Chris Klemm went 4-for-5 with a pair of doubles and four RBI to pace UC
Irvine to a 9-7 win over No. 18 Cal State Fullerton in a Big West Conference
game at Anteater Ballpark Saturday night.
The Titans, who have lost four of five games for the first time since
the start of last season, fell to 30-16 overall and 11-6 in Big West play
while the Anteaters improved to 29-19 and 10-4. For the second consecutive
day, the teams swapped places in the standings, with Irvine reclaiming
second place, a half-game up on Fullerton and two-and-a-half games behind
front-runner Cal State Northridge.
The Titans, who scored all seven of their runs with two outs, headed into
the ninth with a five-run deficit, but got consecutive RBI-singles from
Geoff Comfort, David Fischer and pinch-hitter Blake Garrett to bring the
potential go-ahead run to the plate. But Paul French struck out P.J. Pilittere
– one of 11 Titan strikeouts on the night – to end the three-and-a-half
hour affair.
The Anteaters chased Titan starter Darric Merrell (6-3) after just 2.1
innings, his shortest outing of the season and nearly of his career (Merrell
was pulled after two innings against Wichita State last season, but not
for ineffectiveness). Merrell was charged with six earned runs –
including four in the third inning – on seven hits and a walk.
Irvine freshman Brett Smith, the Orange County high school Player of the
Year last season at Sonora H.S., allowed three earned runs in six innings
to improve to 4-0.
After the Anteaters scored a pair in the first on Chris Miller's 10th
homer (which tied an Irvine single-season record), Fullerton took a temporary
3-2 lead in the top of the second on a two-out rally by the bottom of
the order. Chris Klosterman, the No. 7 batter, singled in one run and
scored along with Pilittere on Chris Stringfellow's triple to right-center
field.
But Irvine opened the third with four consecutive hits to grab a 5-3 lead
and scored a sixth run when reliever Travis Ingle gave up a single to
second baseman Brett Dalton. Klemm had his second two-run hit in as many
innings in the fourth, when he doubled in a pair to increase the Anteaters'
lead to 8-3.
Fischer's bloop single scored Jason Corapci in the fifth to make it 8-4,
but Irvine tacked on its ninth run in ths seventh. Titan pitcher Sean
Martin – the fourth Fullerton pitcher – was a strike away from
eluding a bases-loaded, no out jam when B.J. Eucce singled in a run.
Comfort and Fischer each had three hits for the Titans, while Miller was
3-for-5 with a double in addition to his home run.
The teams will play the rubber game of the three-game set at Anteater
Ballpark on Sunday at 1 p.m. Fullerton has not lost a conference series
on the road since Long Beach State took two of three games at Blair Field
two seasons ago.
