College Baseball : Stanford Takes Advantage of Titans, 9-4

Three early Cal State Fullerton errors led to three unearned runs and got Stanford started toward a 9-4 college baseball victory Saturday in Palo Alto.

After taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, Fullerton (3-4) fell behind, 4-1, on an earned run in the first, two unearned runs in the second and another in the third.

Ed Sprague went 3 for 3, including a two-run homer, scored three runs and had three RBIs to help Stanford improve to 3-2.

Losing pitcher Longo Garcia (1-1) gave up seven runs, four earned, on nine hits in five innings.

Fullerton’s Shane Flores had two hits, including a solo home run. Greg Mannion also had two hits for the Titans.

In other nonconference games:

UC Irvine 12-8, St. Mary’s 1-17--Irvine won the first game of a doubleheader at Irvine behind 10 strikeouts by Craig Brink (1-1). Gordon Stabb had a two-run home run in the third inning for Irvine, now 4-3. John Seeburger had two hits, including a double, and Stacy Parker went 2 for 2, with a triple and two RBIs.

In the second game, St. Mary’s Jerry Cifarelli hit a grand slam in the seventh inning. Irvine’s Jeff Oberdink went 3 for 4 with three RBIs. St. Mary’s is 4-4.

Cal State Long Beach 19, Chapman 5--Sid Herrera went 3 for 5 with a home run and four RBIs to lead host Long Beach (1-3). Chapman’s David Cantrell (0-1) allowed seven hits and seven runs in 1 innings.

Scott Lewis and John Eldred each had 3 of Long Beach’s 21 hits. Duke Chinen had two hits for Chapman (4-2).

David Holloway started and allowed two hits in six innings for the victory.

UC Santa Barbara 5, Southern California College 1--The host Gauchos scored three runs, two unearned, in the third inning and two more unearned runs in the fourth. Robert Mansfield struck out four and walked two for SCC (0-4).