March 8, 2008

Box Score

Fullerton, Calif. - Cory Arbiso picked up his first collegiate win and Cal State Fullerton (7-4) earned its second series win of the year in Saturday night's 8-3 win over visiting Southern Miss (6-5) at Goodwin Field. The Titans are now winners of four in a row.

Southern Miss struck out 13 times on Saturday night, seven by way of Arbiso (1-2), who set his career high in the 5 1/3 inning outing. It wasn't easy though for the right-hander, as he made 100 pitches and surrendered eight hits, setting the side down in order just once in the fourth inning.

David Clark (1-1) suffered his first loss of the year allowing six runs (five earned) on five hits while walking four.

The Golden Eagles plated the first run of the game in the first courtesy of a Keith Winstead two-out, RBI-single that was sent back up the middle, driving home Drew Carson who was aboard after being plunked by Arbiso three batters earlier.

The Titans punched right back as Cory Jones capped a three-run Titan first inning with a sharp ground ball that got by a diving James Ewing to bring home Christian Colon and Jared Clark, aboard via bases on balls. Gary Brown also walked and scored on a wild pitch in the inning giving the Titans a 3-1 lead in which they would never look back.

The second hit of the night for Fullerton came in the third inning as Colon connected on a 1-0 Clark offering, driving it just inside the left field foul pole for his first career home run. The home run gave the Titans a 4-1 lead.

Dustin Garneau became the second Titan on the night to leave the yard when he belted a solo blast out to left-center giving Fullerton a commanding 5-1 lead. The Titans added a second run in the inning as Jeff Newman followed up the homerun with a single to right. He stole second and was balked to third and scored on a Josh Fields fielding error on a Brown grounder that should have ended the inning.

Southern Miss' Michael Ewing greeted Arbiso with a big fly of his own to lead off the top of the sixth inning. After a spectacular defensive play that saw Newman reach over the bullpen fence to take away a foul ball for an out, and a single by James Ewing, Arbiso was lifted for Michael Morrison with a 6-2 lead.

Morrison went 2 1/3 and gave up one run, a solo homer to Carson to lead off the seventh, but struck out five of the 10 batters he faced.

Fullerton scored once in the seventh courtesy of a bases loaded wild pitch by Houston Brown, and once in the eighth on a bases loaded fielder's choice by pinch-hitter Matthew Fahey to pull away to the final score of 8-3.

Jones led all players with two RBI on the night, while six different Titans picked up hits on the night. Josh Fellhauer extended his hitting streak to nine games with a fifth inning single.

The two teams will meet in the series finale Sunday afternoon as the Titans will trot out Jeff Kaplan (2-1, 4.97 ERA) against USM's Josh Billeaud (0-1, 4.85 ERA). First pitch is at 1 p.m.