FULLERTON — The first real rebuild of the Cal State Fullerton baseball program is still underway, but the Titans’ final series of the 2022 season added a healthy amount of confidence for 2023.

The Titans shelled UC Irvine, 9-3, in the finale of the three-game Big West Conference series on Saturday afternoon at Goodwin Field. Fynn Chester made another stout start, allowing one run on six hits and no walks in eight innings and Fullerton (22-33 overall, 14-16 Big West) hit four home runs, two by Brandon Bozo.

The Titans won two of three in the series, just their fourth series win this season, with the others coming against sub-.500 teams Loyola Marymount, UC Davis, and UC Riverside.

“We were competitive and battled in league play and gave ourselves chances to win,” first-year Fullerton coach Dietrich said afterward. “We lost a lot of one- and two-run games, which shows that we competed.

“I can’t compare what we’ve compared to last season, but we started the season without a single returning starting pitcher, and we ended it with our three weekend starters pitching well.”

Pitching has traditionally been a Fullerton strength, and Tyler Schultz, who threw a shutout Friday, freshman Evan Yates and Chester (one run allowed over his last 17 innings) stepped up the last few weeks and set themselves up to be the core of next season’s staff.

“We have guys who want the ball and to be part of our tradition,’’ Dietrich said.

The Titans greeted UCI starter Dan Wheeler rudely, Austin Schell and Bobo hitting two-run home runs in the first and sent him to the showers before the inning ended. Bobo hit his eighth home run of the season in a two-run fourth that extended the lead to 6-0. Deylan Pigford hit the first home run of his career in the eighth.

Ben Fitzgerald tripled and freshman Chase Cali, playing in just his fourth game of the season, doubled him home, producing the only run against Chester. Cali’s grandfather is well-known former Dodgers front office executive Charlie Blaney.

Dub Gleed hit his third home run on the season against the Fullerton bullpen in the ninth.

UCI finished 32-24 overall and 16-14 in league play. The 2021 Big West champs’ longest winning streak was five games and they never lost more than three in a row, underscoring their competitive but inconsistent play. They went 14-14 in games decided by two runs or less.

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“We won 32 games and were competitive all season, and a lot of teams would be happy with 32 wins,” UCI coach Ben Orloff said. “We just had a lot of close losses.”

UC Santa Barbara (42-12, 27-3) rolled to the Big West title and earned the automatic bid to the 64-team NCAA tournament. Cal Poly (37-20, 22-7) finished second but has a low RPI, which will leave the Mustangs short of an at-large bid.

Hawaii (27-24, 18-11) finished third, while Can State Northridge (32-22, 17-13) and Long Beach State (29-27, 17-13) tied for fourth. Long Beach finished the season on a 14-3 streak after losing 10 straight, seven of those losses to ranked teams.

UC Davis and UC Riverside set embarrassing records, the Aggies going 6-35 overall and 5-25 in league play, and the Highlanders going 8-45 and 4-26.