Smyres Leads Way as Titans Rout Pepperdine, 15-1 May 7, 2002 – Malibu, Calif.
Box Score
Junior shortstop Justin Smyres was 4-for-4 with
a three-run homer and four RBI to lead a 21-hit attack as No. 17 Cal State
Fullerton routed Pepperdine, 15-1, in a nonconference game at Eddy D.
Field Stadium in Malibu Tuesday afternoon.
The Titans improved to 32-16 overall with the win while Pepperdine, playing
its fifth game in as many days, fell to 24-28. The Titans, who tied a
season-high with their 21 hits, used 23 different players in the game.
Fullerton had leadoff singles in each of the first five innings and had
at least two baserunners in each of the first eight innings.
Twelve different players had hits for the Titans with six checking in
with multiple hits. In addition to Smyres' homer, Chris Stringfellow hit
his second homer in as many games and fifth overall and John Hanley hit
a pinch-hit homer – the first homer of his career – in the eighth.
Shane Costa, the Titans' leading hitter, went 0-for-5 and was the only
starter without a hit.
Darric Merrell (7-3), making his first midweek start since Feb. 6, 2001,
pitched four scoreless innings and earned the win based on the predesignated
pitch-count rule.
After collecting a pair of hits in each of the first and second innings,
but failing to score, the Titans cashed in in the third when Geoff Comfort's
bases-loaded single off David Smart (0-1) drove in Chris Klosterman and
Kurt Suzuki. A three-run blast by Smyres (who broke out of a 1-for-13
slump) in the third made it 5-0 and Klosterman singled by a drawn-in infield
in the fourth to add another pair of runs.
But the Titans weren't finished, scoring four runs in the sixth, with
Stringfellow providing the chief highlight, a two-run homer to left field.
Jason Corapci's two-run single was part of a three-run seventh and Hanley's
homer off the left field foul pole in the eighth rounded out the scoring.
Pepperdine got its lone run in the seventh when Patrick Rooney singled
off Sean Martin to drive in Ty Harper, who had singled to extend his hitting
streak to 16 games.
Fullerton will host UC Riverside in a Big West Conference series at Goodwin
Field this weekend, the Titans' final home series of the season.
