COLLEGE BASEBALL: FULLERTON PREVAILS OVER USC IN 11 INNINGS FULLERTON 2, USC 1.Byline: Chris Cocoles Staff Writer A typical midweek college baseball College baseball is baseball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. Compared to American football and basketball in the United States, college competition plays a less significant contribution to cultivating game usually features inning-eating pitchers while the top starters are saved for more important weekend conference games. Only USC's opponent Wednesday, Cal State Fullerton, is idle this weekend and sent out its best arms against the Trojans' pitcher-by-committee crew. With the intensity meter on an NCAA NCAA abbr. National Collegiate Athletic Association Regional scale, if not a College World Series scale, No. 17 Fullerton outlasted the 19th-ranked Trojans 2-1 in 11 innings at Dedeaux Field Dedeaux Field is a college baseball stadium in Los Angeles, California, and the home field of the University of Southern California Trojans baseball team. The stadium holds 2,500 people and was built in 1974, the year USC won its record fifth consecutive College World Series title. . No. 1 starter Wes Littleton Wes Avi Littleton (born September 2, 1982 in Hayward, California) is a Major League Baseball pitcher for the Texas Rangers. Littleton, a relief pitcher with a sidearm delivery, made his Major League debut on July 4, 2006 in a game against the Toronto Blue Jays. is one of the nation's best and showed why with eight shutout innings, allowing just five hits. The Trojans (30-20) countered with a succession of less- prominent figures: Jordan Olson, Bret Butler, Jon Williams and Cory Campos. ``We faced legit le·git adj. Slang Legitimate. front-line pitching,'' Trojans coach Mike Gillespie said. ``One run doesn't sound very impressive. But I'm not unhappy.'' Especially the way his pitchers combined to limit the Titans to just five hits, the most notable David Fischer's home run off Campos (4-2) to open the 11th inning and break a 1-1 tie. Fischer has four home runs this season, three in the last two games. The Titans (35-17) now have a streak of 83 consecutive wins (since May 7, 2000) when taking a lead into the ninth inning, a testament to developing reliable closers in departed Kirk Saarloos and current sophomore Chad Cordero, a 2001 Freshman All-American. But Cordero, who in his previous outing on Sunday against UC Riverside blew a save in the eighth inning and eventually was the loser, allowed the tying run in the ninth Wednesday when Michael Moon bounced an RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in single through the right side of the infield. The winning run was on third base, but Cordero struck out Alberto Concepcion on a nine-pitch at-bat to force extra innings. --Note: J.P. Howell, the touted freshman pitcher who left the Trojans last week, has received interest from as many as 10 schools. But Cal State Fullerton has reportedly landed the left-hander who was 3-4 with a 6.27 earned-run average in 14 appearances (10 starts) for USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. . |
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