FULLERTON, Calif. ā Cal State Fullerton baseball squandered a late lead, giving up four runs in the ninth and two in the 10th inning to drop the series finaleĀ to Stanford by a final score of 9-7 Monday afternoon at Goodwin Field. With the loss the Titans start the season 0-4.Ā
The Titans got off to a strong start, pitching a scoreless first inning for the first game of the series before putting up five runs in the bottom of the second inning.Ā
Andrew Kirchner and Maddox Latta led-off the second inning with back-to-back hits before a Max Ortega single drove in both runs. Latta was able to score on some heads-up baserunning after an errant throw by Stanford allowed him to get home from second base.Ā
With a runner at second base, Isaiah Gomez came through for the Titans with a double to left field to drive in Matthew Bardowell and extend the Titans lead to 3-0.Ā
After advancing to third base on an Eli Lopez single, Gomez came around to score thanks to a single from freshman Carter Johnstone to put the Titans up 4-0.Ā
Marcos Rosales finished off the scoring in the inning with a sacrifice fly to center field to drive in Lopez from third base and make it a 5-0 game.Ā
After three scoreless innings, Stanford scored two runs in the top of the fourth inning to cut the Titans lead to 5-2.Ā
Payton Hawkinson gave the Titans a solid start on the mound. The sophomore pitched four innings, giving up two earned runs on three hits while walking one and striking out a career-high six batters.Ā
The Cardinal added one more run in the fifth to make it a 5-3 Titan lead.Ā
Chris Hernandez made his Titan debut after missing all of the 2024 season and showed promising signs. The redshirt freshman pitched 1.1 innings in relief of Hawkinson and allowed one earned run on two hits. Hernandez was the beneficiary to an unbelievable diving catch by Lopez in center field to end the top of the fifth inning.Ā
Jason Krakoski was key for the Titans out of the bullpen Monday afternoon. The sophomore pitched two shutout innings while giving up just one hit. Krakoski came on in relief in the sixth inning with one out and a runner at third base and quickly got two outs to shut the door on the Cardinal.Ā
Max Ortega took charge for the Titans offense in the sixth and seventh inning. In the sixth, Ortega hit a solo home run, his first of the season. In the seventh he came through with a two-out RBI double to left center field to bring home Latta from first base. Ortega had an impressive outing at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a run, a walk and tied his career-high with three RBI.Ā
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The Titans appeared to be cruising to their first win of the season after taking a 7-3 lead while pitchers were consistently picking each other up and getting out of jams.Ā
However, Stanford came storming back to score four runs in the top half of the ninth inning to tie the game at 7-7 and send it to extra innings. The Cardinal then scored two runs in the 10th inning which would be the game-winning runs.Ā
Andrew Wright drew the loss for the Titans after giving up two runs (both unearned) in the 10th inning on three hits. With one out and a runner at first Wright induced a ground ballĀ which looked to be an inning ending double play, however, a Fullerton defensive error led to all runners being safe.Ā
Aidan Keenan earned the win for Stanford after recording the final four outs.Ā
Fullerton hits the road next weekend for the first time in the young 2025 season as the team heads to Fresno State for a three-game series beginning Friday night.
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