Titan second baseman Justin Turner blasted
two home runs and drove in three as No. 4 Cal State Fullerton defeated
the UNLV Rebels 10-4 in a non-conference baseball game at Earl E. Wilson
Stadium Saturday afternoon.
With the win, Fullerton improves to 6-2 in the season with the Rebels
dropping to 2-9.
Ricky Romero improved to 3-0 on the season with another impressive outing,
retiring 15 of the last 16 batters he faced. Romero pitched eight complete
innings, striking out a season-high 12 batters while walking only two.
UNLV’s only threat to get to Romero came in the fourth inning when
Tyler Beranek, Chris Bonnell and Willie Bowman all recorded hits and scored
to give the Rebels a temporary 4-3 lead.
The Titans tied the game at 4-4 on an RBI double by third baseman Ronnie
Prettyman in the sixth inning.
Turner’s seventh inning blast, the second of the day for the second-baseman,
put the Titans ahead for good at 5-4. Prior to Saturday’s game,
Turner had only hit one career home run in 477 career at bats.
Five more Titans scored over the final two innings as they continued to
abuse the Rebel pitching staff. Fullerton had 14 hits on the day, seven
of which were for extra bases.
Turner and Bret Pill had three hits, with Turner and Ronnie Prettyman
driving in three.
Prettyman and John Curtis both collected a pair of hits.
Fullerton and UNLV will play the rubber-game of the series Sunday afternoon
at 1:00 p.m. Scott Sarver (1-1, 14.54 ERA) will be on the mound for Fullerton
with Matt Luca (0-2, 3.38 ERA) going for the Rebels. .
