Riverside—The UC Riverside Baseball Team was trying to put a wrench in Cal State Fullerton's NCAA Tournament plans Friday evening, but the Titans continued their late postseason push with a 9-0 victory over the Highlanders.

Entering the game, the Titans were just three games over .500 at 23-20, but boasted the 35th best RPI in the nation. A primary reason for the team's success is their starting pitching, and on Friday, they sent preseason pitcher of the year candidate Thomas Eshelman to the mound.

Eshelman was the victim of poor run support early in the year, and was just 4-5 with a 2.10 ERA entering the game. The first three pitches Eshelman threw were balls, but over the next seven innings, 66 of his final 79 tosses went for strikes. Included in those 13 misses were a handful of 0-2 waste pitches.  The Highlanders managed just four hits off of the junior, and no walks. Eshelman also finished the night with seven strikeouts

Joie Dunyon received the daunting task of trying to match Eshleman, but the  Titans touched him for two runs in the first, and one in the second, Dunyon settled down in the third and fourth, but his night ended with one out on the fifth, and UC Riverside trailing, 6-0.

Cal State Fullerton plated two more runs in the top of the sixth, and one more in the ninth to go up 9-0. The Titans' Chad Hockin and Shane Stillwagon pitched scoreless innings of relief in the eighth and ninth respectively, to secure the victory.

UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton play game two of their three-game series on Saturday beginning at 6 pm PT at The Plex.