Justin Smyres and Jason Corapci each had four hits and Jordan DeJong pitched
eight strong innings as 13th-ranked Cal State Fullerton beat Pacific,
11-4, at Billy Hebert Field Sunday afternoon to take the series, two games
to one.
The Titans, who have won 11 of their past 14 games, improved to 23-12
overall and 7-2 in conference play. Pacific fell to 18-15-1 and 3-6.
DeJong (6-2) allowed just five hits and three earned runs, struck out
six and walked two. After allowing a pair of runs in the first, DeJong
allowed just an earned run on three hits over his final seven innings.
Sean Martin pitched a perfect ninth for Fullerton.
Smyres, whose four hits set a career high, reached base in his last five
plate appearances (he was hit by a pitch). Pilittere was 3-for-5 with
three runs and Corpaci was 3-for-5 with two RBI for the Titans, who had
18 hits. Every starter but Chris Stringfellow had at least one hit.
Pacific scored a pair of runs in the first when the first four batters
reached. DeJong hit Joel Summers and walked Aaron Harper to set the stage
for RBI singles by Tim Gilhooly and Cory Lake. Another walk loaded the
bases with one out, but DeJong fanned Adam Alverson and Octavio Amezquita
to leaves the bases loaded.
Fullerton tied the score, 2-2, in the second on a leadoff homer by Chris
Klosterman and sac fly by Shane Costa. An inning later, the Titans got
another leadoff blast by Geoff Comfort (his team-high fourth) to take
a 3-2 lead. Fullerton added three more runs in the frame, chasing Pacific
starter Ryan Jurvakainen (2-2) in the process. P.J. Pilittere and Jason
Corapci each had RBI-singles and the fourth run scored when second baseman
Octavio Amezquita was charged with a throwing error on the back end of
Corapci's infield hit.
The Tigers scored an unearned run in the fifth but the Titans answered
with two more runs in the top of the sixth to take an 8-3 lead. Shane
Costa doubled in a run to extend his hitting streak to 17 games, then
scored on a passed ball.
The teams traded runs in the eighth with Corpaci driving in a run in the
top half of the inning and Cory Lake doubling in the Tigers' fourth run
in the bottom half. Fullerton's finals runs came across in the ninth,
when Smyres singles in Klosterman and Corapci picked up his third RBI
by driving in Smyres.
The Titans will return to Fullerton to host Pepperdine on Tuesday at 7
p.m. before playing a three-game Big West Conference series at UC Santa
Barbara next weekend.
