Cal State Fullerton Postgame Quotes
OMAHA - No. 21 Cal State Fullerton jumped out to an early lead but could not hold on as its season came to a close with a 5-3 loss to No. 1 LSU in a NCAA College World Series elimination game Tuesday afternoon at TD Ameritrade Park.
The Titans finish the season 39-25 while the Tigers (54-11) advance to play the loser of the TCU/Vanderbilt game.
Tanner Pinkston and Jerrod Bravo each tallied two hits while David Olmedo-Barrera was 1-for-4 with a triple and an RBI.
Connor Seabold took the loss, going two and 1/3 innings and allowing four runs on seven hits. He struck out two.
For the Tigers, SEC freshman pitcher of the year Alex Lange was magnificent. He tossed a complete game and allowed three runs on six hits. He walked two and struck out 10, his third double-digit strikeout performance of the NCAA Tournament, and remained undefeated on the season as he pushed his record to 12-0.
The Titans jumped ahead early in the first inning, scoring three times on four hits and a squeeze bunt. Tyler Stieb started the rally with a one-out single to center off LSU starter Alex Lange and then scored when Olmedo-Barrera smashed a triple to the right-center field gap. Bravo followed with a single up the middle and the Titans were up 2-0.
After Pinkston singled through the right side to put runners at the corners, Dalton Blaser laid down a safety squeeze to bring in Bravo with the third run of the inning and put Fullerton up 3-0 after one.
It stayed that way until the third inning when the Tigers put up four runs on six hits to take the lead. Alex Bregman, Jake Fraley and Kade Scivicque led off the inning with three straight singles, the last one plating Bregman to put LSU on the board and cut the Titans lead to 3-1.
Bregman went 4-for-5 with a run scored, recording his fourth career four-hit game.
After a strikeout, Chris Sciambra lined another single to center to bring in Fraley and trim the LSU deficit to one.
That marked the end of the line for Seabold as Fullerton went to the bullpen and called on Miles Chambers, who made his first appearance since going two and 1/3 innings in the opening game of the Fullerton Regional against Pepperdine. Chambers' first pitch was lifted to center by Andrew Stevenson and caught for a sacrifice fly, plating Scivicque to tie the score, 3-3.
The Tigers were not done as Chris Chinea singled to put two men on base and then Mark Laird laced LSU's sixth single of the frame to plate Sciambra and put the Tigers up 4-3.
The Tigers added a run in the seventh after Scivicque doubled to lead off the inning and then advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt. He would score on pinch-hitter Danny Zardon's sacrifice fly to make it 5-3.
Lange did the rest, shutting down the Titans offense as he retired 25 of the last 27 batters he faced including eight in a row at one point.
Notes: The Titans 39 wins this season are the second most in head coach Rick Vanderhook's tenure, second only to the 51-win season in 2013… The Titans have now lost seven straight games at the College World Series and is their third straight winless stint in Omaha… Tuesday marked LSU's first win over the Titans at Omaha in three all-time meetings. The Titans won in 1994 (20-6) and 2003 (8-2) before Tuesday's loss… Fullerton is now 12-15 in Omaha during the Super Regional era, which began in 1999… Overall, the Titans are now 34-29 all-time at the College World Series… Josh Vargas finishes the season as the team's leader in batting average with a .332 mark… Olmedo-Barrera led the team with 10 home runs and six triples this season. The triples tied for the eighth most by a Titans player in a single season… Bravo reached base for the 46th straight game on Tuesday, extending his school record… Thomas Eshelman's 1.58 ERA is the third best for a single season in Titans history, trailing only Curt Lewis (1.17, 100 IP) in 1976 and himself from 2013 (1.48, 115.2 IP). Of all players in the top-10, Eshelman tossed the most innings… Eshelman's 0.46 walks per nine innings average ranks third on the all-time Titans record book and surpassed his 0.58 average from 2014… Eshelman's 139 strikeouts are tied for the ninth most for a Titan in a single season and are the most since Wes Roemer fanned 145 in 2006… Seabold average 9.91 strikeouts per nine innings, which ranks as the ninth best mark in Titans history for a single season… Tyler Peitzmeier's 16 saves are the third most in a single season behind Michael Lorenzen's 19 in 2013 and Scott Wright's 24 in 1984.
