After a shaky first inning, Ricky Romero settled down and struck out 8
retiring the last 15 of 16 batters he faced as the Cal State Fullerton
Titans downed the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos 9-1 in a Big West Conference
series opener Friday night at Goodwin Field.
Romero, for the second year in a row, held the Gauchos to just one earned
run improving his record to 9-4. With the victory, the Titans improve
to 31-11 over all and 9-1 in Big West Conference play, while UCSB falls
to 19-23, 1-6.
Santa Barbara utilized Romero’s inability to locate his pitches
in the first inning to scrape out their lone run as Bill Rowe hit a soft
chopper with the bases loaded to Brett Pill to knock in David Figoni.
Romero settled down allowing only three hits over eight innings of work,
finishing up the night with 104 pitches.
Steve Morlock pitched a complete game in the losing effort striking out
four Titans while giving up nine runs on eleven hits. It was all Fullerton
as it scored four times in the bottom of the first never to look back.
Danny Dorn’s two run single and a Trevor Mortensen sacrifice fly
gave the Titans a 4-1 lead.
Brett Pill’s eighth home run of the year extended the lead to 6-1
as he launched a long, high fly ball just inside the left field foul pole
to drive in his two runs on the night.
The Titans again plated two runs in the bottom of the fifth as back-to-back-to-back
hits by Pill, Dorn and Mortensen again stretched Fullerton’s lead
to 8-1.
Morlock did retire nine in a row before surrendering the Titans’
ninth and final run on a John Curtis’ sacrifice fly, scoring Ronnie
Prettyman in the top of the eighth.
Jared Clark came on for the Titans and pitched a perfect ninth inning
to complete Fullerton’s shortest game of the season at two hours
and twenty-six minutes.
Santa Barbara’s three Matts (Wilkerson, Kalafatis, and Stevens)
picked up the only three hits off Romero as the team hit just .103 on
the night.
Four Titans (Blake Davis, Sergio Pedroza, Pill and Dorn) collected a pair
of hits with Pill and Dorn driving in two and three runs respectively.
Mortensen also drove in two runs going 1-for-2 on the evening.
The two teams will face off again at Goodwin Field tomorrow at 6:00 p.m.
Wes Roemer is slated to be on the bump for the Titans and Michael Martin
will throw for the Gauchos.
