Cal State Fullerton Offense Is Too Much for Oklahoma

FULLERTON —  Cal State Fullerton and USC, the two teams that played for the College World Series title last year in Omaha, are set to play for the Anaheim Hilton and Towers Baseball Classic championship today at Titan Field.

The top-ranked Titans scored eight runs in the first two innings and went on to overwhelm Oklahoma, 11-5, Saturday night in a game that matched college baseball’s last two national champions.

It was Fullerton’s 11th consecutive victory after a season-opening loss at Stanford.

Mark Kotsay, who won the Golden Spikes Award as the nation’s top amateur player in 1995, hit two 400-foot home runs in a night of offensive fireworks. It was Kotsay’s fifth two-homer game as a Titan. Kotsay has nine home runs in his last 10 games. He hit 21 last season.

“My stroke has been consistent, and I laid off the bad pitches tonight,” Kotsay said. “I was surprised the second homer got out, though, because I hit it off the end of the bat.”

Kotsay said he was looking forward to today’s game against USC. The Trojans (10-2) defeated Florida State, 10-8, earlier Saturday for their sixth consecutive victory.

A total of 2,304 tickets were sold for the two games Saturday.

Fullerton left-hander Brent Billingsley (3-0) is scheduled to face sophomore right-hander Seth Etherton (2-0), a former Dana Hills High pitcher, in today’s 5 p.m. game. Florida State (7-2) and Oklahoma (5-3), both with two losses in the round robin, play at 12:30.

The Titans had too much offensive firepower for Oklahoma, getting 15 hits off five pitchers. Kirk Irvine (3-1) was the winner despite giving up 10 hits and five runs in six innings. Luis Estrella came on in relief in the seventh and gave up two hits in three innings and struck out five. The Titans scored five runs in the first. Jack Jones led off with a single and Oklahoma starter Jeff Andra walked both Jeremy Giambi and Kotsay to load the bases. Steve Chatham, who had a key two-run double Friday against Florida State, singled up the middle to drive in the first two runs. Kotsay scored on Brian Loyd’s infield out before C.J. Ankrum drove in two more runs with a double off the fence in left field.

Kotsay blasted the first of his two home runs to lead off the second. Chatham doubled and Tony Martinez reached on an infield hit to set up Loyd’s two-run single, putting the Titans on top, 8-0.

Irvine held Oklahoma scoreless through the first two innings, but was nailed for one run in the third and four in the fourth.

Irvine gave up a leadoff double to Damon Minor, hit the next batter, then was rocked for three consecutive hits, including Jesse Zepeda’s two-run double. But Irvine was able to get the next three batters to avoid further damage.

“I was pleased by the way he got that inning stopped, and then give us some more productive innings,” Titan Coach Augie Garrido said. “But my hat’s off to Oklahoma for the way they came back after those early runs. They showed the quality that a championship team shows in coming back they way they did.”

But Kotsay kept the Titans rolling. He led off the fourth with his second homer to make it 9-5, and the Titans added another run in the fifth when Jerome Alviso scored on Giambi’s three-run triple into the corner in left field.

Fullerton’s 11th run came across in the seventh. Ankrum walked, advanced on a sacrifice bunt, moved to third on an an infield out and scored on Giambi’s single.

The Fullerton-USC finale will be the first of two regular season games between the two teams this season. Some remaining 500 tickets for today’s two games will go on sale beginning at 11 a.m. at Titan Field.