Cavs fall to Titans

Staff
Published: June 2, 2008

FULLERTON, Calif. — Cal State Fullerton’s Cory Arbiso limited Virginia to one run in a complete-game effort as the Titans, the No. 5 national seed in the NCAA tournament, eliminated Virginia from the NCAA Fullerton Regional with a 4-1 win Sunday.

Virginia ends its season with a 39-23 record. Cal State Fullerton (39-20) advanced to the regional championship game against UCLA late Sunday and needed to win two games against the Bruins in order to move to the NCAA Super Regionals.

Virginia’s Matt Packer pitched the final 6 2/3 innings of relief and allowed just one earned run and two hits while striking out two. He finishes the year with a 1.14 earned run average — fourth lowest in Virginia history. UVa starting pitcher Pat McAnaney lasted 2 1/3 innings and gave up three earned runs and three hits. He walked three and struck out one, as he took the loss and finished the season with a 4-6 record.

Arbiso (12-3) retired 15 in a row after allowing a double to Greg Miclat to start the game. In his complete-game effort, he allowed one run and eight hits while striking out seven.

Miclat led the Cavaliers with two hits. Virginia had eight hits in the game but left six runners on base.

Cal State Fullerton (39-20) took advantage of some wildness from McAnaney to score twice in the second inning. After getting the first out, McAnaney walked the next two batters and then hit two, with the second coming to Joe Scott and forcing in a run. Christian Colon followed with a single to left to score another run and give the Titans a 2-0 lead.

The Titans added a run in the third inning on back-to-back doubles by Brian Wilson and Gary Brown which forced McAnaney from the game. They posted another run in the fifth against Packer on an Erik Komatsu solo home run.

Virginia broke through with a run in the seventh inning. With one out, Franco Valdes ripped a single to right-center field to score Dan Grovatt.