Titans Hold Off 49ers in Baseball

Cal State Fullerton built an early lead and held off Long Beach State for a 5-3 victory Friday at Blair Field in Long Beach. The three-game series does not count in the Big West Conference standings.

The Titans (14-9) scored two runs in each of the second and third innings and built leads of 4-0 and 5-1.

Long Beach State cut the lead to 5-3 by scoring twice in the fifth, but Titan relievers Wes Littleton, Chad Cordero and Kirk Saarloos held the 49ers scoreless the rest of the way.

Littleton went 2 1/3 innings to pick up his first win of the year, and Saarloos pitched the ninth to record his fourth save.

Robert Guzman had three of the Titans’ 12 hits; Aaron Rifkin and Chris Stringfellow had two each. Rifkin had two doubles, Guzman and Jason Corapci one each.

Long Beach State starter Chad Bentz (1-3) gave up all five Fullerton runs--four earned--in 3 2/3 innings of work.

Jeremy Reed and Chris Wright had two hits each for the 49ers (13-9).

The teams play today and Sunday, both games starting at 1:05 p.m.

In nonconference baseball:

Chapman 13, Dartmouth 0--Mike Carey (4-1) pitched five scoreless innings and struck out six, third baseman Andy Karp went four for four with three RBIs and catcher Tony Serna homered and had three RBIs for Chapman (17-6).

Concordia 7, Baker 3--Right fielder Rick Stockton homered in the second and catcher Daniel Candela had two hits and an RBI for Concordia (13-13-1), which ended a five-game losing streak by beating the visitors from Baldwin City, Kan. Joe Selmser pitched five innings and struck out six.