Pacific Preview

Titans vs. Pacific (Friday 7 p.m., Saturday 6 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m., Goodwin Field)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton hit a bump in the road last weekend on their trip up the 101 to SLO as the Titans lost two out of three games in their series with Cal Poly for their first Big West series loss since 2009 and followed that up with midweek loss at San Diego on Tuesday. Fullerton had only lost twice in their previous 21 games before losing three of last four games as injuries have taken their toll on the team.

Fullerton had to start the series with Cal Poly without Noe Ramirez to go up against Mustangs ace Mason Radeke. The already short-handed Titans were without Michael Lorenzen and Joe Terry and lost Richy Pedroza to another injury early in the series opener. Radeke threw a complete game and scattered 10 hits to lead the Cal Poly to a 7-2 win. Tyler Pill and Anthony Trajano drove in the Titans runs and Pill and Jared Deacon led Fullerton with two hits.

Cal Poly clinched the series victory over Fullerton with a 4-2 win with Steven Fischback throwing a complete game and allowing only five hits and he received Big West pitcher of the week honors for his efforts as the Mustangs tied the Titans at the top of the Big West standings. Colin O’Connell matched Fischback pitch for pitch over the first six innings and the game was tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the 7th when the Mustangs got the first two runners on base off of O’Connell and ended up scoring three runs against the Titans bullpen. Five different players had hits for Fullerton and Trajano had the only RBI for the Titans.

Fullerton salvaged the final game of the series with Cal Poly by battering the first three pitchers that they saw on their way to a 9-3 win to retake sole possession of first place in the Big West. Nick Ramirez had two HR’s and four RBI to take over the Big West lead in both of those categories, Casey Watkins had three hits and Ramirez, Trajano, Pill and Carlos Lopez each had two hits as the Titans piled up fifteen hits on the day. Fullerton was led on the hill by Pill, who improved his record to 5-0 with seven strong innings, allowing only one run on three hits.

Fullerton went down to San Diego for their fourth straight road game on Tuesday and came away with a 12-8 loss in which all six pitchers who saw time on mound struggled to get hitters out and the defense made three errors and had a couple of more plays that were questionably not ruled errors. The Titans were led at the plate by Carlos Lopez, who had four hits and three RBI, and Pill, Ramirez and Ivory Thomas each scored two runs.

Fullerton is looking to bounce back from a rough week by getting healthy at home as the Pacific Tigers pay a visit to Goodwin Field this weekend.

Pacific Tigers

• Overall Record – 13-23 in 2011; 31-23 in 2010
• Conference Record – 5-7 in 2011 (7th); 12-12 in 2010 (4th).
• Post-Season – None
• 2011 RPI/ISR – 167/140. 2010 RPI/ISR – 120/53
• Current ranking – None
• Predicted conference finish – 7th by the Big West coaches and 8th Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

Pacific was building towards success in 2010 after they went 21-32, 9-15 in 2009, which was a positive season for the Tigers considering they only won 30 games overall and 8 conference games in 2007-2008, and brought back most of their roster. Pacific started out 2010 by winning nine of their first ten weekend series and they were trying to position themselves to make a run at the Big West title when Fullerton visited Stockton the first weekend of May. The Titans won the first two games of the series and Pacific struggled down the stretch in May, losing seven of their last nine games to go from contending for second in the conference to finishing in 4th, which was still the best conference finish for the Tigers since entering the Big West for baseball in 1985.

Pacific thought they might struggle out of the gate in 2011 after losing so many key contributors from last season but it wasn’t expected that they would play as poorly as they did early. The Tigers only won one game in their first four weekends (0-3 vs. Kansas State, 1-2 at Coastal Carolina’s tournament, 0-3 vs. Gonzaga and 0-3 at Nevada) before starting to play better when they won a series at USC. Pacific picked up a win in each of their next four series vs. USF, Long Beach, at Riverside and vs. Irvine but didn’t get their second series win of the season until they won the series deciding game last Saturday at Northridge. The Tigers started the season 3-12 but have gone 10-11 since then.

