Titans Shut Down Waves, 9-1 :: Rath Earns his Fist Collegiate Win as Clark and Komatsu pick up three hits each.

Rath Earns his Fist Collegiate Win as Clark and Komatsu pick up three hits each.

May 6, 2008

Fullerton, Calif. - Erik Komatsu and Jared Clark each had 3 hits and drove in a pair of runs Tuesday night to lead Cal State Fullerton to a 9-1 non-conference baseball victory over visiting Pepperdine.

The Titans improved to 30-16 and reached the 30-win mark for the 34th time in their 34-year Div. I history while Pepperdine fell to 28-16. Fullerton's win avenged a 13-2 loss in Malibu on March 18 to lefthander Robert Dickmann (3-5), who took the loss Tuesday after allowing 4 runs in 4 innings.

Freshman lefthander Kevin Rath (1-0) picked up his first collegiate victory after allowing only 1 run and 4 hits in 4 innings. Michael Morrison (3 IP), Jason Dovel (1 IP) and Ryan Ackland (1 IP) combined to pitch 5 innings of scoreless relief. The Titans turned three double plays and Rath picked off a pair of runners to thwart the Waves' offense.

Freshman shortstop Christian Colon was the key man in two of Fullerton's four 2-run innings. He singled home the game's first run with two out in the third and then stole second base before Komatsu ever stepped into the batter's box. From second he scored on Komatsu's single to left field. Colon's double set up a Clark sacrifice fly and an RBI single by Brian Wilson in the fifth.

Fullerton's short game keyed a 2-run fourth. Gary Brown sacrificed runners to second and third for the first out. Clark then scored on a suicide squeeze bunt by Joel Weeks and Wilson came home from third on Dustin Garneau's second hit of the night.

Komatsu hit his seventh home run of the season in the seventh and the Titans added an unearned run. Clark singled home Joe Scott to complete the scoring in the eighth.

Pepperdine's run came in the fourth. Eric Thames walked and Trent Diedrich singled. Chase d'Arnaud hit into a double play but Nate Simon singled up the middle to score Thames.

Fullerton returns to Big West Conference play this weekend hosting Cal Poly on Friday night at 5:15 p.m. on CSTV, on Saturday at 6 p.m. and on Sunday at 1 p.m. The four teams behind the first-place Titans in the Big West standings play each other with UC Santa Barbara at Long Beach State and UC Davis at UC Riverside.