Cal State Fullerton sophomore Noe Ramirez tossed a five-hit shutout, striking out a career-high 14 in the process, to lead the Titans to a 3-0 victory over Hawaii yesterday in the first of a three-game series at Goodwin Field in Fullerton, Calif.

Fullerton (11-10) handed Hawaii pitcher Josh Slaats (2-1) his first loss of the season. A run to start the fourth ended Slaats' streak of 16 consecutive scoreless innings.

Hawaii (12-10) brought the tying run to the plate in two of the final three innings but couldn't break through, and saw its season-high winning streak snapped at five games.

“;We had our chances,”; Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “;(Seventh) inning we had second and third with one out and could have gotten ourselves back into it, but (Ramirez) made some great pitches. He was that good.”;

Ramirez allowed one walk and went the distance for the second time this season to improve to 4-1.

Gary Brown tripled and scored two runs and Carlos Lopez went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI to give the Titans their fourth win in five games.

Slaats allowed all three Fullerton runs in 51/3 innings on six hits with two walks and six strikeouts. Alex Capaul threw 22/3 scoreless innings of relief to keep UH in the game long enough to set up two late-inning scoring chances.

“;Slaats was lights out early,”; Trapasso said. “;I think because of the two-week layoff and coming in he threw 80 pitches last week, we saw him fatigue right around 65 to 70 pitches.

Capaul wasn't super sharp with his off-speed stuff, but then he started to get it and gave us a chance to stay within striking distance.”;

Hawaii brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh after back-to-back singles by Kolten Wong and David Freitas with no outs. Collin Bennett bunted the runners into scoring position, but Ramirez struck out Kevin Macdonald and Jeff Van Doornum to end the inning.

Wong drew a one-out walk in the ninth and Freitas reached on an infield single to bring the tying man to the plate again. Bennett popped up to second on the first pitch he saw and Macdonald struck out looking to end the game.

Wong went 1-for-3 and reached base three times and Freitas had two hits. Sean Montplaisir started in left field and had a double in the sixth inning for Hawaii's only extra-base hit.

Slaats, who has twice been named Western Athletic Conference pitcher of the week, hadn't allowed a run in his previous two outings.

He shut out the Titans his first time through the order, but a leadoff triple by Brown and an RBI single by Lopez put the Titans on the board in the fourth. Corey Jones also doubled in the inning, but a big double play kept Fullerton from doing any more damage.

Brown was hit by a pitch to lead off the sixth and scored on a throwing error after Lopez's double moved him to third base. Slaats was pulled one batter later after a ground out and Capaul gave up a two-out single to Billy Marcoe for the final run of the game.

Left-hander Sam Spangler (2-3, 3.67 ERA) will start for the Rainbows against Daniel Renken (2-2, 4.81) today in the second game of the series at 3 p.m.

Cal State Fullerton 3, Hawaii 0

E-Wong; Colon. DP-Hawaii 2. LOB-Hawaii 6; CSF 3. 2b-Montplaisir; Lopez, Jones. 3b-Brown. HBP-Brown. SH-Bennett. SB-Brown, Kingsolver. CS-Wong; Colon, Marcoe.

WP-Slaats. HBP-by Slaats (Brown).
Umpires-Dwayne Finley (Plate); Dick Flaherty (First); Dave Gimbi (Third).
T-2:18.