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CSUF baseball fends off late rally to win rubber match against Dirtbags

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The Titans huddle up for some motivational words before their game against Long Beach State. (Winnie Huang/ Daily Titan) Keegan Dale takes the field for the Titans. (Winnie Huang/ Daily Titan) Miles Chambers throws a pitch against Long Beach on Sunday. (Winnie Huang/ Daily Titan) Some Titans fans are more passionate than others, as shown by this man who shakes his Titans rally towel. (Winnie Huang/ Daily Titan) Junior Matt Chapman takes a swing at a pitch against the Long Beach State Dirtbags. (Winnie Huang/ Daily Titan) A.J. Kennedy comes in to score for the Titans on Sunday against Long Beach State. (Winnie Huang/ Daily Titan) Keegan Dale takes a hack on Sunday against Long Beach State on Sunday. (Winnie Huang/ Daily Titan) Sophomore Tanner Pinkston heads up to the plate after a run scores for the Titans on Sunday. (Winnie Huang/ Daily Titan) Miles Chambers throws a pitch as a Long Beach State runner attempts to steal second base. (Winnie Huang/ Daily Titan) The Titans huddle on the mound to discuss some pitching strategy. (Winnie Huang/ Daily Titan) Junior Matt Chapman runs to first base after hitting the ball into the outfield. (Winnie Huang/ Daily Titan) Young Titans fans taking part of a fun competition between innings. (Winnie Huang/ Daily Titan) A young Titan fan steals a base as part of a mid-inning event. (Winnie Huang/ Daily Titan) A Titans runner dives back to first on Sunday against the Dirtbags. (Winnie Huang/ Daily Titan)

The offense for the Cal State Fullerton baseball team broke out at the right time as the team defeated rival Long Beach State 6-5 in a non-conference game Sunday afternoon at Goodwin Field.

Up 6-0 early in the game, Long Beach State (11-11) made a comeback bid in the ninth inning getting within one run, but J.D. Davis was able to record his third save of the season and propel the Titans to their second straight series win.

The victory was Rick Vanderhook’s 100th career victory as the CSUF head coach. The Titans (13-8) got things rolling in the second inning. After a leadoff walk to A.J. Kennedy, CSUF perfectly executed a hit-and-run with Austin Diemer rifling a double down the right-field line, advancing Kennedy to third base.

With runners on second and third, Timmy Richards stepped up to the plate and hit a shot back up the middle that deflected off the glove of pitcher Jason Alexander, allowing Kennedy to score the first run of the game.
After a Keegan Dale walk, Diemer scored on a Matt Chapman sacrifice fly to right field for a 2-0 lead.

The next batter, Davis, proceeded to smash a fastball to straightaway center field just out of the reach of a diving Colby Brenner, giving Davis a two-run triple that put CSUF up 4-0. Davis was two for three with two runs batted in at the plate. The junior has hit safely in 17 out of 21 games played this season and attributed his success at the plate to being calm in his at-bats.

“Being patient really,” said Davis, who is now batting .317 with 16 runs batted in this season. “Working counts in my favor and getting a good swing off.”

Junior outfielder Clay Williamson rounds third base to score the Titans’ third run of the game off of a triple to center by J.D. Davis. Winnie Huang / Daily Titan

Junior outfielder Clay Williamson rounds third base to score the Titans’ third run of the game off of a triple to center by J.D. Davis.
Winnie Huang / Daily Titan

In the third inning, the Titans added another run on a sacrifice bunt by Dale, scoring Kennedy. Diemer finished the day two for four with a run scored. It was the junior’s sixth multi-hit game this season.

“I was just trying to take good at-bats every time,” Diemer said. “Team at-bats for us, put things together, score some runs and I thought we did that today.”

It was the seventh time this season the Titans have scored six or more runs and it was the most runs scored in a game without extra innings since they defeated Baylor 11-0 back on March 7.

The offense for Long Beach State (11-11) was stagnant for most of the game, not collecting their first hit until the fifth inning when Cameron Pongs ripped a single through the right side of the infield. In the inning, the Dirtbags were able to cut the Titans’ lead to 6-3 after RBI singles by Daniel Jackson and Colton Vaughn.

Titan starter Miles Chambers went just two innings, allowing no hits while striking out two and walking one to pick up his first victory in his CSUF career. Freshman Chad Hockin took over for Chambers in the third inning and went 2.1 innings allowing two hits and one earned run.

For the Dirtbags, Alexander had a rough day against the Titan offense, falling to 1-2 on the season.  In three innings of work, Alexander gave up seven hits and five runs, all earned before being pulled in favor of Ryan Millison.

In their last seven games, the Titans are 5-2. With the victory, CSUF has won 17 of its last 21 games versus the Dirtbags. Assistant Coach Mike Kirby said there is a reason why the Titans are at their best versus LBSU.

“We love playing those guys as I’m sure they love competing against us,” Kirby said. “I can speak for every sports team at Cal State Fullerton, we love playing Long Beach and we love beating them.”

CSUF hits the road for one last series before the start of Big West Conference play.  The Titans travel to face Wichita State for a three-game series starting Friday.


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