Fullerton Tops Ohio State to Advance to College World Series – Ohio State Buckeyes
6/6/1999 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 6, 1999
COLUMBUS, Ohio – For the second consecutive day, Cal State Fullerton received a solid starting effort and battered Ohio State pitching, beating the Buckeyes today 13-2 to win the Columbus super regional and advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. The Titans will take on Stanford in the first round at a time and date to be determined.
Cal State Fullerton improved to 49-12 on the season and Ohio State finished the year 50-14.
Fullerton grabbed an early lead when it scored five times in the second. Aaron Rifkin walked to lead off the inning. Murph Norris followed with a single to move Rifkin to second. Sean Bischofberger then hit a bunt single to load the bases. That set up Craig Patterson, who blasted a grand slam to left-centerfield. Two outs later, Spencer Oborn drew a walk, stole second and came around to score on Chris Becks RBI single up the middle.
The Buckeyes picked up a run in their half of the fourth to cut the lead to 5-1. Tom Durant led off with a double to right-centerfield. Jason Trott followed by getting hit by a Carralejo pitch. After a ground out advanced the runners one base, Jason Turner knocked in Durant when he grounded to second.
But the Titans came right back in the fifth to score twice to increase the lead to 7-1. Ryan Owens started the inning by getting hit by a Nate Smith pitch. He was forced out at second on a groundout by Rifkin. That brought up Norris, who hit his sixth home run of the year to right field, driving in Rifkin.
The Fullerton lead swelled to 9-1 in the top of the sixth. Robert Guzman started the inning by beating out a bunt. After a walk to Reed Johnson, Buckeye relief pitcher Kevin Goodrum mishandled Oborns sacrifice bunt attempt to load the bases. Owens hit a single to drive in Guzman and kept the bases loaded. Rifkin then hit into a strange double play. He hit a drive to left-centerfield on which Lockwood made a sliding attempt to catch. While the second base umpire ruled that the ball was trapped, but the third base umpire ruled Lockwood made the catch. While Johnson tagged from third and scored, the ball was thrown into the infield and Oborn was doubled off second base. The umpires conferred and ruled that Lockwood did indeed make the catch and that it would be scored a double play. OSU chipped into the Titan lead in the seventh. With one man out, Matt Middleton hit his ninth home run of the year off the batters eye in dead center field, making the score 9-2.
But CSF got that run and three more right back in the eighth. Johnson clubbed his 13th home run of the season over the left field wall to make it 10-2. Oborn was then hit by a pitch. After Owens reached on a fielders choice, Rifkin hit his sixth home run of the year to make the score 13-2.
George Carralejo started and pitched five strong innings. He allowed only two hits and one run while walking two and striking out two. It was Carralejos first victory of the season. Andy Lee started for the Buckeyes and was hung with the loss to drop his record to 9-2.
1999 NCAA Baseball Tournament, Super Regional
