Titans Win Series Over Cal Poly Mustangs

This morning, we await to see whether the Titans will complete the sweep of the Cal Poly Mustangs or whether the Mustangs will put together enough runs to down the Titans. The real question, will freshman hurler, Tyler Pill, give my friend Kelly a win for mother’s day? Need I say, I really want Tyler to get the win? Anyway, let’s take a look back at how we reached this point.

I had too many things going on to write a full article on the mid-week sweep (two games) of the Titans over the Arizona Wildcats. In the second game, the Titans were victorious 8-4 over the Wildcats. Since the Titans play 5 games this week (two mid-week and a weekend series) the Wednesday night game was a combined bullpen win as we had pot-luck pitching. Only two Titan hurlers went more than one inning, with Kyle Witten getting the start and going for two, and Ryan Ackland throwing two innings in relief. Brock Floro, in his second appearance on the mound for the Titans, took the win with one scoreless inning pitched. Colin O’Connell, Michael Morrison, Kyle Mertins, and Nick Ramirez rounded out the active pitching staff for the Titans. Witten gave up two of the Wildcat runs, while Ackland and Ramirez gave up one apiece. Nick Ramirez DH’d during the game and had a couple of RBI doubles while on offense, and Joe Scott brought in 3 runs during the contest. Gary Brown went 4-5 and the Titan offense combined for a total of 13 hits.

Now on to the main course, the games against Poly. A side note on expectations pre-game. The Mustangs went into the series with a 20-2 winning record at home, while the Titans arrived with a 19-4 winning record on the road (two of those were played in OK as neutral site games). Those statistics made the match up especially difficult to try and determine the outcome before hand, but as always, we were hopeful of the win.

Friday
Daniel Renken took the mound on Friday night and gave up 4 runs while pitching his second complete game on the season. Renken fanned 10 of the Poly batters to tie his all-time high, and it was his second 10 strike out performance in a row. Joey Siddons was the man of the game, going 3-4, and he, Jared Clark, and Joe Scott each had two RBI’s a piece. Jeff Newman and Gary Brown both had two hits for the night. The Sac Fly was a big ticket for the Titan offense, as we achieved a season high of 4 for the game. Jared Clark hit two, and Gary Brown and Khris Davis each hit one a piece. Joe Scott also laid down his 20th sac bunt on the season. In the sixth inning, the Titan lead was narrowed to 4-3 after Renken hit the first two batters to the plate (rumor has it the first hit batter leaned into the pitch but was allowed by the umpire) and two runs scored.

Saturday
Noe Ramirez got the start on Saturday, and he pitched 6.2 innings followed by Nick Ramirez, who looks like he is shaping into the Titans closer. Noe, now 6-1 on the season, allowed 3 runs on 8 hits to take the victory. Nick gave up only two hits and no runs to notch his 4th save on the year, ending the contest at 7-3 Titans. The Mustangs took an early lead when Adam Buschini doubled to drive a run home. Buschini gets credit for driving all 3 of the Mustang runs home, with adding a towering two run homer in the bottom of the third. The Titans evened the score in the top of the second, when lead off hitter, Khris Davis, sent his 10th over the wall for a home run. The Titans quickly took the lead by following the run by Davis with a single by Jeff Newman, who was bunted over to second by Joe Scott, who now leads the nation with 21 sac bunts, and was singled home by Joey Siddons. In the top of the third, Josh Fellhauer singled and was driven home by a double by Khris Davis, his 22nd on the season. Noe Ramirez got into trouble in both the fifth and sixth innings, but was able to work himself out of a jam, supported by the Titan defense. In the seventh, after recording two outs, with his pitch count at 107, coach Serrano decided he had done enough and brought in reliever, Nick Ramirez. The Titans added two runs to their score in the top of the seventh, with a single by Christian Colon and Gary Brown with steals and an error allowing Colon to score and Brown to take third. When Jared Clark grounded into a double play, Brown scored. Again in the ninth the Titans added to their score on a Josh Fellhauer single and Jared Clark home run. During the game the Titans stole a season high, 7 bases. Bases were stolen by Christian Colon, Gary Brown, Josh Fellhauer – who stole 3, Khris Davis, and Joey Siddons. Way to create opportunities to score!

____________________________________________________________________________
LK Gardner-Griffie
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Gardner-Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review