Titans’ Flores Shuts Down Nevada Las Vegas

Cal State Fullerton pitcher Benny Flores had a no-hitter through 6 2/3 innings Saturday against Nevada Las Vegas.

It didn’t last, and the shutout disappeared in the eighth, but Flores’ strong, four-hit effort through 7 2/3 innings was still the highlight of the Titans’ 9-3 victory over the Rebels, who lost for only the fourth time in 16 games.

“Every start Flores has given us has been a quality outing,” Titan Coach George Horton said. “He was in total command until he tired a little in the eighth.”

The Titan victory evened the series going into today’s 1 p.m. finale at Titan Field.

A 17-hit performance against three UNLV pitchers made it a good day for the Titans (7-5). Fullerton had 10 of those hits and seven runs through 5 2/3 innings against starter Mike Zipser, who lost his first game of the season after three victories.

“That’s a lot of hits, but I’m greedy,” Horton said. “We’re still not hitting on all cylinders yet, and we think our hitting will continue to get better.”

Flores, 2-0 after his third start of the season, struck out seven, walked one and faced only one batter more than the minimum in the first six innings after double plays removed runners in the first and second. Flores hit the first batter he faced, and another reached on an error in the second.

An infield error gave the Rebels a runner with one out in the third, but Flores retired the next two batters and 11 more in a row before giving up a walk on four pitches to Ryan Ludwick and UNLV’s first hit of the game to Tony DeMarco with two out in the seventh.

UNLV finally got to Flores for three unearned runs in the eighth after a one-out error by Chad Olszanski.