Cal State Fullerton Settles for Fourth Place After Loss

Cal State Fullerton, regarded as the best team in college baseball much of the season, finished fourth in the Big West Conference.

And, as far as Titan Coach Augie Garrido is concerned, one thing was painfully obvious.

“Baseball doesn’t give you what you like, it gives you what you earn,” Garrido said. “We’re a fourth-place team that finished fourth because we played at that level. The teams that played the hardest finished where they should have, and so did we.”

UC Santa Barbara scored five runs in the top of the ninth inning off Mark Kotsay, who came on in relief with a two-run lead, and held off a Fullerton rally in the bottom of the inning to win the deciding game of the series, 10-9, in front of 2,092 Sunday at Titan Field.

The Gauchos overcame a remarkable three-homer, four-hit day by Titan catcher Brian Loyd. Loyd drove in seven runs, and his two-run shot to left in the bottom of the ninth gave the Titans hope for a comeback.

The loss was the sixth in the last nine games for Fullerton (41-10), and gave the Titans their lowest finish in conference play since they were fifth in 1989.

The victory lifted Santa Barbara (32-16) into a tie for second with Nevada Las Vegas, a game behind regular-season champion Long Beach State.

“What a great way to end the regular season, with a game like this,” Gaucho Coach Bob Brontsema said.

The top four teams begin play in the conference postseason tournament Friday at Fullerton.

Top-seeded Long Beach plays Fullerton, and Nevada Las Vegas goes against Santa Barbara in the first round of the playoffs that decide the automatic NCAA bid.

In the ninth, Fullerton had the bases empty and two out after Kotsay grounded into a double play, but Jeremy Giambi doubled and Loyd hit his third homer, his sixth of the season, to cut the lead to a run.

Steve Chatham singled to keep the rally alive, but the game ended when Chatham was thrown out at third on Mike Lamb’s base hit.

“He stopped when he rounded the bag, then restarted,” Garrido said.

Santa Barbara’s big hit in the ninth was a wind-blown, three-run homer to right-center by catcher Justin Lehr.

It was his second homer of the season. Kotsay gave up a leadoff walk, then got a strikeout, but consecutive singles by David Willis and Wynter Phoenix produced the first run.

Another scored on Lou Tapia’s fourth hit of the game. Kotsay got a second out before Lehr’s winning opposite-field homer.

“We tried to make an adjustment with [Willis],” said George Horton, the Titan pitching coach. “But the ball he hit past Lamb [at second base] could just as well been hit right at him, and we’d be out of the inning. And Phoenix hits a left-handed breaking ball he hasn’t hit all weekend. I thought Mark’s stuff got better during the inning, and I thought the home run was an out-ball when it left.”

Loyd hit a two-run homer in the third with two out after Giambi walked, then connected for three runs in the fifth after C.J. Ankrum singled and Kotsay walked. That gave Fullerton a 7-2 lead.

“Loyd had a great day,” Garrido said. “He did a great job, but this is a 25-man team. This isn’t about one guy. Loyd did as much as you can do, but it doesn’t happen without all the things. This is a team effort. I’m not blaming the players, but we did get our butts beat by the fundamentals of baseball, plain and simple.”

Down by five runs, Santa Barbara continued to battle. Willis hit his third homer of the series with the bases empty in the sixth, and the Gauchos picked up two more runs in the seventh to stay within range at 7-5.

Kotsay (0-1) was Fullerton’s third pitcher. Starter Kirk Irvine went 5 1/3 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits.

Mark Chavez took over and went 2 2/3 innings, giving up two more runs on two hits. Jorvic Salazar (4-4) got the victory, going the final four innings.

Long Beach State 6, San Jose State 2--Casey Martin hit a three-run home run to lead Long Beach State and clinch the Big West Conference title in San Jose.

Martin’s homer, his third, came in the third inning and gave the 49ers a 3-1 lead. Keith Cowley had two sacrifice flies for Long Beach (32-21, 15-6).

Steve Hueston (5-3) gave up eight hits and two earned runs, and also had a career-high 11 strikeouts in seven innings for the victory.

Ryan Brannan gave up one hit and no runs in the final two innings for his 12th save.

San Jose State is 27-28, 7-14.

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Big West Baseball Standings

Regular-season final

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Team W L Pct. GB Overall W Overall L Long Beach State 15 6 .700 -- 32 21 Nevada Las Vegas 14 7 .650 1 40 15 UC Santa Barbara 14 7 .650 1 32 16 Cal State Fullerton 13 8 .650 2 41 10 Nevada 8 13 .350 7 28 18 New Mexico State 8 13 .400 7 25 27 San Jose State 7 14 .350 8 27 28 Pacific 5 16 .250 10 24 24

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