Sophomore righthander Wes Littleton picked up his ninth win and No. 17
Cal State Fullerton racked up 17 hits en route to an 11-5 win over UC
Riverside in a Big West Conference game at Goodwin Field Friday night.
The Titans, who moved within two games of Cal State Northridge with five
to play, improved to 33-16 overall and 13-6 in conference. Riverside fell
to 27-22 and 7-9.
Littleton was not his sharpest – he gave up a season-high five
earned runs on eight hits and hit three batters – but he improved
to 9-3 and maintained an impressive ERA (1.88). Sean Martin pitched the
final two innings and earned his first save.
Chris Klosterman was 3-for-3 with his third home run and Justin Smyres
also had three hits. Five Titans had two RBI each, including a pair of
first basemen – starter Richie Burgos and reserve Nick Fitzgerald,
who entered the game in the eighth. Over its last five games, Fullerton
is batting .394 and averaging more than 10 runs a game.
After the Highlanders took a 1-0 lead in the first on a Tony Festa single,
the Titans jumped on Riverside's AJ Shappi (6-4) for three runs in the
bottom half of the inning. The first three batters singled and Burgos
followed with a two-run double to deep left field.
Fullerton again loaded the bases with no outs in the second and scored
two more runs. Shane Costa was hit by a pitch for the 20th time this season
to force in Klosterman and Geoff Comfort lifted a sac fly to left field.
A three-run eighth that featured Klosterman's two-run shot over the scoreboard
in left field gave the Titans an 8-1 cushion.
But Littleton hit a pair of batters in the seventh as Riverside scored
once and then surrendered a three-run homer to Timothy Faulkner in the
eighth. Nursing a three-run cushion when he came in following the homer,
Martin retired six of the seven batters he faced.
The Titans and Highlanders will meet on Saturday at 6 p.m. in the second
game of the series.
