FULLERTON, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton remained in Collegiate Baseball, D1Baseball.com and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's top-25 polls as each publication released their weekly rankings on Monday.
Collegiate Baseball ranked the Titans No. 25 in the country, as did D1Baseball.com while the NCBWA spotted Fullerton in at No. 24 after the team went 1-2 at the Opening Weekend Challenge in Clearwater, Fla. The Titans dropped out of the Baseball America poll, where they were ranked No. 23 in the preseason, despite defeating No. 12 Louisville, who remained in that spot.
After dropping the first two games at the Opening Weekend Challenge to hosts South Florida and Alabama State, the Titans salvaged the weekend with an impressive win over No. 12 Louisville.
The Titans posted four runs in the first inning against the Cardinals and went 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position for the game to help them score the victory.
Freshman John Gavin earned the win for the Titans, tossing five and 2/3 innings in his first career start. He allowed four earned runs on nine hits but did not issue a free pass and struck out nine. Senior Tyler Peitzmeier made his second relief appearance of the season and earned his first save and second of his career, going one and 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. He allowed one hit and struck out two. In three and 1/3 innings of work, Peitzmeier has allowed just one base runner and fanned eight batters.
At the plate, the Titans got a lot of production from the 2-5 spots in the lineup as Scott Hurst, Jake Jefferies, Josh Estill and Chris Hudgins combined to go 5-for-15 with six runs scored, a double and four RBIs.
Dustin Vaught went 2-for-2 with a RBI and a run scored while shortstop Timmy Richards went 1-for-3 with two RBIs.
The Titans will host USC on Tuesday night for the 2015 home opener at Goodwin Field, with first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m.