what it is going to take to win. Our players along with flawless defense and our ability to push a couple runs across is exactly what we need to do to win." (On Evansville pitcher Katie Markle) "I thought that she did a good job. She was throwing a nice little low inside ball to our right-handed hitters on the corners and she had a nice curveball working for her as well, but she didn’t throw anything fat. She did a good job." (On the pressure of being the No. 1 seed) "I believe that we were well-prepared. We definitely know the goal that we want to achieve, so we have been prepared to take it day-by-day. Our focus has stayed the same from the beginning of the season to now, that it is all about us. It doesn’t matter who is in the other dugout, take the field we are going to go out and play our game." Junior infielder Amy LaRocque: (Thoughts on the game being scoreless for so long) "With this team, there is never any pressure thinking that we are going to lose or not going to accomplish our goals. We are so together this year that as the game goes on, and we haven’t scored any runs, we know that we will score them eventually. There is no second-guessing the other team or thinking we should go out there and dominate this inning, we just keep going and play our game." Junior pitcher Jodie Cox: "I felt good. I felt like I had really good control over my pitches. Our defense played really well and, even though it was still scoreless in the fifth, I had no doubt that we were going to come out and win this game." (On playing the late game on Friday) "I think it will be good for us to take some time out, relax and refocus for Friday night’s game. Other teams may be on their third game by the time we get to our second so that will definitely be an advantage for us." "Right now it’s one game at a time, one pitch at a time. We are not looking ahead, we’re not looking back saying ‘we should have done this, we should have done that.’ We have one game out of the way and it will take three more to win this tournament. However, right now, our focus is on the game tomorrow, that’s the only thing we’re thinking about. After that, we’re focusing on the game on Saturday." ####
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