(Fullerton, CA) – Cal State Fullerton continues to be a difficult place for Arizona State to play, and on a cool Tuesday night these two quality programs battled back and forth for over four exciting hours. Yet at the end ASU couldn’t get the final out, and instead CSF short stop Christian Colon secured the victory with a single through the left side that brought home Gary Brown for the 10 to 9 victory in the bottom of the ninth.
The game started with plenty of offense as the Sun Devils turned the order over in the first, scoring five runs. Greg Bordes’ double to the left field wall brought home two of those runs, and finished the night for Titans starter Travis Kelley.
In the bottom of the first a Corey Jones single through the middle brought home one Titan run, and Jared Clark followed with a double to right that added two more.
A Brown home run after a lead off walk added two more runs to start the bottom of the second. CSF would add an additional run in the inning thanks to a Jones sacrifice fly to center field.
Three more Titans would touch home in the sixth. A Jones single brought in one, while a Brian Wilson triple to right added the other two.
Kiel Roling’s contribution for the Sun Devils were key, but summed up the disappointment of the evening. A single to left in the second brought home one run and a double to left in the eighth added another, but it was the ones that came up just short that hurt the most. In the fourth inning with the bases loaded Kiel drove a 2-2 pitch to the right field fence, but Titans right fielder Erik Komatsu crashed into the wall and held on to the ball for the final out of the inning. And in the sixth inning the bases were once again loaded as Roling hammered the first pitch he saw to the deepest part of the park. This time it was Josh Fellhauer with his back to the center field wall that made the catch to end the inning. On the evening, the Devils would leave 15 on base.
With the score tied in the ninth, Adam Jorgenson managed to retire ASU in order for only the second time of the night. While in the bottom of the inning Ike Davis returned to the mound, after moving over from first base and recording the final out in the eighth. A ground out by Khris Davis made it one away. Next, true freshman Brown turned on a 1-0 pitch and put it in the right field corner for a triple. This caused the Devils to bring the infield in and Fellhauer couldn’t move the ball past them, as just a ground out to first prevented the run from coming home. But with the two outs, Colon sent a 0-1 offering to left for the walk off single.
