April 19, 2009
FULLERTON, CA - Junior Francesca Gonzales' ninth home run of the season to lead-off the sixth inning broke a 1-1 tie and keyed a three-run inning as host Cal State Fullerton completed a three-game sweep of Pacific with a 4-1 victory over the Tigers on Sunday afternoon at Anderson Family Field.
The win was Fullerton's seventh straight as the Titans improved to 22-17 overall and 10-2 in Big West play to stay atop the conference standings. Pacific suffered the loss, falling to 16-27 overall and 1-11 in league play.
Gonzales' blast to left came on the first pitch she saw from Tigers' starter Chelsea Engle (7-12) after Fullerton had tied the game one inning earlier. The home run chased Engle from the game in favor of Heidi Helberg, but it wasn't enough to stop the bleeding as Courtney Martinez added an RBI triple and Samantha Dollarhide added a bloop RBI single to give the Titans a 4-1 advantage.
Cervantes (15-9) then retired the side in order in the seventh to win her sixth consecutive start. The right-hander went the distance, allowing an unearned run on four hits and striking out a pair.
Engle was tagged with the loss, allowing two runs on six hits and striking out three in five innings of work.
The Tigers were the first to get on the scoreboard on Sunday, taking advantage of three Fullerton errors in the frame to take a 1-0 lead. Karie Wilson reached on a one-out single and moved to second on an error on Lindsey Pierce's ground ball.
Cervantes then struck out Casey Goldsand, but the pickoff throw down to first sailed into foul terrirtory down the right field line, and the ensuing throw back to the infield sailed over the head of the third baseman, allowing pinch runner Erin Stephens to score for the first run of the game.
Fullerton fought back to tie the game in the fifth as Cervantes reached on an infield single, was sacrificed to second and scored on Torrie Anderson's single back through the box to tie the game and set up the Titans' sixth-inning rally.
K.C. Craddick and Courtney Martinez each finished with a pair of hits on the day while five other Fullerton players tallied hits. Briana Santos finished 2-for-3 to lead the Tigers offensively.
Cal State Fullerton returns to the diamond next weekend with a three-game road series at Long Beach State, beginning with a doubleheader on Saturday (April 25) at 1 p.m. with a single game to follow on Sunday (April 26), also at 1 p.m.