Pacific didn’t expect to hit as well as they did the previous two seasons with so many new starters in the lineup and using the new BBCOR bats but they got off to a very sluggish start at the plate and were held to four runs or less in eight of their first ten and 15 of their first 23 games. The light bulb started to go on for the hitters in the final game of the Long Beach series and since then the Tigers have been red hot at the plate. Pacific has the best average in Big West games at .331 and have hit a scorching .359 over their last ten conference games and have scored 6+ runs in seven of their last twelve games. The Tigers have surged to 2nd overall in the conf in AVG and SLG after being only 5th and 7th in those categories going into the Northridge series, when the hitters pounded the Matador pitching staff for 54 hits in three games. Pacific isn’t patient at the plate, averaging around three walks per game, and is aggressive early in counts. They have good contact hitters at the top of their lineup and big swingers in the middle of the order. The Tigers don’t play much little ball with most of their lineup with one batter accounting for almost half of their SAC bunts and two players accounting for 22 of their 36 SB’s.

Pacific expected to have a solid pitching staff due to returning two SP’s and one of their best relievers from a group that helped shave almost a run per game off of the team ERA in 2010, improving from 6.36 in 2009 to 5.39. What has transpired has most of the time has been ugly. One of the returning SP’s has pitched well until his last two starts, the other one had pitched very poorly until recently and the Tigers have had no answers in the third SP spot. Pacific has tried fifteen different relievers and seven different SP’s and except for solid work from their closer most of them have been very ineffective and the Tigers are last in the Big West in almost every pitching category, including a 6.18 team ERA and they are allowing batters to hit .332. Pacific’s pitchers were solid in walking about three batters per 9 IP and had close to a 2/1 K/BB ratio in 2010 but this year they are walking almost 4 1/2 batters per 9 IP and have almost a 1/1 K/BB ratio. The Tigers don’t have too many hard throwers and rely on keeping the ball down and pitching to contact to get ground ball outs.

Offense

• Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 110 (increases offense by 10%). Dimensions of 317 to LF with a 20 ft high wall, 380 to left center, 395 to CF, 365 to right center and 325 to RF make this one of the smaller fields in the Big West.
• Batting Average – .283 (2nd in the Big West). .325 in 2010 (2nd in the Big West).
• Runs Per Game – 4.7 (6th). 6.6 in 2010 (6th).
• Home Runs – 10 (4th). 35 in 2010 (7th).
• Slugging Percentage – .374 (2nd). .452 in 2010 (5th).
• Walks – 102 (6th), 2.9 per game. 180 in 2010 (7th), 3.3 per game.
• HBP’s – 20 (9th). 34 in 2010 (9th).
• Strikeouts – 248 (3rd), 7.1 per game. 320 in 2010 (5th), 5.8 per game.
• Stolen Bases – 36-51 (3rd). 47-64 in 2010 (6th).
• Sac Bunts – 27 (7th). 42 in 2010 (4th).

Infield

Pacific had the most experienced infield in the Big West in 2010 with five veterans who started for at least two years and four of them earned All-Big West honors at least once during their careers. Personnel losses due to the draft and graduation were heavy and only one starter returns.

C – FR #15 Jason Taasaas (RH – .233/.370/.326 in 43 AB’s, 1 HR), JC transfer #19 Aaron Hassel (.162 in 37 AB’s) and JR #5 Jacob Sylvester (.143 in 21 AB’s) have been splitting up time behind the plate with the tough task of replacing four year starter Joe Oliveira with Taasaas and Hassel getting most of the playing time. The catchers had combined to go 7-34 with one RBI in the first eleven conf games before Taasaas exploded at Northridge last Sat when he went 5-6 with a HR and 4 RBI. Whoever is starting will most likely be hitting 8th.

