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Junior outfielder Josh Vargas grounds out to Stanford shortstop Tommy Edman in the third inning of Friday night’s 2-0 defeat. Vargas went 1-for-4 on the night and 3-for-10 during the three-game series at Goodwin Field. The Titans lost the rubber match of a tightly-contested series to start off 2-5 in the young 2015 season.
(Matt Corkill / Daily Titan)
Cal State Fullerton baseball played host to old-time rival Stanford this weekend, dropping the rubber match and falling to 2-5 in the young season.
The Titans opened up their first series homestand Friday night with a pitching duel between junior Thomas Eshelman (0-2) and Cardinal starter Cal Quantrill (1-0).
Eshelman looked dominant, going perfect through six innings with seven strikeouts, but in the top of the seventh he allowed a single to the Stanford leadoff hitter, Tommy Edman. Edman would advance to second from the error committed by junior left fielder David Olmedo-Barrera.
After being advanced to third from a sacrifice bunt, Edman scored on a wild pitch to give Stanford the 1-0 lead. Cardinal Matt Winaker added all the insurance Stanford needed with his solo shot to right field to go up 2-0 and hand CSUF their second home loss of the season.
“I was just thinking pound the zone and give my teammates a chance to win the game,” Eshelman said about going perfect for six innings.
Things got a little chippy Saturday as the Titans picked up their first home victory of the season, winning 4-2 in their second matchup against Stanford.
CSUF was led on the mound by junior starter Justin Garza, while junior center-fielder Josh Vargas led the offense. Garza was solid for four shutout innings, striking out eight, while Vargas went 2-2 with two walks and a run scored.
“We’ve been working on staying inside the ball the whole time and I’ve been trying to yank way too much to right field trying to get something going and I just kept it simple today and took what they gave me,” Vargas said about his success at the plate that night.
The Titans offense came to life in the fifth inning when freshman right fielder Scott Hurst led off the inning with a triple to right. Hurst was brought home by sophomore Timmy Richards’ hard grounder to shortstop that went off the glove of Edman, putting the Titans up 1-0.
On the next pitch, Vargas roped a single to left and ended up on third after an errant throw by the Cardinal left fielder, who was attempting to throw out the hustling Richards at third. The throw allowed Richards to score and give the Titans the lead at 2-0. Vargas was brought in by the RBI groundout from junior third baseman Dustin Vaught, allowing Fullerton to go up 3-0.
Stanford mounted a rally in the top of the eighth, scoring twice after being issued a leadoff walk by Titan senior reliever Tyler Peitzmeier. The walk was followed by a double and triple to left that cut into the Titan lead, 3-2. Peitzmeier collected himself and was able to get out of the inning without any more damage done, before picking up his second save of the season.
“Mostly, I was trying too hard at the beginning, I was trying too hard to strike those guys out. It was all two-strike pitches that they got hits on,” Peitzmeier said. “Then Deets (Jason Dietrich) came out … and calmed me down.”
Emotions were running high in the bottom half as the Titans responded on the junior Tyler Stieb RBI infield-single to go up 4-2, but as Stieb reached first base, Cardinal reliever Brett Hanewich impeded his path, leading to shoves between the pair. The Titan bench was at the foul line in the blink of an eye, ready to defend their teammate, before being brought back by the coaching staff.
The bats on both sides came alive with the wind howling and the rain pouring when the Titans took on Stanford for the final game of the series Sunday.
CSUF and Stanford collected 23 hits, 16 walks and four home runs in the offensive slugfest.
Sophomore Josh Estill led the CSUF offense, going 4-4 with three RBIs, three runs scored and his first home run as a Titan.
The Titans took a 2-1 lead in the fourth that was spoiled by a four-run Stanford sixth inning that was capped off by a 3-run shot by Winaker, his second of the series.
After a 40-minute rain delay in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Titans took a 6-5 lead on a passed ball with the bases loaded. However, the Titans were undone by the Stanford 3-run eighth and two-run ninth to fall, 9-11.
The Titans (2-5) will look to continue putting their offensive surge on display during an exhibition against the NC Dinos, a professional South Korean team, Monday at Goodwin Field. The first pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.