Wes Littleton allowed just an unearned run in 7.1 innings and Chad Cordero
retired all five batters he faced as No. 14 Cal State Fullerton beat Cal
Poly, 4-1, in the Big West Conference opener at Goodwin Field Thursday
night.
The Titans, who won their fifth consecutive game, improved to 17-9 overall
and 1-0 in conference play while the Mustangs fell to 15-18-1 and 0-1.
Littleton, who has allowed just one earned run in his last 21.1 innings,
scattered six hits and walked a pair while improving to 5-2. He lowered
his conference-best ERA to 1.27. Cordero pitched the final 1.2 innings
to pick up his conference-leading seventh save.
Cal Poly's Tyler Fitch (4-4) suffered the loss despite allowing just two
earned runs in seven innings.
Fullerton scored single runs in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings.
Jason Corapci's sacrifice fly produced the run in the third, P.J. Piliterre's
safety-squeeze plated Kyle Boyer in the fourth and Chris Stringfellow
scored from third on a balk in the fifth.
Cal Poly scored its lone run in the sixth, when Brian
Haskell glazed a ball off first baseman Richie Burgos' glove to score
Scott Anderson from second. The run was unearned, however, because earlier
in the inning, second baseman Jason Corapci dropped a throw from third
baseman Chris Klosterman which would have completed an inning-ending double
play.
The Titans added an insurance run in the eighth when
Boyer led off with a single to left field, moved to second on a sacrifice
by pinch-hitter Geoff Comfort and scored on Pilittere's single through
the right side.
Shane Costa was 2-for-3 to extend his hitting streak to eight games and
raise his team-leading average to .382. Boyer, Pilittere and Smyres each
had two hits for the Titans while Tony Alcantar came up with a pair of
hits for the Mustangs.
Fullerton and Cal Poly will meet in the second game of the series on Friday
at 7 p.m.
