Long Beach Uses Three Sac Flies to Beat Titans Mar. 28, 2003 – Long Beach, Calif.
Box Score
Adam Heether's sac fly in the bottom of the eighth brought home Tim Hutting
with the go-ahead run as fifth-ranked Long Beach State came from behind
to edge No. 4 Cal State Fullerton, 3-2, in a nonconference game at Blair
Field Friday night.
The Titans, who had their four-game winning streak snapped, fell to 22-6
overall. Long Beach, which scored all three of its runs on sac flies,
improved to 18-7 and has won five in a row over Fullerton dating back
to last season.
Neil Jamison, who pitched a scoreless eighth inning, earned the victory
to improve to 4-0 while Carlos Muniz -- who stranded a Titan runner at
third to end the game -- earned his seventh save. Sean Martin took the
loss to fall to 0-2. Titan starter Darric Merrell stretched his consecutive
scoreless innings streak to 10 with five scorless innings of work, but
neither he or Long Beach All-American Abe Alvarez (two runs, nine strikeouts
in seven innings) figured in the decision.
The 49ers trailed, 2-0, before they got to Martin for a pair of runs in
the seventh, thanks to a pair of hit batters, a pair of errors and a pair
of sac flies off the bats of Mike Hofius and Todd Jennings. Long Beach
had runners on second and third when Davis struck out for the final out
of the inning.
Fullerton broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fifth when David Fischer
singled up the middle to lead off the frame and moved to second on a sac
bunt by Danny Dorn. Fischer just beat a throw to third on a fielder's
choice grounder to short by Justin Smyres and scored on another fielder's
choice off the bat of Ronnie Prettyman.
The Titans stretched the lead to 2-0 when P.J. Pilittere doubled to right
field to drive in Kyle Boyer. The Titans eventually loaded the bases against
Alvarez and had a chance to break things open, but Long Beach first baseman
Mike Hofius made an outstanding diving stop of Dorn's hard shot down the
first base line and tossed to Alvarez at first to leave the bases loaded.
Long Beach threatened to get on the scoreboard in the sixth when Travis
Udvarhelyi tripled into the right field corner to open the inning and
chase Merrell. But Sean Martin induced a shallow fly out by Davis, struck
out Hutting and got John Bowker to ground out to first.
Titan third baseman Ronnie Prettyman was ejected from the game by home
plate umpire Tony Norris during a seventh-inning at bat and first baseman
Richie Burgos had to be lifted in the bottom of the seventh after hyperextending
his elbow in a collision with Josh Buhagiar.
Fullerton and Long Beach will square off in the second game of the series
on Saturday at 1 p.m.
