May 30, 2008
FULLERTON, CA - Cal State Fullerton junior Brian Wilson scattered just six hits for his first career complete game and senior Joel Weeks finished 4-for-4 to pace a 16-hit attack as host and No. 5 national-seeded Titans shutout Rider, 11-0, on Friday night in front of 2,393 fans at Goodwin Field.
The Titans improved to 38-19 overall on the year and set-up a winner's bracket clash with southern California rival and second-seeded UCLA in Saturday's second game at 8 p.m.
The Broncs fell to 29-27 overall and will look to stave off elimination against third-seeded Virginia tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. in the first match-up of the day.
Friday night marked Wilson's (2-2) first start as a Titan and his first since May 12, 2007, when he faced the University of Portland during his sophomore year at Loyola Marymount. The righthander allowed only eight baserunners on the night while also striking out eight in earning his first win as a starter since beating Santa Clara on April 28, 2007.
Mike Petrowski (2-6) suffered the loss for Rider, allowing nine runs on 11 hits while striking out a pair in 4 2/3 innings of work.
Five Titans finished with multiple hits, paced by Weeks' perfect night. Joe Scott added three hits and three RBI while Christian Colon homered and drove in five to highlight his two-hit night. Gary Brown (2-for-4) and Dustin Garneau (2-for-5) also had multiple hits.
A safety squeeze by Scott and a two-run single by Colon in the third gave Fullerton the 3-0 advantage in the second inning and Wilson helped his own cause with his third home run of the year in the third to make it 4-0.
Fullerton then opened the floodgates with a huge fifth inning as Colon's three-run blast - his fourth home run of the year - keyed a five-run frame that gave the Titans a 9-0 advantage. It marked the 21st time this season that Fullerton had scored four or more runs in an inning.
The Titans added two more in the eighth thanks to a sacrifice fly by Brown and an RBI single by Scott to close out the scoring.
James Hayes finished 2-for-4 on the night to lead the Rider offense.
ED. NOTES: Wilson's longest outing prior to Friday night was an eight-inning loss on the road at Pepperdine on April 5, 2007... Friday marked the seventh time in the last nine games that the Titans had reached double digits in hits and the 18th time that they reached double figures in runs... the Titans didn't steal a base on Friday night, snapping a 14-game streak with a steal... Fullerton swept the season series from UCLA in 2008 by a combined score of 32-11, including 7-1 and 12-8 victories at Goodwin Field on Mar. 4 and May 20, respectively.