FULLERTON, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton defeated Long Beach State 6-4 in the rubber game Sunday afternoon at Goodwin Field to secure the series victory. The Titans improve to 20-19 on the year and 11-7 in Big West play.
The Titans had to battle back from an early deficit after Long Beach State scored two runs in the top of the first inning. Jason Krakoski did a good job to limit the damage to just two runs after loading the bases with no outs.
Fullerton came back to take the lead in the bottom of the second inning, scoring four runs to take a 4-2. Following a hit by pitch and a base hit from Eli Lopez and Jakob Schardt, Isaiah Gomez singled through the left side of the infield to get the Titans on the board.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Maddox Latta singled to the third baseman to bring home Jakob Schardt and tie the game at 2-2.
Andrew Kirchner and Matthew Bardowell were then hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive in two more runs while giving Fullerton a 4-2 lead.
Long Beach State scored one run in the fourth inning and one in the fifth to tie the game at 4-4.
The Titans immediately responded with one run in the home half of the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly by Schardt to bring home Bardowell and score the go-ahead run.
Fullerton scored a key insurance run in the eighth inning to gain all the momentum while taking the sails out of Long Beach State.
The dangerous combo of Johnstone and Latta at the top of the order came through once again. Johnstone doubled with two outs to keep the inning alive before Latta doubled to trade places with the freshman and extend the lead to 6-4.
Andrew Wright closed out the final 1.2 innings, allowing just one base runner on a walk while striking out two to earn his sixth save of the season. Ryan Faulks earned the win to improve to 2-1 on the year after pitching 1.2 shutout innings.
The Titans are back in action Tuesday night as the team heads south for a midweek game at San Diego State. First pitch is set for 6:00 p.m.
SUPPORT THE TITANS!
Fans can purchase tickets for various Cal State Fullerton athletic events by visiting
FullertonTitansTickets.com. The Athletic Ticket Office can also be contacted by phone at 657-278-2783 or by email at
athletictixs@fullerton.edu.
FOLLOW THE TITANS!
Fans can keep up with the latest in Titan Athletics by following us on Facebook (
Facebook/FullertonTitans), X (
@FullertonTitans) Instagram (
@FullertonTitans), YouTube (
FullertonTitansAthletics) and TikTok (
@FullertonTitans). In addition, the baseball team has established its own Instagram (@
fullertonbsb), X (@
FullertonBSB) and TikTok (
@fullertonbsb).
WATCH THE TITANS ON ESPN+
Titans fans can now watch every home event exclusively on
ESPN+. Cal State Fullerton has built a top-tier production studio to give the viewers an ESPN quality production for all games at Titan Stadium. Additionally, all schools in the Big West Conference are committed to producing ESPN quality streams which will allow fans to watch the Titans on
ESPN+ for all road conference games.
