Long Island Box Score | Idaho State Box Score
PHOENIX, Ariz. The Cal State Fullerton Titans won their first two games of the Purple Classic after taking down Long Island University 9-2 in the first game and Idaho State 4-3 (9 innings) in the second game of the day.
Game 1, Cal State Fullerton 9, LIU 2
PHOENIX, Ariz. - The Cal State Fullerton Titans softball team defeated Long Island University 9-2 to open up the Purple Classic tournament.
The Titans (4-2) pounded 12 hits for the game against the Sharks (1-7).
Staci Chambers got the win in the circle after allowing just two runs (one earned) on four hits, one walk, and six strikeouts. Ellie Zellien pitched three scoreless innings of relief and struck out two.
After the Sharks took a 1-0 lead in the second inning, the Titans responded in a big way with six runs in the third.
Alexa Neil led the inning off with a double. Antuanett Dean had a bunt single and Megan Delgadillo walked to load the bases. Peyton Toto drove in two with a base hit up the middle. Hannah Becerra followed her with a double off the right center wall to bring in two more runs. Jessi Alcala sac bunted in a run and Alyssa Hernandez had a single up the middle to make it a 6-1 game.
The Sharks scored a run in the fourth but the Titans got two runs back in the fourth. Delgadillo reached the bases in the fourth inning and stole second. The dynamic duo of Toto and Becerra proceeded to bring in two runs. Toto singled in Delgadillo and Becerra doubled to bring in Toto to make it 8-1.
The Titans added one more run to their total in the fifth inning after they loaded the bases with one out. Zellien had a sac fly to right field that scored one run.
Game 2, Cal State Fullerton 4, Idaho 3 (9 Innnings)
The Cal State Fullerton Titans defeated Idaho State 4-3 in 9 innings for their second win of the day.
The Titans (5-2) showed their mettle after having to overcome two different Bengals (2-4) leads to eventually win the game.
Myka Sutherlin had a great game in the circle as she allowed just two runs on two hits, three walks, and nine strikeouts in five innings. Raci Miranda pitched three frames in relief and she allowed one run on four hits, one walk, and two strikeouts. Alexia Silvas got the win after a quick three pitch inning in the top of the ninth. Haley Rainey took the loss for the Bengals after allowing just four runs (two earned) on six hits, six walks, and 10 strikeouts in 149 pitches.
Idaho State took their first lead of the game after taking a 2-0 lead in the third after two hits in the inning.
The Titans finally broke the shutout in the fifth inning. Antuanett Dean led the inning off with a bunt and stole second. Delgadillo also had a bunt single. Hannah Becerra was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out. After Deshea Hill fouled out to first base, Daisy Munoz had a single through the left side that scored Delgadillo and Dean to tie the game at 2-2.
In the eighth inning with the international tie-breaker rule in place. The Bengals had the first two batters reach to load the bases with zero outs. A sac fly to centerfield scored the go-ahead run but a heads up play by Delgadillo caught the runner on second slowly jogging back to second for a double play. Which ended up being huge because the next at-bat was a single to right field that would've scored a run but nothing else happened that inning.
Anaiya Mitchell led the inning off with a sac bunt. With two outs and down to their final strike, Antuanett Dean had a double drop down the LF line to score the run. They intentionally walked Delgadillo and hit Peyton Toto with a pitch to load the bases for Hannah Becerra. With a full count she smacked a comebacker right to the pitcher who made a nice play to end the inning and kept the game alive.
The Bengals started the ninth with a sac bunt to put the runner on third. However, the next batter hit a shallow foul ball to the first base foul area and Alexa Neil made the grab and gunned the runner out at home trying to tag.
The bottom of the ninth started with a wild pitch to immediately put Becerra on third base. They walked Daisy Munoz to put runners on the corners with one out. Sophie Guevara hit a grounder to 2B that Becerra scored on to end the game.
The Titans return to action tomorrow for two more games tomorrow. They square off against Idaho State at 2:30 before taking on hosts, Grand Canyon University at 5:00 PM.
WATCH THE TITANS ON ESPN+
Titans fans can now watch every home softball game exclusively on ESPN+. Cal State Fullerton has built a top-tier production studio to give the viewers an ESPN quality production for all games at Anderson Family Field. 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.
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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)
