UPDATED at 1:02 PM EDT
Noe Ramirez was reportedly injured in practice yesterday after taking a line drive to the face, and subsequently breaking a bone in his left hand during a fall. He will be re-evaluated today. Ramirez has been the shining star of the Titan pitching staff this season, going 5-1 with a 3.24 ERA in 8 starts, including 2 complete games. Mertins is 3-1 on the season and leads the team with a 2.15 ERA. The Titans travel up to Santa Barbara for a 3 game set this weekend after winning 2 out of 3 games against arch rival UC-Irvine. The full release is below.
FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
Fullerton, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton sophomore right-hander Noe Ramirez (Soph., RHP, East Los Angeles, Calif., Alhambra HS) will miss his scheduled start on Friday at UC Santa Barbara after suffering a fracture in his left wrist/hand in a freak accident at practice on Wednesday afternoon.
Ramirez was conditioning during batting practice on the warning track at Goodwin Field with teammate Daniel Renken when a batted ball headed their way. With warning from teammates that the ball was headed their direction, Ramirez looked up to find it and was struck in the face. That impact wielded no injury, but the resulting fall to the ground caused the small fracture to the pitcher’s glove hand/wrist area.
Ramirez’s fracture will be re-evaluated by a physician this afternoon.
As a precaution, third-year Titan skipper Dave Serrano has elected to replace Ramirez in this weekend’s rotation with right-hander Kyle Mertins (Senior, RHP, Placentia, Calif., El Dorado HS). As of Thursday, Ramirez is listed as day-to-day, and could quite possibly see time out of the Titans’ bullpen this weekend in the three-game Big West Conference series.
Ramirez (5-1, 3.24 ERA) is a winner in five of his last six starts (one no-decision at UC Irvine) and is among the Big West Conference leaders in ERA, innings pitched, strikeouts, wins, and opponent’s batting average. The righty has made five career relief appearances in his two seasons in pinstripes.
Mertins (3-1, 2.15 ERA), a very capable replacement, has started three games for the Titans this season and has earned two wins and a no-decision in those starts. His best performance of the year came at the University of Washington, where he worked eight shutout innings, scattered just six hits and fanned seven in the Titans’ 6-0 victory. Thirty-three of Mertins’ 36 career appearances have come out of the bullpen.
