Slumping Titans Lose Game, Record Home Win Streak

FULLERTON —  One of the last vestiges of Cal State Fullerton baseball in much better days disappeared Saturday.

UC Santa Barbara ended the Titans’ record 16-game winning streak at home at a time when a victory would have given the Titans a share of first place heading into the final day of the Big West regular season.

But after a 9-4 loss to the Gauchos in front of 1,404 at Titan Field, Fullerton is in a three-way tie for second with UC Santa Barbara and Nevada Las Vegas, a game behind Long Beach State. The series finale is at 1 p.m. today.

The Titans’ slump reached its eighth game. Fullerton (41-9) is 3-5 during the last three weeks, and now has as many losses as last year’s College World Series championship team, which won the last 18 games of the season. The Titans are hitting only .255 during the stretch. When they were 38-4, they were batting .356.

“It was a day of missed opportunity,” Titan Coach Augie Garrido said.

Fullerton showed one of the signs of a slumping team with a disappointing run-to-hit ratio. The Titans had 13 hits, the same as Santa Barbara, but struggled with runners on base, leaving nine.

“It wasn’t that way before,” outfielder Mark Kotsay said. “Thirteen hits would mean 10 or more runs. We haven’t been hitting the ball the way we were, but today we hit it hard, but it was right at guys a lot.”

Kotsay had a triple, a double and two runs batted in, but two other deep fly balls were caught against the wall. C.J. Ankrum had three hits, and Brian Loyd and Jack Jones each two, but the Titans weren’t able to prolong innings.

“We had plenty of hits, but we just didn’t get them at the right time,” Titan outfielder Jeremy Giambi said.

The Gauchos drilled Titan starter Scott Hild (8-2) for six runs in the first two innings. Hild, who pitched a six-hitter in a 7-2 victory over Long Beach State in his last outing, gave up two runs in the first on Wynter Phoenix’s two-run double. Then Phoenix came back with a two-run single in Santa Barbara’s four-run second that made it 6-0. The Gauchos bunched five hits and a walk in the inning.

“Those early runs put a lot of pressure on us offensively,” Garrido said. “Then we were also getting most of our runners on base with two outs.”

Santa Barbara’s freshman starter David Uris had a 6.54 earned-run average coming in, but picked up the complete-game victory. Uris (4-1) was helped by his defense, which gave him a double play in the second with two runners on and again in the seventh after the leadoff batter reached base.

“The best thing you can do for a pitcher is give him nine runs,” Garrido said. “And their defense gets better in that situation too.”

Senior Dan White had the best pitching effort of the day for Fullerton, holding Santa Barbara scoreless over the final four innings while giving up only one hit, but the damage was done.

The Titans battled back with two runs off Uris in the third with triples by Jones and Kotsay, but the Gauchos made it 9-2 in the fourth on David Willis’ second homer of the series, a three-run shot off reliever Mike Greenlee, and his third hit of the game. Fullerton scored an unearned run in the sixth after second baseman Clark Parker dropped a pop fly that would have been the third out. The next batter, Tony Martinez, singled, driving in Mike Lamb, but the inning ended when Jones popped out.

“We battled, but things just didn’t seem to happen at the right time for us,” Jones said.