Wes Littleton allowed a career-high eight earned runs and 11 hits as Long
Beach State beat No. 17 Cal State Fullerton, 8-3, in the opening game
of a Big West Conference series at Blair Field Friday night.
The Titans fell to 36-18 overall and 14-8 in conference play and slipped
a game back of Long Beach into third place. The 49ers improved to 35-19
and 15-7.
The 49ers' Abe Alvarez (12-2), who was rocked for six runs on 10 hits
in just three innings against Fullerton back on March 24, showed the stuff
Friday night that has made him an All-American candidate: he allowed just
a pair of runs in eight innings and struck out six.
Meanwhile, Littleton was a far cry from his last time out against Long
Beach, when he shut out the 49ers on just five hits on March 22. He was
tagged for eight runs on 11 hits, lasting just 4.2 innings en route to
his first loss since April 26.
He allowed a two-run homer to Jeremy Reed in the first and found himself
behind, 5-0, when the 49ers batted around in the third, scoring three
runs on a one-run single by Paul McAnulty and a two-run single to left-center
by catcher Brad Davis.
Fullerton countered with a run on David Fischer's RBI-single in the fifth,
but the 49ers chased Littleton with three more runs in the bottom of the
frame. Todd Jennings' two-run single made it 7-0 and sent Littleton to
the showers and Nick Orlandos added a run-scoring double off reliever
Travis Ingle to complete Littleton's line.
The Titans, who stranded 11 runners, were paced by Shane Costa, who had
a pair of singles and was twice hit by a pitch. Justin Smyres was 2-for-5
with a run and an RBI and Chris Stringfellow had a pair of singles. Orlandos
and Mike Hofius each had three hits for the 49ers.
Fullerton and Long Beach will meet in the second game of the series at
Blair Field on Saturday at 6:05 p.m.
