TEMPE, Ariz. - The Cal State Fullerton Titans defeated the No. 22/23 LSU Tigers 3-2 on Saturday afternoon at Farrington Stadium in the first game of the day to fend off elimination before faltering late against San Diego State in the second game of the day and losing 8-5.
The Titans finish the season with an overall record of 37-22. They won their 13th Big West Championship and made it to the NCAA Regionals for the 30th time in history.
Cal State Fullerton 3, Louisiana State University 2
In the first game of the day the Titans were able to knock off the No.2 seed in the regional in the LSU Tigers with a 3-2 victory.
Myka Sutherlin tossed her 10th complete game of the season in a 136 pitch effort. Sutherlin allowed 2 runs on 8 hits, 4 walks, and struck out 4 batters.
The Titans only had 4 hits in the game and were outhit by the Tigers 8-to-4. Megan Delgadillo led the offense by going 2-for-3 with 1 run and a stolen base. Peyton Toto and Jessi Acala also picked up hits in the game.
LSU led early to start the game. The Tigers had three infield hits in the inning that scored two runs.
However, the Titans immediately responded once it was there to bat. Megan Delgadillo singled to start the game. She stole second base, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and ended up scoring on a passed ball.
Jessi Alcala singled and Peyton Toto was caught in a rundown between second and third base before an errant throw by the second baseman ended up going out of play and Toto scored on the play and Alcala advanced to third.
Daisy Munoz would hit a sac fly to deep CF to score Alcala and give the Titans the 3-2 lead.
LSU would get runners in scoring position a couple more times during the game but the Titans defense was excellent for the game.
Hannah Becerra made an amazing 5-3 putout in the third inning.
In the sixth inning, Alexa Neil robbed a Tiger hitter of a base hit on a shallow flare to CF that Neil dove and made an amazing play on.
In the seventh inning, the Tigers got runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs in the inning. However, Myka Sutherlin was able to strike out her fourth batter of the game to preserve the win over the TIgers.
Sutherlin has three wins over three different ranked opponents this season in (#8 Arizona, #15 Northwestern, and #22 LSU).
Cal State Fullerton 5, San Diego State 8
The Cal State Fullerton Titans had a blistering hot start in their second straight elimination game of the day against San Diego State, but they faded late as the Aztecs rallied with 8 unanswered runs to defeat the Titans 8-5 on Saturday night.
The Titans started the game off with three straight hits. Megan Delgadillo and Peyton Toto singled. Jessi Alcala blasted a ball over left field for a 3-run homerun to give the Titans an early 3-0 lead.
Deshea Hill had a single off the right center fence that Alyssa Hernandez was thrown out at the plate on the play to end the inning.
The Titans loaded the bases to start the second inning. Alexa Neil led the inning off with a base hit, Antuanett Dean reached on an error, and Megan Delgadillo had a perfect bunt single down the third base line.
Peyton Toto singled to second base and the Titans scored two runs on the play to make it a 5-0 game. Alexa Neil scored and Antuanett Dean came around to score as she slid underneath the tag on a play at home.
The Titans continued their aggressive baserunning in the game and Delgadillo was thrown out on a play at the plate that was proved inconclusive after a video review.
Alyssa Hernandez made a fantastic diving play in the foul territory of left field for the first out of the second inning.
The Aztecs would load the bases in the inning with two outs before Jessi Alcala had to leave the game with an injury. They scored their first run on a bases loaded walk.
The Aztecs switched pitchers in the third inning and Allie Light ended up shutting out the Titans for five innings and only allowed one hit and one walk.
The Aztecs loaded the bases in the third inning with two outs. On a close check swing, the Titans thought they were out of the inning on a strikeout but the checked swing call was upheld and the next batter hit a grand slam to CF to tie the game at 5-5.
After tossing 136 pitchers in the first game of the day, Sutherlin pitched in relief from the third inning. She allowed 3 runs (zero earned) on one hit, one walk, and four strikeouts. Sutherlin threw 206 pitches for the day in a valiant effort.
The Aztecs would go ahead in the bottom of the fifth inning and scored 3 runs on 3 errors in the inning with two outs. They took the lead on a flyball to LF that should've been the third out of the inning. The Titans would commit two more errors in the inning that allowed another runner to score to make it an 8-5 game for the Aztecs.
The Titans would get a runner on in the seventh inning but that was it.
NOTES: Megan Delgadillo finished the season with 50 steals. She picked up three steals over the weekend. She is the new Big West Single-Season Stolen Base leader after breaking the record of 47 set by Dionne Anderson of UC Riverside in 2014
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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