March 18, 2006

Box Score

Tucson, Ariz. - Blake Davis and John Curtis drove in a combined five runs as No. 7 Cal State Fullerton (15-6) took the opening game of a three game non-conference baseball series, 6-4, Friday night over hosting Arizona at Jerry Kindall Field in Tucson, Ariz.

The Titans extended their longest winning streak of the year to six games and handed the Wildcats their fourth straight defeat.

Wes Roemer was not as sharp as he has been in his previous six outings, but still managed to earn his fifth win of the season without a defeat. The sophomore gave up a season-high four earned runs on five hits while striking out four UA hitters and extended his amazing streak to 52.1 innings pitched and 50 strikeouts without a walk.

Arizona struck first in the second inning as Jon Gaston's sacrifice fly drove in Bill Reinhardt, who doubles and advanced to third on a ground ball, leading to a 1-0 Wildcat lead after two.

It stayed that way until the top of the fifth when the Titans erupted for four runs in their half of their inning off losing pitcher Eric Berger (3-4). The southpaw surrendered three hits and a pair of walks to five of the eight Titans that batted to lose the lead for UA for good.

John Curtis got the Titans started with his first of three hits on the day driving in Jared Clark with an RBI-single to left field to tie the game at 1-1. After a walk to Evan McArthur and a fielder's choice by Brandon Tripp, Justin Turner gave the Titans a 2-1 lead with a single to drive in McArthur. The big blow came next as Blake Davis launched a two-run triple to right-center quickly extending the Titan lead to 4-1.

Fullerton briefly extended to 5-1in the sixth with three consecutive singles, the last being another RBI single by the catcher Curtis.

Arizona answered with two runs in the bottom half of the sixth off Roemer who was tagged for a single by Colt Sedbrook and an RBI-triple by Brad Boyer with one out in the inning. David Plante promptly picked up Boyer from third with a ground ball to third to pull the Wildcats within two at 5-3.

AU got as close as 5-4 in the seventh as Konrad Schmidt doubled home Brad Glen all the way from first base, who reached after getting plunked by Roemer two batters earlier.

Roemer retired the first batter he faced in the top of the eighth, and was then replaced by left-hander Ryan Paul who struck out the two Wildcats he faced to end the inning. Vinnie Pestano came on in the ninth to earn his sixth save of the season, but did not do it the easy way. The side-winder surrendered two hits and brought the winning run to the plate in Schmidt before striking him out to end the game.

Right fielder Jared Clark also added a pair of hits, joining Curtis and Davis as the Titans' Multi-hit players while Bill Reinhardt was the lone Wildcat collecting two hits.

The Two teams will play again tomorrow evening, with the first pitch scheduled for 5 p.m. PST. Lauren Gagnier (4-2, 2.74 ERA) will be on the mound for the Titans searching for his fifth win of 2006 with the Wildcalts countering with righty Preston Guilmet (1-2, 4.05 ERA)

TITAN NOTES: Blake Davis extended his hitting streak to 12 games with his fifth inning triple....Davis' triple also moved him into a five-way tie for second place all-time with his 11th career three-bagger. He is now tied with Shane Costa, Ronnie Prettyman, David bacani and Mark Kotsay