Titans Even Series with 7-5 Victory

Titans snap their brief two-game skid.

	Noe Ramirez (mattbrownphoto.com)

April 10, 2009

Box Score

Northridge, Calif. - Joe Scott's two-run double and Dustin Garneau's RBI-single in the sixth proved to be the difference as No. 6 Cal State Fullerton beat Cal State Northridge, 7-5, Friday afternoon at Matador Field in Big West Conference action.

The Titans, who dropped the completion of Thursday's suspended game earlier in the day, improve to 21-9, 4-4. The Matadors drop to 14-19, 3-5.

Noe Ramirez (4-1) endured a five-run Matador sixth, that produced all of the Northridge runs, to earn his fourth win of the year. The East Los Angeles native worked 7. 1 innings and struck out five on 120 pitches. Nick Ramirez, who was 2-for-5 at the plate, pitched a perfect 1.2 innings to earn his first collegiate save.

Billy Ott (1-2) surrendered all seven Titan runs and was tagged with the loss.

The Titans got on the board in the first on Jared Clark's sixth home run of the year. They followed with two more in the second to extend to a 4-0 lead.

In the second Khris Davis and Gary Brown singled to lead off the frame. Scott sacrificed the duo to second and third and both runners scored on a fly ball by Garneau. The Titan catcher flew to right and Davis scored easily, but right-fielder C.J. Belanger's throw home went wide and Brown scored on the miscue.

The Scott-Garneau connection produced three runs in the top of the sixth as Fullerton pounded out four of their 14 total knocks on the day.

In the bottom half of the sixth, Northridge sent nine men to the plate against Noe Ramirez, scoring five times on five hits including a grand slam by Dominic D'Anna. John Parham and Richard Cates singled without hitting the ball out of the infield, and Ryan Pineda singled softly to load the bases. D'Anna connected on the first pitch from Noe Ramirez, sending the ball over the center field wall for his first career grand slam, and first for Northridge since May 18, 2008 against UC Davis.

After a hit batter, base hit and a ground out, John DeMarco lined out to Jeff Newman who made a sprawling diving catch in left field, scoring Belanger from third for the final CSUN run.

Five Titans (Christian Colon, Josh Fellhauer, Jared Clark, Nick Ramirez and Khris Davis) finished with two hits apiece. Clark, Scott and Garneau finished with two RBI each.

Jason Dabbs led all players with a three-hit afternoon.

The rubber-match of the series will be played at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Matador Field. Tyler Pill (5-0) goes to the mound for Fullerton with Justen Gorski (1-1) going for the Matadors.