College Baseball: Titans handle ‘Eaters
FULLERTON — Since being eliminated by UC Irvine in the 2007 College World Series, Cal State Fullerton has basically beaten the Anteaters into submission.
The passivity was most apparent in the batter’s box Friday, when the host Titans and junior starting pitcher Thomas Eshelman stymied their Orange County rivals for a 7-2 Big West Conference triumph.
Eshelman amassed 13 strikeouts, seven of which were called-third strikes, to help the Titans defeat the ‘Eaters for the ninth straight time. Echelman, who allowed six hits in eight-plus innings, was one shy of his career-high strikeout total. He improved to 4-5 and helped the Titans (21-19, 7-3 in conference) close to within 1.5 games of the first-place Anteaters.
Cal State Fullerton has won six straight over UCI at Goodwin Field and is now 11-1 in the last 12 meetings with UCI, and 16-6 against the ‘Eaters since their lone postseason meeting in Omaha in 2007.
Cal State Fullerton is now 80-25 all-time against UCI, a .762 winning percentage.
It was the second straight loss for UCI (23-15, 10-3, and ranked No. 19 by Collegiate Baseball), which has dropped five of its last seven.
The Anteaters chased Eshelman in the ninth when senior center fielder Kris Paulino was hit by a pitch and sophomore left fielder Keston Hiura doubled in the right-center-field gap to avert the shutout. After a single by junior first baseman Mitchell Holland moved Hiura to third, Hiura came home on a sacrifice fly by freshman right fielder Cameron Bishop off reliever Willie Kuhl to cap the visitors’ scoring.
In all, 15 Anteaters went down on strikes (eight looking).
Fullerton, which had lost four of its previous five, broke on top with an unearned run in the first inning, when Bishop bobbled a one-out double to allow Josh Vargas to motor to third. Josh Estill followed with a sacrifice fly to left field.
UCI got its first opportunity to score in the third when freshman second baseman Cole Kreuter singled to center with one out and advanced to second on a balk.
After freshman third baseman Parker Coss struck out, the fifth strikeout to that point for Eshelman, UCI junior shortstop Mikey Duarte laced a drive to deep center. But Tyler Stieb retreated and made a leaping catch to deny Duarte extra bases and protect the Fullerton lead.
Duarte, who came in with a 10-game hitting streak, was hitless in four at-bats.
The Titans broke it open in the fifth, plating three runs, all on two-out hits, including back-to-back RBI doubles by Vargas and Estill.
Taylor Bryant banged a double off the left-field fence for two more two-out RBIs in the sixth to chase UCI starter Elliot Surrey.
Surrey surrendered nine hits and six runs, five earned, on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings. It was the second-worst start of the season for Surrey, who gave up six earned runs on 12 hits in 5 2/3 seven days prior against UC Davis. He has lost two straight starts.
Holland was two for three to pace the Anteaters’ six-hit attack.
The series continues Saturday at 6 p.m. and closes Sunday at 1 p.m.
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Big West Conference
Cal State Fullerton 7, UC Irvine 0
SCORE BY INNINGS
UCI 000 000 002 – 2 6 1
CSF 100 032 01x – 7 12 0
Surrey, Garcia (6), Fielding (7), Davis (8) and McClanahan; Eshelman, Kuhl (9), Peitzmeier (9) and Kennedy. W – Eshelman, 4-5. L – Surrey, 4-4. 2B – Vargas (CSF) 2, Estill (CSF), Bryant (CSF), Richards (CSF), Hiura (UCI).