Sophomore right-hander Wes Littleton fanned a career-high eight batters
and picked up his second consecutive win as as the 16th-ranked Cal State
Fullerton baseball team beat UNLV, 12-2, in a nonconference game at Goodwin
Field Friday night.
The Titans (4-3) have won four of their last five games and stretched
their winning streak vs. UNLV to eight games. The Rebels fell to 4-3.
Littleton (2-1), who came one out away from a shutout last Friday vs.
Fresno State, allowed a run on four hits in eight innings while lowering
his ERA to 2.11.
The Titans took things into their own hands from the first pitch. Chris
Stringfellow, Jason Corapci and Shane Costa had consecutive singles to
open the bottom of the first. Mike Martinez's RBI-single drove in the
first run and Geoff Comfort drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 2-0. Nick
Fitzgerald added a two-run single to close out the night for Rebel starting
pitcher Robbie Van (0-3) and P.J. Pilittere's safety-squeeze bunt rounded
out the first-inning scoring.
Fullerton added single runs in thr second – an RBI-groundout by Kyle
Boyer – and third – a leadoff homer by Comfort – to make
it a 7-0 game.
The Rebels got on the board in the fifth when Littleton hit Ryan Ruiz
– one of three HBP by Littleton – to open the frame and later
allowed a run-scoring single to Garett Shitanishi.
Fullerton scored three unearned runs in the fifth, including a pair on
Pilittere's two-run double – the first double of his career –
down the right field line. John Hanley and Boyer added back-to-back sacrifice
flies in the eighth to give the Titans a 12-1 lead.
The Titans will host UNLV at 1 p.m. on Saturday in the second game of
the series.
