‘Eaters handled again by Titans

FULLERTON -- Cal State Fullerton, ranked No. 4 in the nation, claimed

the unofficial Orange County baseball championship Sunday, knocking

off visiting UC Irvine, 9-1, to win the three-game Big West

Conference series, two games to one.

Titan second baseman Jason Corapci went 3 for 3 with two RBIs and

scored a run to lead the winners, who bounced back from Friday’s

series-opening 5-3 defeat to capture the final two games of the

series.

Following a two-run first inning, Fullerton batted around in the

third, scoring five runs on five hits and one UCI error.

Ronnie Prettyman capped the scoring in the inning with his only

hit of the day, an RBI single.

UCI starter Paul French gave up seven runs (five earned) on nine

hits in 2 2/3 innings to fall to 2-6 on the season.

The Anteaters (20-32, 8-10 in conference) managed a run in the

fifth when B.J. Eucce singled to score Gregg Wallis, who had walked

to lead off the inning. UCI is tied for fourth place in the Big West

with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Corapsci’s single drove in two runs in the eighth and starting

pitcher Ryan Schreppel, making his first start in more than two

months, earned the victory, his fifth in six decisions this spring.

Schreppel blanked the Anteaters through four innings, allowing just

two hits and striking out one.

Darric Merrell allowed five hits and one run in three innings of

relief for the Titans, for whom Ricky Romero finished with two

shutout innings, giving up two hits and striking out one.

The victory improved the Titans to 41-12, 13-5, and gave Fullerton

head man George Horton his 300th win as a Division I coach. The win

also kept the Titans within two games of conference-leading Long

Beach State, with only three Big West games remaining.

Eucce, a senior shortstop, freshman first baseman Mark Wagner and

junior second baseman Matt Fisher each had a pair of hits for the

Anteaters, who conclude their season with a three-game series,

beginning Friday at 7 p.m., at Big West foe UC Riverside.

*--*

Big West Conference

Fullerton 9, UCI 1

Score by Innings

UCI 000 010 000 - 1 9 2

CSUF 205 000 02x - 9 12 0

French, Schroer (3), Edell (8), Nicoll

(8) and Werhun; Schreppel, Merrell (5),

Romero (8) and Suzuki. W - Schreppel,

5-1. L - French, 2-6. 2B - Wagner (UCI),

Fisher (UCI), Suzuki (F), Turgeon (F),

Corapci (F)

*--*