Hornets Top No. 5 Titans, 12-7

Rick Gonzalez’ fifth-inning grand slam highlighted Sacramento State’s rally from a six-run deficit and helped the Hornets defeat Cal State Fullerton, 12-7, in a Big West Conference baseball game at Fullerton Saturday.

Fullerton (20-10, 9-2 in conference), ranked fifth in the nation, scored its seven runs in the fourth, highlighted by two-run singles by Chris Stringfellow, Steve Woodward and Jason Corapci, to take a 7-1 lead.

But the Hornets (14-18, 8-3) pulled even with a six-run fifth, then Tim Meghan’s sacrifice fly in the sixth put Sacramento ahead, 8-7. The Hornets scored four more runs in the seventh.

Fullerton starter Jon Smith (5-2) took the loss, giving up eight runs.

Sacramento State will try to sweep the three-game series, which concludes at 1 today at Fullerton.

In another Big West Conference game:

Long Beach State 9, New Mexico State 1--Starting pitcher Matt Paz (7-1) struck out 11 and gave up three hits and one run in eight innings for host Long Beach State (22-11, 10-4).

In the Pacific 10:

UCLA 15, USC 5--Josh Karp struck out a career-high 12 in seven innings and left fielder Bill Scott celebrated his 21st birthday with a four-for-four performance to power UCLA at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

The No. 24 Bruins (21-13, 6-2 in conference) finished with 19 hits to move back into a first-place tie with the No. 14 Trojans (23-12, 6-2). UCLA broke a 3-3 tie with five runs in the fifth and seven in the sixth.

Chase Utley had four hits, Charles Merricks hit a three-run home run and Forrest Johnson had a two-run double and run-scoring single.

Brian Barre, Seth Davidson, Alberto Concepcion and Rob Garibaldi hit bases-empty home runs for USC. But the Trojans managed only five hits, including only three against Karp (4-1), who retired the last eight batters and didn’t give up a hit after the third inning in his longest outing of the season.