For the second straight game, one high-scoring inning by the opposition cost Cal State Fullerton its first win in the College World Series since 2006 as Virginia carried the momentum of a four-run second inning to a 7-5 victory over the Titans in front of 17,989 fans at Rosenblatt Stadium.

The Cavaliers, who collected the school's first-ever College World Series win, improves to 49-15-1 and will face either LSU or Arkansas in an elimination game on Wednesday, June 16 at 6:00 p.m. Cal State Fullerton ends the year with a 47-16 mark.

Andrew Carraway (9-1), the third of five Virginia pitchers, got the win with 2.2 innings of relief. Daniel Renken (11-3) took the loss after pitching 5.2 innings, his shortest outing since March 19. He was charged with 6 runs, all earned, the most he allowed all season. Nick Ramirez pitched the final 2.1 innings and gave up the seventh run.

Cal State Fullerton struck first, scoring two runs in the top of the second off a two-run home run by Dustin Garneau. The long bomb was Garneau's first hit of the College World Series after going 0-for-4 against Arkansas in game one Saturday.

The Cavaliers answered in the bottom half of the inning putting up four of their own to take a 4-2 lead. John Hicks slipped a line drive by third baseman Joey Siddons to bring home Steven Proscia. An RBI-single to deep center by Keith Werman evened the score at 2-2, which was short-lived. Daniel Renken walked the next batter, Tyler Cannon, to load the bases and Danny Hultzen took full advantage of the set-up and belted a two-RBI shot to left field to give Virginia a two-run lead.

A lead-off home run in the third inning by Christian Colon shrunk the Cavaliers lead to 4-3. The Titans missed a golden opportunity to add a few more runs that inning with runners on first and third with no outs. Cal State Fullerton was unsuccessful at driving home runs in two attempts, fouled out and popped out, and Josh Fellhauer was caught stealing to strand the runners and end the inning.

Virginia extended its lead to 5-3 following a RBI-double by Phil Gosselin in the fifth inning. The following inning the Cavaliers tacked on two more insurance runs, which became their saving grace in the ninth, with the help of Werman and Tyler Cannon, who both drove in a run to give Virginia a 7-3 after six.

Following two quite innings, Cal State Fullerton's offense awoke in the top of the ninth and threatened to take its first lead of the CWS. The Titans scored two runs and had the potential game-winning run at the plate but were unable to send anyone else home and fell to Virginia 7-5.

Cal State Fullerton has gone 0-2 in back-to-back College World Series appearances and five times in the history of the program (16th appearances). Today's loss extends the Titans losing streak in Omaha to five contests.

BOX SCORE

Quotes

Head Coach Dave Serrano
(opening statements)
"I would like to start out by thanking the city of Omaha, NCAA and ESPN for making it the best event in college athletics."

"Unfortunately we aren’t staying as long as we anticipated. I am not taking anything away from Virginia, who is a good ball club, and Arkansas, who is a good team, we just didn’t play very good baseball here. I am as confused and disappointed as anyone here. We are going to have to go back to the drawing board to see how we can keep our guys in character. We gave them (Virginia) a lot of free passes and we were one swing of the bat from taking the lead."

"The way we breakdown offense, take a look at scoreboard, we got a lot of hits. We just weren’t stringing them together. We got good hits when it didn’t matter and bad hits when we needed them. We just didn’t get the production we wanted."

(on the pitching performances)
"A little was mechanical, that is what happens when you get excited. Falling behind in the count, that is where we were really out of character. You get into this venue and things can change. Unfortunately for the guys that are moving on, we think with what we will have next year. We will be back."

(regarding Virginia going with a different lineup)
"It isn't about the other team, about the other lineup, it’s about us....unfortunately it was't good enough for us."

Pitcher Daniel Renken
(on his performance)
"We pushed too hard and went a little out of character and it showed in both games. I was falling behind in the count and letting batters get comfortable in the box. It is inexcusable for me to let myself get behind in the count. Virginia is a good team, but I think I made them look better than they were."

Catcher Dustin Garneau
"We were pressing the first game and continued today. We definitely started the season planning to come here and win it all."

(on the pitching staff)
"Noe and Danny were playing out of character, their mechanics were off and they were a little hyped-up to be here. They are better than that and it is terrible they had these two bad games here. The have been great all year."

"My college career was great and I loved playing at Fullerton."