By Steven Gaede
Sports Editor
CSUB looked to open the season 3-0 in front of another record-breaking crowd of 1,358, but No. 22 Cal State Fullerton proved to be too much, beating Bakersfield 8-2 on the afternoon of Feb. 17.
There were a couple main points to hit on about the game, the most notable being redshirt senior Jonathan Montoya’s return to the mound following Tommy John surgery a little over a year ago.
Montoya gave up three earned runs on five hits, while striking out two in four innings of work, throwing 55 pitches along the way. Besides a two-run homerun given up to Fullerton’s J.D. Davis in the first inning, Montoya pitched well, showing command of his pitches in his first go at it this year.
“Montoya was good. I was happy he threw strikes,” Head Coach Bill Kernen said. “Right now for him to be healthy and throw strikes is encouraging to see.”
Following the two-run shot by the Titans, Montoya went through the rest of his outing without any problems, except for giving up a run in the top of the third. Being on a pitch count, Montoya was pulled after retiring the side in the fourth.
“I felt great afterwards. I wanted to go another one,” said Montoya. “I wouldn’t say velocity was all there, but command felt really good today … I was using all of my pitches pretty well. Changeup looked really good against that team.”
Montoya left the game with Fullerton supporting a less than insurmountable 3-0 lead, but Davis came back to the plate in the fifth to hit a grand slam after the bases were walked loaded, off of redshirt senior reliever, Chuck Buchanan.
“Buchanan came out very tight and careful and that never works,” said Kernen. “When you play really good teams and you make a mistake you pay.”
“These guys haven’t pitched in a couple of years, so I don’t expect them to be in any kind of mid-season form at all. I’m trying to get them ready for the start of the WAC.”
Following the four-run bomb in the fifth, a strange play took place in the top of the sixth. Up eight runs, Austin Diemer bunted for a single, only to have a pinch runner put in for him immediately. The pinch runner got to first base and took an excessive lead, getting picked off, perhaps purposely.
Once Diemer was pulled, Fullerton’s coach could be seen in a heated conversation with someone on the bench. Nothing is for certain, but it appeared the coach took Diemer out of the game to make an example of him for bunting while up eight runs.
Eight runs is a lot to overcome, but if the CSUB bats that put up nine runs Friday and Saturday showed up against the Titans, the ‘Runners could have made it a game. Preventing the CSUB bats from going crazy for a third consecutive game was the Titans’ starter, Koby Gauna. Gauna struck out two, while walking none and giving up two runs off of seven hits.
“That’s their number four starter, so that gives you an idea of what their pitching staff is like,” said Kernen.
Leading the charge against Gauna for CSUB with two hits each was junior shortstop Tyler Shryock, junior right fielder Kris Cayton and freshman Mylz Jones. Despite the loss, CSUB went 2-1 on the opening weekend, only faltering to a national powerhouse in Fullerton.
“We were encouraged. We played under control, I think we made one error the entire weekend, which is what we have to be able to do with our pitching staff putting the ball in play,” Kernen said. “It’s basically just a good start in terms of being able to get the beginning out of the way and find out a little bit about certain guys who haven’t played.”
Along with the win, Fullerton reportedly enjoyed the facility and CSUB, saying they liked the atmosphere and that they would be happy to come back.
“When you have a program like Fullerton say they would like to come back because they really enjoyed the atmosphere, then you know you’re doing the right stuff,” Kernen said.
CSUB will host Hofstra Feb. 22 at 6 p.m., Feb. 23 in a double-header with the first game starting at noon and the final game of the series on Feb. 24 at 1 p.m.
