Just 72 hours removed from earning his first career postseason victory,
Cal State Fullerton freshman righthander, and tournament Most Outstanding
Player, Wes Roemer tossed eight strong innings and helped the Titans advance
to the Super Regional round with a 6-3 victory over Arizona on Monday
night at Goodwin Field.
Fullerton improved to 45-16 overall and advanced to meet Arizona State
next weekend in a best-of-three series for a berth in the College World
Series. The Titans have emereged as regional champions in each of the
last three seasons and four of the last five years.
Arizona finished its season 39-21 overall.
Roemer (7-3) allowed three runs on eight hits with five strikeouts before
leaving to a standing ovation in the ninth.
Sophomore Vinnie Pestano then came in to close things out, getting the
first out on a spectacular diving catch from Bobby Andrews and allowing
a single and a sac fly before striking out pinch-hitter Bill Rhinehart
to notch his 13th save of the season.
Arizona's John Meloan (10-3), who also pitched 72 hours earlier in the
Wildcats' opener against Missouri (6 2/3 innings), lasted only 2 2/3 innings
Monday night, allowing two earned (five overall) on four hits, walking
two and striking out one in the loss.
Fullerton struck first in the second inning as Danny Dorn led off with
a double and Ronnie Prettyman walked to bring up Bobby Andrews, who promptly
singled to left field, scoring Dorn for the 1-0 lead.
The Titans then busted things wide open in the third, plating five runs
and knocking Meloan from the game. Brett Pill made the score 2-0 with
his single through the left side, scoring Blake Davis. Dorn added another
run on the next at-bat, as his RBI groundout scored Justin Turner to make
it 3-0.
Wildcats' reliever David Coulon then entered and surrendered a two-run
single to left by Prettyman, who moved to third a few pitches later when
Coulon's pickoff attempt went wide at first. Prettyman would score on
Andrews' squeeze bunt to make it 6-0.
Arizona would finally break through against Roemer in the fifth as Nick
Hundley led off with a single and eventually moved to third on a single
by Jason Donald. Hundley then came around to score on Derek Decater's
single in the hole at shortstop to break up the shutout.
The Wildcats inched closer in the sixth, as Trevor Crowe led off with
a hit by pitch, stole second, and eventually scored on Jeff Van Houten's
sac fly two batters later to make it 6-2.
The score remained that way until the ninth on Decater's sac fly scoring
Jordan Brown for the final tally of the night.
Andrews led the Titans' offense, going 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI. Five
other Fullerton players also had hits.
Donald led Arizona's bats with his 3-for-4 day and was joined by Nick
Hundley with multiple hits as he went 2-for-3.
QUOTES ARIZONA QUOTES Head Coach Andy Lopez: “They deserved it. Cal State Fullerton is a
very good club. I wish them all the best on their way to Omaha.”
“The hardest thing at the moment is that we didn’t play well.
These players came to a place that wasn’t good, that went through
a disappointing 12 or so years, and won a regional championship and went
to Omaha.”
“I will miss these guys. They are a good group of people.
This team will not be identified by wins or losses. These players
are good people both on and off the field.”
“This program will never let one game gauge our success. We
had a great moment on Friday and a great moment on Saturday. All
these players will go on to play professional ball. They will not
be identified by one loss. They are all tremendous people.”
“These players came here to a program that was non-existent.
I’m sorry, but that is the truth. Now we feel like we can
go anywhere in the country and compete.”
(On Cal State Fullerton pitcher Wes Roemer) “He has great makeup.
When he threw against Harvard, I had my sons with me and I talked to them
about how important it is to have makeup. He really has a presence
on the mound. I was impressed. When you have makeup, you have
a great chance at being successful.”
(On Bobby Andrews’ catch) “I’m pretty confident that
he made the catch. I think it was a great catch. But you had
two top-10 programs scrapping with everything they had. If you (the
umpire) don’t sprint out there, you have something else on your
mind.”
Pitcher John Meloan: “I felt ok going out there today. I wasn’t
100 percent, but I wouldn’t want anyone else out there pitching
in my place. I’m not going to make any excuses. The
bottom line is I just didn’t get it done.”
(On Bobby Andrews’ catch) “If he caught it, that’s the
way it is. We can’t let one play beat us. That catch
shouldn’t make or break us. We had 27 outs, and we had to take advantage
early in the game.”
Left Fielder Trevor Crowe: “This is a team that I will look back on and say,
‘what if.’ I have no doubt in my mind that this team
could have played for a national championship.”
Catcher Nick Hundley: “There is no other group of guys that I would rather play
with. It is tough to know that we will never play again together.”
CAL STATE FULLERTON QUOTES Cal State Fullerton Head Coach George Horton (Opening statement) “We’re elated obviously.
Anytime you can scratch and claw and grind back into a tournament like
this, and beat a fantastic University of Arizona club, we’re elated.
It took every one of us and I think tonight’s game was about Wes
(Roemer) pounding the strike zone, coming back on short rest and getting
us deep into that game when we were real thin on the mound. We pride
ourselves on playing defense, and the inside game and defense was the
story of this tournament.”
(On the team) “I’m as proud of this group as any group I’ve
ever been around. I said that a couple of days ago, and whether
we had gotten this done or not, their ability to sustain an effort running
on fumes, it was a big challenge for us.”
(On head groundskeeper Mike Wilson getting the field in playing condition
after a five-hour flood) “Mike Wilson is one of the reasons we fight
so hard. He’s an ex-Titan, he’s the one who put the
field in, he’s always there for us. We call him half-mule,
half-man. You can’t throw any challenges that he doesn’t
tackle. He came in with his crew, overturned the whole infield,
regraded it and reshodded it. That might have been one of the best performances
of the day. With all the great things that happened on the field,
I think Mike Wilson and the performance of his staff allowed us to all
enjoy this great game and get this tournament over.”
(On Roemer’s strikeout of Jeff Van Houten to end the eighth inning)
“He probably threw the best sequence to Van Houten in a big spot
and that kid’s a great hitter. We’ve had a tough time
getting him out. Wes just cut him up. That was a great zero and
that was obviously a back breaker for them.”
Cal State Fullerton Pitcher Wes Roemer (On coming back on short rest) “It’s tough.
It’s the first time I’ve really had to do this before.
I felt like I wanted the game and I wanted to finish it off.”
(On his approach against Arizona) “I threw against them earlier
in the year and a couple of guys hit my slider really good, so I just
pounded fastballs in because that seemed to work. Other than that,
everything just felt really good today.”
Cal State Fullerton Outfielder Bobby Andrews (On his catch in the ninth inning) “Off the bat I
didn’t think I would catch it. I saw it up in the air and
I told myself ‘just run as fast as you can and I did.’
It was probably one of my best catches ever.”
Cal State Fullerton Third Baseman Ronnie Prettyman (On Wes Roemer’s performance) “It didn’t
surprise any of us because of his character and attitude when he goes
out on the mound. He’s a freshman, but he’s been here
long enough to not really get rattled by the position he was put in tonight.
He went out and pitched a great game for us.”
(On the fans) “The fans did a great job this weekend, especially
the people that were out here all 18 innings the other day when we had
to win two games. I’ve been here for three years and it was
as good as I’ve ever seen our fans be. It gave us that extra
energy when we didn’t have any fuel in the tank to come out and
play as hard as we could.”
