FULLERTON, Calif. --- UC Irvine and No. 14 Cal State Fullerton set out on a nationally-televised ballgame Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. and came out with a result in the early hours of Sunday morning as a 5-hour, 4-minute baseball game ended on a walkoff wild pitch in the 14th inning gave the marathon win to the Titans, 3-2, at Goodwin Field.
Andre Pallante's 60th pitch of the evening went well wide of catcher Alex Guenette and to the backstop giving Titan reserve Hank LoForte a chance to end the game at 12:07 a.m. The ball bounced back to Guenette and he sprinted and dove at home plate to make the tag beating LoForte to the plate, but the ball came loose and rolled out of the collision marking the game-winning run for Cal State Fullerton (26-14, 8-3) as it secured the game and series.
The teams were locked up at 2-2 from the fifth inning on as UCI (15-25, 2-9) would wriggle out of game-ending scenarios in the in five of the six innings before the 14th including bases loaded jams in the eighth and 13th innings.
The Anteaters scored way back in the first and second innings, once on a play at the plate that Keston Hiura slid into and around as catcher Chris Hudgins could not hold onto the throw from CF Scott Hurst giving UCI the 1-0 lead in the first, and the second run came on a screwy infield single from Hiura that hit off two infielders and came as a result of two runners reaching base on throws from pitcher John Gavin that pulled first baseman Timmy Richards off the bag on sacrifice bunts.
The Anteater bats went cold for the next 12 innings including just three hits down the final eight innings while the 'Eaters left a total of 13 runners on base.
Louis Raymond's efforts, while they extended the 'Eaters' chances, were for naught as he threw a career-high 125 pitches over eight innings allowing just one earned run while tying a career high seven strikeouts and having the only two walks he issued be intentional passes.
The Titan staff matched the Anteater pitching efforts led by starter John Gavin who pushed his way through 109 pitches in six innings before making way to Blake Workman who equaled him on the mound with six innings giving up just two hits to the 'Eaters.
UCI's pen did the job for the most part over 5.1 innings between Calvin Faucher and Andre Pallante despite six walks. Altogether, Anteater pitching struck out 16 hitters to tie a program record. Pallante would be saddled with the loss, his third, and Jack Pabich scored his first win of the season for CSF.
Offensively, Hiura reached four times with a single, two walks, and a HBP while scoring a run and driving one in. Parker Coss added the other RBI and had the only two-hit night for the 'Eaters despite leaving in the seventh inning. Taylor Bryant for the Titans had three hits, and two of the runs came home from Scott Hurst and Dillon Persinger hits.
The game was just the third in Anteater history to surpass the five-hour mark, and first-ever to be played past midnight on the clock, and first since the Anteater and Titans met in the historic College World Series game in 2007. It's the seventh time in program history the 'Eaters have played into the 14th inning and first since 2014 at Fresno State.
The game also featured just one double play, a total of 30 runners left on base, six errors from the teams that each came in with 30 total on the season, four sacrifice bunts on the Anteater end, four players that registered seven at-bats on the evening, and a grand total of 439 pitches thrown by the staffs with 239 of them from the Anteaters.
The clubs wrap up the weekend series on Sunday, April 30, with a 1:00 p.m. start and Jordan Bocko throwing for the Anteaters.
