CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. - The Cal State Fullerton Titans women's softball team capped off their final day at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic by defeating Oregon State in the first game and pulling off a walk-off upset win over No. 3 Florida in their final game of the tournament.
Cal State Fullerton 4, Oregon State 0
The Titans won their first game of the day after defeating Oregon State 4-0. The game was delayed by nearly an hour as the rain made the field unplayable at first. When play began, the Titans came out of the gate strong.
Megan Delgadillo led the inning off by getting on base after an error by the Beaver shortstop. She stole second and Hannah Becerra reached on a fielder's choice. With both runners in scoring position, Jessi Alcala singled to shallow right field to score both runners and give the Titans an early lead.
END ONE | @jessialcala31 pokes one over the second baseman to drive in two runs. The Titans lead 2-0 early over the Beavers pic.twitter.com/luDN2tzd82
— Titans Softball (@Fullerton_SB) February 25, 2023
The Titans would add two more in the fifth inning after capitalizing on a Beaver error to start the inning.
Antuanett Dean started the inning off by reaching first base on an error by the pitcher. Hannah Becerra singled her in with a ball to shallow left field.
B5 | Becerra hits one to the shallow outfield grass to bring in a run to make it 3-0!#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/OWZYf0iKI5
— Titans Softball (@Fullerton_SB) February 25, 2023
Daisy Munoz followed her up by ripping a RBI single through the left side to make it 4-0.
B5 | @daisymunozz rips one to LF to drive in a run and make it a 4-0 game!!#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/niMftybAMy
— Titans Softball (@Fullerton_SB) February 25, 2023
The Titans had eight hits for the game led by Alcala's two hit effort.
Myka Sutherlin was brilliant in the circle and tossed a seven inning complete game shutout and allowed just two hits, one walk, and struck out six.
Cal State Fullerton 5, University of Florida 4
The Titans won their second game of the day by pulling off an upset win over the No. 3 ranked Florida Gators in extra innings, 5-4.
The Titans defeated their second Top-10 ranked team in back-to-back weeks and have moved to 3-0 for the season against teams from the SEC.
Hannah Becerra had herself a day at the plate after going 2-for-4 with 2 runs and 4 RBIs. She had two home runs for the game including the walk-off bomb in the eighth.
The walk-off bomb from Becerra over No. 3 Florida
— Titans Softball (@Fullerton_SB) February 26, 2023
��-@nataliamedinafv#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/YpMTAzZmYJ
Haley Rainey was fantastic in the circle and went 5.2 innings and allowed three runs (one earned) on eight hits, three walks, and nine strikeouts.
The Titans took a 3-0 lead in the third inning of the game. Peyton Toto led the inning off by reaching on an infield error. Antuanett Dean had a base hit. Megan Delgadillo hit into a fielder's choice where Toto was thrown out at third. Both runners advanced to scoring position on a wild pitch and Alexa Neil had a productive RBI groundout to bring in one run.
Hannah Becerra hit a two-run bomb over the left field fence to make it a 3-0 game.
Hannah Becerra with her second
— Titans Softball (@Fullerton_SB) February 25, 2023
�� over a Top-10 SEC opponent in back-to-back weeks !!
��@nataliamedinafv #TusksUp pic.twitter.com/7DWyVPtjD1
The Gators scored one run in the fifth inning to make it a 3-1 game. They tied the game at 3-3 in the sixth inning. The Gators had runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs in the inning. The 9th hitter hit a grounder that led to an infield error which scored one run. With the top of the order up, the lead-off batter singled to tie the game. Raci Miranda came in to pitch in relief of Rainey was able to induce a groundout to end the frame from Florida in the inning.
After the regular seven innings were played and the score tied 3-3, the game went to the international tiebreaker rule with a runner on second to start the inning.
Florida was able to score their ghost runner after an RBI single. However, the Titans turned a double play on the next at-bat on a hard hit grounder for a 6-4-3 double play. The momentum quickly shifted to the Titans to set up Becerra's heroics.
The first batter of the inning, Hannah Becerra, hit a walk-off bomb over the left field fence to give the Titans the 5-4 win over Florida.
BALL-GAME! HANNAH BECERRA WITH THE WALK OFF BLAST! The Titans win 5-4!!#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/jC30A1tSNX
— Titans Softball (@Fullerton_SB) February 25, 2023
The Titans finished out the Mary Nutter Tournament going 3-2. They pulled off wins over No. 24 Oregon, Oregon State, and No. 3 Florida. They lost to San Diego State in extras and against No. 2 Oklahoma.
The Titans will be at home for the next two weekends as they host the Judi Garman Tournament beginning Thursday and will tri-host a tournament the following week with Long Beach State and LMU.
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 Titans 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 softball team has established its own Twitter (fullerton_sb) and Instagram accounts (fullerton_sb)