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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 at Goodwin Field in Fullerton, Calif.
Virginia ends its season with a 39-23 record. Cal State Fullerton (39-20) advances to the regional championship game against UCLA at 11 p.m. ET Sunday and needs to win two games against the Bruins in order to move to the NCAA Super Regionals.
Matt Packer (So., Germantown, Tenn.) pitched the final 6.2 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. Pat McAnaney (Sr., Syracuse, N.Y.) lasted 2.1 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 (Jr., Concord, N.C.) 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, Valdes ripped a single to right-center field to score Dan Grovatt (Fr., Tabernacle, N.J.).
Game Notes NCAA Fullerton Regional Game 5
– Virginia, making its fifth-consecutive appearance and eighth overall in the NCAA regional, is now 12-16 all-time in the tournament.
– Virginia and Cal State Fullerton played today for the first time ever.
– Greg Miclat competed in his 62nd game of the season, tied for third-most in a single season at Virginia. David Adams, Jeremy Farrell and Tyler Cannon participated in their 61st games of the year, which is tied for seventh most.
– Pat McAnaney had one strikeout and tied Kevin Shrout (1998) for ninth on the UVa single-season list with 93 punchouts.
– Virginia had four seniors play their final game McAnaney, Robert Poutier, Michael Schwimer and Patrick Wingfield
– Greg Miclat finished the season with 241 at bats. It is the second-most at bats in a single season at UVa, behind only Ryan Zimmerman’s 249 in 2004.
– Matt Packer finished with an ERA of 1.14, fourth lowest in a single season at Virginia