FULLERTON, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton Baseball took game one of the rivalry series, 5-4, against Long Beach State Thursday evening at Goodwin Field. The Titans improve to 19-18 on the season, and 10-6 in Big West play.
With the game tied at 4-4 and runners on the corners and two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, a timely error by the Long Beach State defense allowed the winning run to score.
Johnstone got the eighth inning going with a one-out double before advancing to third on a wild pitch. Down to their last out and a 1-1 count, Matthew Bardowell hit a hard ground ball to the shortstop which he was unable to field cleanly, allowing Johnstone to score.
The freshman, Johnstone, had another impressive night at the plate as he went 3-for-3 with two doubles, a run, an RBI and two walks. Johnstone improves his batting average in Big West play to a staggering .507 while scoring 22 runs and driving in 24.
Mikiah Negrete led the pitching staff for the Titans giving them a strong 5.2 innings pitched. Negrete allowed two runs on four hits while recording four strikeouts.
After three quiet innings, the Titans finally broke through in the fourth, scoring two runs on a RBI single by Cam Burdick and a Johnstone walk with the bases loaded. The rally was fueled by four walks and two hits, giving the Titans a 2-0 lead.
In the fifth inning, Eli Lopez singled to left field to drive in Andrew Kirchner, who had led-off the inning with a base hit to right field, extending the Titans lead to 3-0.
Long Beach State scored two runs in the top of the sixth inning on three consecutive hits and a sacrifice fly to cut the Titans lead to 3-2.
With Bardowell at second and one out, Lopez came through for the Titans once again with an RBI single to center field to extend the lead to 4-2 in the seventh inning. Lopez had a strong outing at the plate, going 2-for-5 with two RBI.
Long Beach State rallied in the eighth with two runs to tie the ball game at 4-4. With a runner on third and one out, Long Beach tried to bring in the go-ahead run with a squeeze bunt, but a missed bunt led to the runner being caught stealing coming home to keep the game tied.
Andrew Wright closed out the game in the ninth inning to earn his first win of the season, improving to 1-2 on the year. It wasn't easy for Wright after walking the leadoff batter and giving up a base hit with two outs, but the sophomore finished the game with a strikeout to secure the series opener for the Titans.
The Titans are back in action tomorrow night at Goodwin Field as they take on Long Beach State in game two of the weekend series. First pitch is at 6:00 p.m.
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