Long Beach Beats the Titans With Four Runs in the Ninth

FULLERTON — It was typical hard-fought Cal State Fullerton-Long Beach State baseball, and this time the series came down to a wild, free-swinging finish.

Long Beach scored four runs in the top of the ninth inning Sunday with two home runs, but Fullerton’s counterpunch rally in the bottom of the inning fell a run short after a homer and a two-run triple.

Jason Yount’s three-run homer gave Long Beach a 10-9 victory in front of 1,511 at Titan Field. The first-place 49ers (16-9, 8-1) won the series two games to one and lead the Titans (19-9, 7-2) by one game in the Big West’s Southern Division.

The triple by Fullerton’s Greg Jacobs narrowly missed clearing the wall in left-center and tying the score. “I think it got the last bar at the top of the fence,” Jacobs said.

The game was that close.

“It certainly could have gone either way,” Long Beach Coach Dave Snow said.

Fullerton’s rally ended after a leadoff homer by Ryan Owens and Jacobs’ shot that drove in David Bacani, who was hit by a pitch, and Reed Johnson, who had singled. With one out, Chris Beck struck out and Kevin Duck grounded out.

But even on that last play, the throw was high to Yount at first base, and he had to leap for the ball, then dive for the bag to get the final out.

Fullerton Coach George Horton was critical of the Titans’ pitching.

“We gave up four home runs and all four of them were two-strike homers,” Horton said. “Their hitters did a better job of putting the ball in play with two strikes than we did. We did some things that were uncharacteristic for us. Our pitchers were behind in the count the whole game, and we gave them too many free runners. But, as I told our players, we gave it our best effort in the ninth, and came up one hit short.”

Benny Flores, who has been Fullerton’s most consistent starting pitcher, gave up consecutive homers to Long Beach’s first two batters, Terrmel Sledge and Chuck Lopez, at the start of the game.

“Flores wasn’t feeling well,” Horton said. “He’s one of about 10 of our guys who have been bothered by this congestive flu going around, and he wasn’t at full strength. But Long Beach’s hitters did a good job against him too. They were tough outs.”

Flores managed to go six innings, giving up six runs on 11 hits, before being replaced by Marco Hanlon.

Hanlon (0-2) gave up all four runs in the ninth. Sledge, a transfer from Cal State Northridge, led off the inning with his second homer of the game, and singles by Lopez and Paul Day set the stage for Yount’s winning homer.

The game’s key pitching effort came from Long Beach’s Mike Gallo, who took over in the second for freshman starter Jeff Leuenberger.

Gallo got Fullerton out of the second with only one run and held the Titans scoreless for four consecutive innings before giving up a leadoff homer in the seventh to Johnson that gave Fullerton its 6-6 tie. Jason Marr (2-1) was the winning pitcher, going the final 1 2/3 innings.