Christian Colon and Josh Fellhauer each drove in four runs and Tyler Pill (8-1) won his eighth game of the year as No. 5 Cal State Fullerton completed a sweep of visiting UCSB, cruising to a 15-3 Big West Conference victory at Goodwin Field.
The Titans pounded out 12 hits on the afternoon and played flawless defense as they improved to 32-12 overall and 12-6 in Big West action. Santa Barbara starter Mike Ford(4-4) suffered the loss while the Gauchos dropped to 23-18, 6-9.
It was the Gauchos’ sixth loss in a row. The last time UCSB had a six-game losing streak was from Mar. 26 to April 5, 2007.
With a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the fifth, the Titans exploded for 13 runs from the fifth to the seventh innings, including three in the fifth, seven in the sixth, and three more in the seventh. Ford was touched for five runs on three hits in his 4.1 innings of work and issued four walks along the way. Ford allowed only three hits while striking out two.
After a Jeff Newman walk, a Billy Marcoe single and a Joe Scott sacrifice bunt, Joey Siddons connected for his first of three hits on the afternoon, driving in two to give the Titans a 4-0 lead. After Siddons, Ford hit Colon and walked Gary Brown to load the bases. Fellhauer, who had a walk-off single to beat UCSB in the ninth inning on Saturday, picked up his first RBI as he drew the third walk of the inning and knocked Ford from the mound.
In the sixth, the Titans sent 11 men to the plate against reliever Jesse Meaux, with seven of the men coming around to score. Marcoe’s second hit of the afternoon drove in the first run of the sixth and Joe Scott followed with a scoring groundball to short. Siddons and Colon singled and Gary Brown was hit by a pitch to set up a three-run double by Josh Fellhauer. On the hit, Fellhauer moved to third as rightfielder John DeAlba mishandled the ball off the wall, and later scored on a Jared Clark sac-fly to center to give the Titans and Pill a commanding 12-0 lead.
Through the first six innings Pill held the Gauchos to just three hits, but was touched for three runs on Steve Cook’s first home run of the year, a three-run shot out to left. A one-out walk to DeAlba and a two-out hit batter set up Cook’s three-run jack. Pill allowed four of the Gauchos’ five hits over seven innings and struck out six en route to his team-leading eighth win.
Fullerton got the three runs back in the seventh on Christian Colon’s sixth home run of the year off UCSB reliever Greg Davis.
Kyle Mertins and Ryan Ackland each pitched a scoreless inning in support of Pill in the eighth and ninth as Fullerton won their ninth ballgame in their last 10 tries.
Fellhauer had Siddons each have a game-leading three hits for the Titans. Marco and Colon each contributed two apiece. Gaucho first baseman Eric Oliver had a pair of hits to lead UCSB.
UCSB will return to Caesar Uyesaka Stadium on Monday, May 4 when it finishes its make-up game with Pepperdine at 3 p.m. Admission is free.
