Danny Dorn went 3-for-4 in his collegiate debut and tripled in three runs
to break a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the seventh as No. 13 Cal State Fullerton
beat third-ranked Stanford, 7-3, in the Titans' season opener at Goodwin
Field.
The win was the Titans' first in a season opener since they beat the Cardinal,
8-0, to open the 1999 campaign. The game was played in front of a Goodwin
Field regular-season crowd of 3,131.
Junior transfer John Tucker, who worked 2.2 scoreless innings in relief
of starter Wes Littleton, picked up the win to improve to 1-0. Matt Manship
(0-1) suffered the loss for Stanford, which fell to 2-1.
The Titans came up with five consecutive two-out singles off Stanford
starter John Hudgins in the bottom of the first to plate three runs. Shane
Costa scored the first run on a Hudgins' balk before Kyle Boyer and Dorn
both came up with RBI-singles.
But Stanford got to Littleton for two runs in the second and another in
the fourth to even the score at 3-3. Littleton, who allowed three earned
runs on eight hits, gave way to Tucker with one out in the top of the
sixth.
The Titans appeared poised to reclaim the lead in the sixth when they
loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the sixth. But Hudgins
came back to strike out the next three batters -- his first three strikeouts
of the game -- to end the threat.
Manship came on for the Cardinal in the seventh and also worked himself
into a bases-loaded no-out situation. But this time the Titans cashed
in with Dorn slashing a line drive into the right-center field alley to
clear the bases. Manship had to leave the game after being hit by a line
drive off the bat of Justin Turner and P.J. Pilittere lifted a sac fly
to center field off new pitcher David O'Hagan to cap the scoring.
Aside from Dorn's debut, two other Titan newcomers -- sophomore third
baseman Ronnie Prettyman and freshman second baseman Justin Turner --
collected a pair of hits. Preseason All-American Shane Costa was 2-for-3
with a walk, a sacrifice and a pair of stolen bases.
Stanford's Brian Hall was 4-for-4 with two RBI including a run-scoring
single in the fourth that tied the game at 3-3. Carlos Quentin and Ryan
Garko each had two hits for the Cardinal.
Ryan Schreppel will make his pitching debut for the Titans on Saturday
when he goes against Stanford ace Tim Cunningham in a 6 p.m. game. Saturday's
game has been dubbed "Golden Spikes Night" as the Titans three
Golden Spikes Award winners -- Tim Wallach, Phil Nevin and Mark Kotsay
-- will be presented with their jerseys in a pre-game ceremony.
