July 28, 2008

BRNO, Czech Republic - Cal State Fullerton standouts Christian Colon, Josh Fellhauer and Jared Clark picked up gold medals at the FISU World Baseball Championships on Sunday in the Czech Republic, as the United States National Team beat Japan 1-0 in 12 innings.

Titans provided the final out the tournament as shortstop Colon picked up a grounder and threw to Clark at first as the National Team notched its third consecutive FISU title.

It was an amazing summer for the Collegiate National Team as they finished with a perfect 24-0 record while establishing a new ERA record of 0.88, breaking the old mark (1.29) set in 2003. The staff also tossed six shutouts, two of which came in the final two games of the summer.

USA Baseball tallied a pair of tournament championships at the FISU and the Haarlem Baseball Week in The Netherlands, with the latter coming over Cuba, the same team that won the silver medal at the 2006 World Baseball Classic and the gold at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. July 13's win marked the first time in recorded history that a United States Collegiate National Team has defeated a Cuban Olympic team in a title game. The US finished 2-0 versus Cuba in 2008.

Colon was the only National Team player to start every single game playing both shortstop and second base. The soon-to-be Titan sophomore hit .263 and shared the team-lead with Fellhauer in hits, with 26. He also posted a pair of doubles, a home run and 14 RBI and led the squad with five stolen bases.

Fellhauer started in 23 of the 24 games played in the United Sates and Europe, missing just the July 24 tilt versus Chinese-Taipei due to illness. He hit .299 with a home run and 15 RBI (second-most on the team), while also swatting a team-leading 6 doubles.

Clark joined the team half way through on July 11 (replacing Tennessee's Kentrail Davis) and provided some offensive spark at the plate. In just 13 games, Clark led the team with four home runs and was just six RBI short of the team-leader with 11 driven in. His leadoff home run in the sixth inning on July 13, broke a 1-1 tie as the Collegiate National Team defeated Cuba in the gold medal game in Haarlem. Seven of Clark's 12 hits went for extra bases as he also led the team in slugging with a .628 mark.

The three Titans are due to return home Tuesday, July 29.