FULLERTON – After being honored on Senior Night, Timmy Richards and Taylor Bryant showed why the team will miss them next season. Both players came up clutch for the Titans in the bottom of the fifth inning to help Cal State Fullerton baseball squeak past UCLA in a 4-3 victory.
“I’ve grown up with those guys, and we’ve come a long way, it feels good to see them go out there every day and perform, especially on Senior Night,” said senior pitcher Maxwell Gibbs.
The middle of the order played big for Fullerton in the late-season, mid-week rematch against the Bruins. With two outs and runners on first and second in the bottom of the fifth, Richards snuck a ground ball through the legs of the Bruins third baseman to drive in Scott Hurst from second and give the Titans a 1-0 lead.
Bryant, a redshirt junior, was honored before the game in anticipation of him leaving Fullerton early to start his professional career, followed up Richards with a single up the middle to drive in Sahid Valenzuela from second and give the Titans a 2-0 cushion.
After the two veteran leaders of the team put the Titans on the board, freshman Zach Weller stepped to the plate and hit an RBI single past the third baseman to drive in Richards and extend the Titans lead to three.
Then, another senior stepped up for Fullerton when Hunter Cullen blasted a solo home run to deep right, giving CSUF a 4-0 lead in the sixth.
“It was a good night to do it. It felt good,” Cullen said.
UCLA answered in the top of the eighth inning with four straight hits to drive in three runs and threaten the Titans lead at 4-3. The Bruins strung together two straight hits again in the ninth to put runners on first and second. One batter later closer Brett Conine got Sean Bouchard to ground out to close the game and record his conference-leading 11th save of the season.
“That would make anyone nervous but I knew Brett had it locked down and I knew our defense was going to lock it down,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs, another senior who was honored Tuesday night and the sole senior on the pitching staff, got the nod to start the game for the Titans. Gibbs had not started a game all season and has struggled in his last year at CSUF. Heading into Tuesday’s start, Gibbs was posting a 9.82 ERA and 1-3 record in just 7.1 innings of work.
Gibbs and the Titans defense got off to a poor start against the Bruins. After the senior lefty hit the leadoff batter of the evening, Fullerton committed an error on a sacrifice bunt and watched as the next bunt stayed fair rolling all the way down the third-base line to load the bases.
With no outs and the bases loaded, Gibbs worked his way out of the jam with two fly outs and a strikeout to keep the game scoreless.
“I’ll admit I was extremely nervous. I looked in dugout a little bit, and Hooky (Rick Vanderhook) was going crazy, but it felt really good to get out of it,” Gibbs said.
Sophomore Gavin Velasquez came in for relief of Gibbs in the second inning after losing his starting spot last weekend against Hawaii.
Blake Workman took over for Velasquez after the latter gave up 13 runs in seven innings pitched over his last two starts. Even against Hawaii, Velasquez struggled in his typical reliever role, lasting only 0.2 innings while giving up two hits and a walk.
Velasquez rebounded against UCLA, giving up no runs and no hits in four innings of work while striking out four batters to help the Titans hold on to victory.
Fullerton returns to conference play Friday at Goodwin Field when it takes on UC Santa Barbara with first pitch at 6 p.m.
The post Cal State Fullerton baseball gets revenge on UCLA during Senior Night appeared first on Daily Titan.