Titans Defeat Riverside

Cal State Fullerton took a one-run lead in the first inning and never trailed to win a nonconference baseball game against UC Riverside, 8-4, Friday night at Fullerton.

Second baseman David Bacani walked to lead off the bottom of the first, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Robert Guzman’s double to left-center. Bacani’s run set a Titan career record of 235, breaking a 16-year-old record of 234 held by John Fischel.

The Titans (31-11), ranked eighth in the nation by Baseball America, had 13 hits and scored five runs in the fifth. Brett Kay had a two-run single, Mike Rouse and Louie Lamoure hit RBI singles, and Chris Stringfellow drove in a run with a ground out.

Riverside (16-27) took advantage of three Titan errors in the top of the sixth to score four runs, two of them unearned, making it 6-4.

Fullerton’s Chris Stringfellow hit a home run in the seventh, and Aaron Rifkin had a sacrifice fly in the eighth.

Jon Smith pitched seven innings and picked up the win to improve to 8-1. Chad Cordero entered in the ninth with two outs, replacing Mike Nunez, to earn his seventh save.

George Carralejo (4-7), who pitched for Fullerton the last two seasons, took the loss for Riverside.

The teams play again at 7 tonight.