Chris Stringfellow, Jason Corapci and David Fischer keyed a 13-hit attack
as No. 18 Cal State Fullerton beat UC Irvine, 12-5, at Anteater Ballpark
Sunday afternoon to clinch a Big West Conference series victory.
The Titans improved to 31-16 overall and 12-6 in Big
West play while UC Irvine fell to 28-20 and 10-5. Fullerton is in second
place, three games behind Cal State Northridge, a half-game up on UC Irvine
and a game up on Cal Poly (which supplanted Long Beach State for fourth
place with a series win over the 49ers).
Stringfellow hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high five runs, Corapci
homered and doubled twice and Fischer had four hits to pace the Titans,
who avoided their first conference series loss on the road since 2000.
Jordan DeJong, who struggled early but settled down to retire 12 consecutive
batters over on stretch, picked up the win to improve to 8-3. Chad Cordero,
who had not pitched in more than a week, came on to retire all five batters
he faced to close out the win.
Stringfellow gave the Titans a 4-0 lead with one swing of the bat in the
first, connecting off Irvine starter Glenn Swanson (7-4) for a first-pitch
grand slam, the first slam by a Titan in more than two years. Stringfellow,
who later drove in a run with a ground out, batted .500 on the weekend
with nine RBI.
The Anteaters scored one run in the bottom of the first on Chris Klemm's
sac fly, then got to DeJong for four runs in the third. The first five
batters of the inning reached, with Klemm's three-run blast to right giving
the Anteaters a 5-4 led.
But the lead was short-lived for Irvine. The Titans scored runs in each
of the next four innings. P.J. Pilittere's RBI-single in the fourth tied
the game, 5-5, and Fischer's two-run double in the fifth highlighted a
three-run frame and gave the Titans the lead for good.
The Titans will travel to Pepperdine on Tuesday before hosting UC Riverside
in a Big West Conference series next weekend.
