UC Irvine’s Chris Nicoll and Steve Schroer held No. 2 Cal State
Fullerton to one run and four hits as the Anteaters (14-11, 1-0) downed
the Cal State Fullerton Titans (18-7, 0-1) 5-1 in the Big West Conference
opener Friday Night at Goodwin Field.
Irvine Head Coach Dave Serrano picked up his first career conference victory
as well as his first win against his former team as his Anteaters out-hit
the Titans 10-3. Irvine catcher Mark Wagner led all players with three
hits including a leadoff triple that sparked a two-run second inning for
Irvine.
Fullerton lefty Ricky Romero dropped his third straight game and fell
to 5-3 as the Titans could never get their offense started behind him.
Romero allowed a season-high 5 earned runs while fanning eight Anteaters
before giving way to Lauren Gagnier in the middle of the seventh.
Nicoll improved to 4-1 allowing just one run over 5.2 innings of work
before giving way to Schroer who earned his first save, pitching the final
3.1 innings.
Cal State Fullerton jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first
inning when Danny Dorn doubled in Justin Turner, who doubled three batters
earlier, but hat would be all the scoring for the Titans with the two
Irvine pitchers striking out 12 Fullerton batters along the way.
Irvine clumped their runs, scoring twice in the second, and twice in the
seventh before plating their final run in the eighthoff of Romero. The
Anteaters capitalized on back-to-back triples (by Wagner and Erik Johnson)
in the second, and three straight hits to lead off the seventh (by Johnson,
Cody Cipriano and Jaime Martinez) to jump out to a 4-1 lead. Wagner concluded
Irvine’s scoring in the eighth with an RBI-single to drive in Danny
Miramontes from second.
The two teams will meet again at Goodwin Field Saturday evening at 6 p.m.
Wes Roemer (0-1, 2.37 ERA) will get his second career start for Fullerton
with Justin Cassel (3-1 3.40 ERA) on the hill for Irvine.
