Irvine Catch Sends Titans to First Home Loss May 9, 2003 – Fullerton, Calif.
Box Score
Jon Horwitz made a spectacular game-saving
catch as unranked UC Irvine handed No. 4 Cal State Fullerton its first
home loss of the season with a 5-3 win in a Big West Conference game at
Goodwin Field Friday night.
The Titans, who have lost their past four conference games, fell to 39-12
overall and 11-5 in conference play and dropped two games back of Long
Beach State in the conference race. Fullerton had been 22-0 at Goodwin
Field coming into Friday night's game. The Anteaters improved to 20-30
and 8-8.
The Titans had runners on first and second with two outs in the ninth
when Shane Costa drilled reliever Keith Raulinaitis' first pitch deep
to right-center field. With the runners going on contact, Horwitz sprinted
to the gap and made a diving catch to ignite a bench-clearing UC Irvine
celebration in right field.
The catch made a winner of Irvine starter Brett Smith (8-3) and gave Raulinaitis
his first save. Titan starter Wes Littleton allowed just one earned run
in six innings, but he did get tagged for 11 hits and fell to 6-3.
The Titans trailed, 5-2, heading into the seventh but things looked promising
when the Titans put runners on first and third with no outs. But an unusual
double play quickly changed the tide of the inning. Ronnie Prettyman lifted
a shallow fly ball to right field and Justin Smyres was doubled up trying
to advance to second base. Fullerton still managed a run on a wild pitch,
but left the tying runs in scoring position when Steve Schroer came on
to strike out cleanup hitter Kyle Boyer.
The Titans led, 1-0, after two innings on a Jason Corapci RBI-single and
after Irvine tied things up in the third, the Titans again went on top,
2-1, in the bottom of the inning. But Irvine's Chris Klemm doubled in
Gary Dudrey in the fifth to tie the game. In the sixth, Littleton retired
the first two batters on two pitchers, but a costly error -- one of four
by Fullerton on the night -- by shortstop Justin Smyres brought in three
unearned runs. Titan reliever Travis Ingle threw three perfect innings
in relief and struck out six.
Costa went 3-for-5 with his Big West-leading 24th double and Prettyman
and Smyres each had a pair of hits for the Titans. Brett Dalton had three
hits to pace Irvine.
Fullerton and Irvine will meet in the second game of the three-game series
on Saturday at 6 p.m.
