STANFORD, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton's offense exploded for nine runs on 15 hits to defeat San Jose State in an elimination game Saturday afternoon to advance to a game three in the NCAA Regionals.
With the win the Titans keep the streak alive of never going winless in a regional. In 41 postseason appearances the Titans have won at least one game each year. Fullerton is now 52-18 all-time in regionals.
Head Coach Jason Dietrich captures his first NCAA Postseason win as a head coach with the Titans 9-5 victory over San Jose State.
After a tough loss Friday night, the Titans quickly got the momentum on their side to start the day. Fullerton jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single by Brendan Bobo to bring home Nate Nankil.
Bobo had a strong game at the plate after only getting one pinch-hit at-bat in Friday night's loss. Bobo went 3-for-5 on the day with a double and an RBI.
San Jose State came back to tie the game in the top of the second inning with a solo home run. All five of the Spartans' runs throughout the game came on solo home runs.
The Titans responded with two runs in the home half of the second to retake the lead. Moises Guzman led-off the inning with a double before a productive out pushed him to third. Jack Haley then laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to get Guzman home.
With two outs, Caden Connor doubled down the right field line to drive in Haley and put the Titans up 3-1.
Fullerton extended its lead to 4-1 in the third inning on a solo home run by Maddox Latta, his fourth of the season. Latta had an all-around game, going 3-for-4 with one run, an RBI, a double and a home run, finishing the game a triple shy of the cycle.
San Jose State cut the Titans lead to just one run after leading off the inning with back-to-back solo home runs. Evan Yates settled in after giving up the two home runs to quickly record three outs and get out of the inning. Yates allowed four earned runs on five hits in 6.2 innings pitched while walking two and striking out six.
The Titans came back in the bottom half of the inning with a home run of their own, a three-run home run by Connor to extend the Titans lead to 7-3. Connor went 2-for-5 in the game with one run and a game and season-high four RBI.
Saturday was the first time since April 29 the Titans hit multiple home runs in a game.
Fullerton went on to add one run in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Zach Lew and one run in the sixth on a productive infield out to put the Titans up 9-4.
With runners on the corners and one out in the seventh inning, the Titans called on Seth Tomczak out of the bullpen to keep the lead intact. Tomczak did just that, inducing an inning-ending double play to get out of the jam.
Tomczak gave up the fifth solo home run of the game in the eighth inning, the only hit and run he allowed in 2.2 innings pitched. After walking a tied for season-high 12 batters Friday night, the Titans pitchers responded with just two walks against San Jose State.
The Titans await their next matchup as they will face the loser of Saturday night's game between Stanford and Texas A&M. First pitch is set for 12:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Jason Dietrich
Opening statement
"It was a good win by us today, to bounce back after last night. Evan Yates did a great job for us, he set the tone and then our offense scored in six out of the eight innings. So they did a good job to put pressure on them. Overall it was a good win by our team."
On the quick turnaround after Friday night's game
"It's different right. I mean you're getting back at 11 o'clock and you're getting them up at seven in the morning to have breakfast. It's a quick transition, but in the end we always talk to our guys about adversity and dealing with it, controlling the controllables and you can't control the stuff like that. These guys woke up and they were ready to play."
On if the momentum from today's game can carry into Sunday
"That's what we're shooting for. Our goal is just to keep on playing. We have to have numerous guys step up now. Some pitchers need to step up and we need to just keep playing Titans baseball."
On earning his first NCAA Regionals win as a head coach
"It's always special. These guys are awesome and I love being around these guys. It's them that deserves this. It goes under my name but it's about the program, it's about them. I'm pumped for us and I want to keep it going."
First Baseman Caden Connor
On what the feeling was like in the dugout prior to the game
"We knew what we had to do. There's one job and it's win or go home. If we had to be motivated to go play today, something's wrong with us. This is what we've played for all season so that's just the mindset we came in with today."
On his and the Titans offensive outing
"We did a good job getting runners on base and we've been struggling with runners in scoring position lately so just trying to see something up and drive it to the middle of the field and not do too much."
Second Basemen Maddox Latta
On what the feeling was like in the dugout prior to the game
"Yeah it's an elimination game. We haven't been here in a while so you didn't really have to fire us up at all. We were just out there getting it done. We just gotta keep that going."
WATCH THE TITANS ON ESPN+
Titans fans can now watch home contests exclusively on ESPN+. Cal State Fullerton has built a top-tier production studio to give the viewers an ESPN quality production for Titan Athletics. Additionally, all schools in the Big West Conference are committed to producing ESPN quality streams which will allow fans to watch the Titans on ESPN+ for all road conference games.
FOLLOW THE TITANS!
Fans can keep up with the latest in Titan Athletics by following us on Facebook (Facebook/FullertonTitans), Twitter (@FullertonTitans) Instagram (FullertonTitans). In addition, the baseball team has established its own Twitter (FullertonBSB) and Instagram accounts (fullertonbsb).
