2010 NCAA Super Regionals: UCLA vs Cal State Fullerton

The Cal State Fullerton Titans lost the very first game of their NCAA regional. They haven't looked back since.

After stumbling in the very first outing of their home-field round-robin tournament, this college baseball power from the Big West Conference has shifted into gear. Perhaps awakened by the urgency of needing to stave off elimination, CSF won four straight games last weekend and swept two games from Minnesota to move to the super regional round. Newly liberated by that Houdini act, it appears that the folks from Fullerton are still feeling full of themselves. Rightly so, too.

Chris Colon had two hits, including his 17th homer, and Cal State Fullerton stormed the palace gates in the Los Angeles Super Regional, stunning the nationally-seeded UCLA Bruins at a jam-packed Jackie Robinson Stadium in Los Angeles.

A win by the Titans in Game 2 on Saturday would send them to the College World Series for the eighth time in the 12 years of Super Regional play since 1999. Noe Ramirez (12-1) struck out 13 in seven innings to outduel UCLA's Gerrit Cole (10-3), who picked up the loss after giving up four runs and five hits in 6 2/3 innings.

Colon hit what proved to be the game-winner with his fifth-inning homer that made the score 4-1 in favor of the Titans.

The game's pivotal play came in the top of the fourth inning. With Fullerton having runners on first and second with no outs, CSF's Tyler Pill hit a weak fly ball into shallow right field. UCLA rightfielder Brett Krill charged the ball and made a slight forward slide, arriving well before the ball did. If anything, Krill slightly overran the play because the ball hit the heel of his glove and popped loose. Krill's attempted catch was not a piece of cake, but it wasn't extraordinarily difficult, either: The ball hit Krill's glove at least three and a half feet above the ground. The play simply should have been made, and Krill certainly wouldn't have claimed otherwise. The play was scored a hit, but the defensive mistake was crucial, and it allowed the Titans to load the bases with none out.

Just as significant in this situation was the fact that Nick Ramirez, Fullerton's best RBI man (he entered the game with 73 for the season), was able to hit with no bases open. Had Krill made the catch of that fly ball from Pill's bat, UCLA would have had a place to put Ramirez. Cole could have pitched around him and walked him if necessary. Unfortunately for the Bruins, they couldn't walk Ramirez, and when the big left-handed hitter banged a two-run single to left center, the Titans found the gateway to a three-run inning, the biggest single scoring surge of the night. Noe Ramirez backed up his brother's big hit, and coincidentally enough, Nick Ramirez was able to shut down the Bruins in the ninth to record the save.

As long as the Ramirez brothers stay healthy, UCLA has a very big mountain to climb in this Southern California-flavored showdown.

UCLA vs Cal State Fullerton - NCAA Baseball Super Regional (Best-of-Three)