1B – SR #32 Brian Martin (LH – .360/.434/.432, 2-20-2; ’10 – .364/.432/.439, 0-38-0; ‘09 – .333/.409/.484, 3-31-0) is the only returning starter in the infield and has been red hot lately and usually hits cleanup. He started out 8-43 but has hit .438 since then, including .500 in Big West games, and has been a big reason why Pacific’s offense has improved since struggling earlier. Martin leads the Big West in AVG and is among the conf leaders in H, TB, BB and OBP and was in the top ten in the Big West in 2010 in AVG, H and OBP. He does not have much power but does an excellent job making contact (17/18 BB/K ratio) and spraying the ball around the field. Martin went 9-14 to scorch Northridge’s pitching, the second time in three weeks he went 9-14 after doing that at Riverside. He is three hits shy of moving into second place and two RBI away from moving into sixth on the career lists in those categories. Martin was 2-13 against Fullerton last season and is 7-34 against the Titans in his career.

2B – Soph #9 Tyger Pederson (LH – .373/.442/.373, 0-10-2) sat out last season as a D3 transfer who hit .471 at Redlands in 2009. He only had a couple of starts going into the Big West season but once he got his chance he hit the ground running. Pederson has been the leadoff hitter the last four weeks and has very little power and doesn’t have an extra-base hit in 67 AB’s. He went 6-14 with four runs at Northridge as a catalyst in their series win.

SS – JR #8 Josh Simms (RH – .253/.316/.299, 0-5-2; ’10 – .333 in 24 AB’s) barely played in 2010 but has done a solid job of taking over for two year starter Ben Gorang. Simms is a good bunter, which is why he was hitting 2nd earlier in the year to help move runners along, but is a better fit batting 9th in the lineup. He doesn’t have much power with only three extra-base hits and has struck out about 25% of the time. Simms has a ten game hit streak going.

3B – Soph #10 Dustin Torchio (Both – .328/.378/.385, 0-11-2; ’10 – .222 in 27 AB’s) has had the unenviable task of trying to take over for two players who were 2nd team All-Big West in 2010. He started the year at 2B replacing J.B. Brown but was moved over to 3B at the start of Big West play, a spot that was vacated by three year starter Mike Walker. Torchio was hitting all over the lineup during non-conf games but has settled into the 2nd spot in the order and has been scorching the ball and is hitting .500 in Big West games. He does not have much power with only seven extra-base hits. Torchio is an outstanding bunter and is 2nd in the conf with 12 SAC’s.

Outfield

Pacific has one starter back in the outfield in CF along with two other outfielders who split time in the corner OF spots.

LF – SR #24 Matthew Carvutto (RH – .359/.428/.486, 2-20-2; ’10 - .303/.352/.374, 0-17-0) had a solid year as a part-time LF in 2010 but has really taken off this year and is 2nd in the Big West in AVG and leads the conf with 16 doubles. He is also among the conf leaders in R, H, RBI, TB, SLG and OBP. Carvutto doesn’t walk much but he also doesn’t strike out much (12/16 BB/K ratio) and is a line drive hitting machine. He has been hitting 3rd most of the time. Carvutto has been a clutch hitter and is hitting over .400 both with runners on base and with runners in scoring position. He has also been seeing some time in CF and on Sunday’s has been the DH so can be available out of the bullpen.

LF/DH – JC transfer #27 Daniel Johnston (RH – .272/.311/.464, 4-21-9) is a good athlete who has the best power/speed combo on the team. He is 2nd in the Big West in HR and is among the leaders in the conf in 2B, SLG and SB. Johnson is a big man with a big swing and he leads the Big West with 37 strikeouts. He has been hitting 6th most of the time. Johnston was starting at 3B the first month of the season but has settled into a LF/DH type of time share with Carvutto.

