Arkansas jumped out to an early lead, fueled by a five-run fourth inning, and carried its momentum to a 10-6 win over No. 2 Cal State Fullerton in front of 23,549 fans at Rosenblatt Stadium for the first game of the 2009 College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
The win advances Arkansas (40-22) into the winners' bracket against the winner of Saturday night's LSU-Virginia game. The Titans (47-15) see their 9-game winning streak end and they fall into the losers' bracket to play the LSU-Virginia loser on Monday afternoon.
The Razorbacks’ 10 runs ties the fourth-highest run total scored on the Titan pitching staff that entered the College World Series with the nation’s fourth-best ERA (3.36). The last time Cal State Fullerton allowed its opposition to score double-digits was on May 17 when it suffered a 13-10 loss to UCLA.
Arkansas capitalized on the young pitching staff of Cal State Fullerton, who showcased a trio of freshmen that included starter Noe Ramirez, scoring two-runs in the first inning. A pop-up by Andy Wilkins scored Chase Leavitt, who reached base on Ramirez’s first-of-three walks of the game. Zack Cox’s single down the right field line drove in Tschepikow, giving Arkansas an early 2-0 advantage. Cox struck again in the top of the third, blasting a two-run home run to deep right field to lift the Razorbacks to a 4-0 lead.
The Titans answered in the bottom half of the inning, scoring a pair of runs to shrink Arkansas’ lead to 4-2. A sacrifice fly by Gary Brown drove in Joey Siddons and a fielding error by the ‘Backs first baseman allowed Christian Colon to cross home plate.
An offensive outburst by the Razorbacks in the fourth extended their lead to 9-2. Ramriez, who left with the bases loaded, two outs, handed the ball over to freshman pitcher Tyler Pill. His first pitch was knocked past shortstop Christian Colon for a two-run single by Scott Lyons. The bases were cleared at the next at-bat after Wilkins blasted Arkansas’ second long bomb of the game.
Cal State Fullerton’s best change of whittling away Arkansas’ lead was in the eighth inning when the Titans loaded the bases with no outs. Unfortunately the Titans only walked away with one run after Jared Clark struck out and Dustin Garneau hit into a double play to end the inning.
The Titans tacked on just one more run in the ninth and ended on the wrong end of a 10-6 score. Cal State Fullerton returns to Rosenblatt Stadium Monday, June 15 for an elimination game against either LSU or Virginia. First pitch is slated for 11:00 a.m. (pacific).
The Titans, who haven’t won their opening series game since 2004, have come out of the loser’s bracket to win three of their four national titles. In 1995, Cal State Fullerton was a perfect 4-0 in the College World Series.
Quotes:
Head Coach Dave Serrano
That didn’t work out as planned. We just didn’t play Titan baseball today. We gave Arkansas too many opportunities early and then we kinda fell into a little trap. The guys were taking too much on themselves instead of just chipping away. Not playing our best game, I still thought we had a chance to win the game. Late in the game we were a couple of hits away form celebrating our first victory instead of the defeat.
(on Noe Ramirez’s performance)
Noe’s performance, I think he would agree with me, was a D-. One thing with Noe is when he gets excited he loses his mechanics. He needed to slow down and work on his mechanics, it was just a bad day for him. I thought Pill threw well and Nick played well.
(on the fifth inning back-to-back sacrifices)
I don’t disagree with anything we did offensively. We are going to stick to our game and execute to manufacture some runs. I don’t think Gary Brown took a quality at bat where he poked at a change-up to get a sacrifice fly. We will make adjustments, but now we will have to do it the hard way.
Pitcher Noe Ramirez
(on Serrano’s remarks)
I believe so. It was pretty much about my mechanics. Coming into this game I was more excited than nervous, maybe too excited.
First Baseman Jared Clark
(on Arkansas taking an early lead)
I don’t think it took anything out of us at all. We fought back very well and never gave up once and we never will.
(on senior leadership)
I don’t think I have to say much to this team. We can’t lose another game. All I can tell them is to do better. Let’s get back to playing Titan baseball.