DH – Soph #20 John Haberman (LH – .291/.328/.364, 0-6-0; ’10 – .321/.359/.404, 0-30-0) was one of the contenders for Big West FR of the year in 2010 after hitting in the mid to high .300’s most of the season before tailing off badly in May. He was the regular DH earlier in the year but lost his spot in the lineup as a result of the shuffling that took place right before conf games started and has only started four times in Big West games.

CF – JR #11 Brett Christopher (Both – .231/.291/.284, 0-9-13; ’10 – .312/.352/.374, 5-39-8) was a catalyst at the top of the lineup in 2010 with good speed and some pop in his bat but was another player who scuffled during Pacific’s slump in May. He has good speed and is 2nd in the Big West in SB’s and is a very good bunter (led the conf in SAC’s in 2010). Christopher takes a big cut when he swings and he is 2nd in the conf with 36 K’s. He has not been hitting well this season and after being the leadoff hitter for most of the non-conf schedule he was moved down to 7th in the lineup. Christopher had a good series against Fullerton in 2010 when he went 5-12 with 3 RBI.

RF – JR #23 Allen Riley (Both – .282/.318/.430, 2-27-1; ’10 – .237 in 59 AB’s) was a backup in the corner OF spots in 2010 but has taken advantage of his opportunity to get playing time this season and is 3rd in the Big West in RBI and among the conf leaders in TB and 2B. Riley has a bad BB/K ratio (9/27) but when he gets the bat on the ball he is usually able to drive it. He has been hitting 5th.

Defense

Fielding % – .969 (5th) with 42 errors. 2010 – .971 (3rd) with 61 errors.

Pacific’s defense isn’t quite as good as it was last year but they are second in the Big West in DP’s. Martin hasn’t played as well at 1B as he can, Pederson is average at 2B, Simms is solid at SS and Torchio is good at 3B. Carvutto and Christopher are good outfielders, Riley is average.

Stolen Base Attempts – 46-65 (8th). 2010 – 40-65 (2nd).

Pacific has struggled against the running game while breaking in new catchers. Fullerton should attempt to take advantage of that, something they didn’t do against Cal Poly last weekend.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 50 (8th). 2010 – 36 (2nd).

Pacific has also struggled with blocking pitches. Watch for Fullerton to be more aggressive on pitches in the dirt this weekend.

Pitching

• ERA – 6.18 (9th in the Big West). 5.39 in 2010 (5th in the Big West).
• BA – .332 (9th). .312 in 2010 (7th).
• Walks – 153 (9th), 4.4 BB/9 IP. 169 (6th), 3.0 BB/9 IP in 2010.
• Strikeouts – 170 (9th), 4.9 K/9 IP. 303 (8th), 5.7 K/9 IP in 2010.
• Extra Base Hits – 113 (9th), 3.2 per game. 190 (7th), 3.5 per game in 2010.
• HR – 19 (8th). 45 HR in 2010 (5th).

Starters

Pacific returned their two best starters from 2010 and thought they would be able to rely on them to help the team get some good pitching while the offense gelled but the rotation has been a major problem.

FRI – JC transfer #16 Brent McMinn (RHP – 1-2, 6.91 ERA, 4 apps, 3 GS, 14 IP, 20 H, 7 BB, 10 K, .339 BA, 1 HR, 2 HBP, 3 WP, 4-5 SB) is the most likely pitcher to get the ball. Pacific has been using Friday’s as a staff day since early in the season due to their inability to find a third SP and the results have been ugly. The Tigers have given up 57 runs in the opening game of their four Big West series and are 0-10 in the first game of a series this season. McMinn was hit hard at Northridge (4 2/3 IP, 7 R, 10 H, 3 BB, 3 K) and vs. Irvine (5 IP, 5 R, 5 H, 4 BB, 3 K).

SAT – SR #22 Marcus Pointer (RHP – 3-5, 6.20 ERA, 12 GS, 2 CG, 65 IP, 90 H, 35 BB, 38 K, .346 BA, 1 HR, 5 HBP, 3 WP, 6-12 SB; ’10 – 7-5, 4.58 ERA, 15 GS, 106 IP,105 H, 45 BB, 65 K, .265 BA, 9 HR, 7 HBP, 3 WP, 10-12 SB) was one of the better SP’s in the Big West during the non-conf part of the schedule in 2010 when he won his first five starts and had an ERA around 2. He scuffled some during the conf schedule but ended up putting together a solid year and was among the Big West leaders in W, IP and AVG. He was expected to be the Friday SP again this season but was moved out of that role after two poor starts at the beginning of this season and he only had one good start in his first eight outings (at USC – 6 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 2 K) and bottomed out in his start at Riverside (2 1/3 IP, 10 R, 10 H, 5 BB, 2 K). Pointer has bounced back to pitch well in his last three starts – a three inning scoreless midweek start at Stanford followed by solid starts against Irvine when he got Pacific’s only win of that series (7 IP, 4 R, 3 ER, 9 H, 1 BB, 3 K) and at Northridge when he took a shutout into the 9th inning (8+ IP, 2 R, 6 H, 5 BB, 4 K). He throws a fastball in the mid-80s, a changeup that he throws at any point in the count, a curveball to keep hitters off-balance and a slider as an out pitch against RH hitters. Pointer has been doing a better job of holding runners this season and has picked off three runners. He allowed 6 R on 11 H in 7 IP in his start against Fullerton in 2010.

SUN – SR #36 Jake Hummel (RHP – 4-3, 4.36 ERA, 10 GS, 2 CG, 66 IP, 88 H, 17 BB, 51 K, .319 BA, 5 HR, 7 HBP, 6 WP, 3-4 SB; 10 – 7-4, 4.65 ERA, 3 saves, 22 apps, 13 GS, 93 IP, 111 H, 25 BB, 57 K, .299 BA, 7 HR, 6 HBP, 6 WP, 4-13 SB) started out 2010 as the closer and was moved into the rotation a few weeks into the season and put together a solid year and finished tied for 9th in the Big West in wins. He was easily Pacific’s most effective SP for most of this season until scuffling recently. Hummel allowed 2 ER or less in five of his six starts before Big West play, including a CG SHO against USF, and kept Pacific in the game vs. Long Beach in the only game they won in that series (ND – 8 IP, 4 R, 10 H, 1 BB, 5 K) and got their only win at Riverside (5 1/3 IP, 2 R, 9 H, 3 BB, 6 K) but struggled vs. Irvine (6 1/3 IP, 9 R, 14 H, 3 BB, 7 K) and at Northridge (2 1/3 IP, 7 R, 9 H, 1 BB, 2 K). He has a mid-upper 80’s fastball and a solid curveball but his outpitch is his slider. Hummel does a good job of keeping runners close so he is tough to run on. He allowed 9 R (7 ER) on 13 H in 5 1/3 IP in his start against Fullerton in 2010.

Relievers

Pacific doesn’t have much pitching depth and it has often been an adventure when they have gone to the bullpen other than when they bring in their closer.

Closer – JC transfer #28 Chris Larsen (RHP – 0-1, 3.82 ERA, 4 saves, 12 apps, 31 IP, 32 H, 3 BB, 9 K, .267 BA, 3 HR, 5 HBP, 3 WP, 3-4 SB) has taken over for 1st team All-Big West closer Hunter Carnevale and has usually been effective. He is not a hard thrower and relies on pinpoint control and keeping the ball down to get hitters out. Larsen is able to pitch several innings like he did in saves against Irvine (2 scoreless innings) and Riverside (3 1/3 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 0 BB, 2 K).

SR #24 Matthew Carvutto (RHP – 2-0, 1.83 ERA, 8 apps, 2 saves, 20 IP, 24 H, 7 BB, 5 K, .289 BA, 1 HR, 2 HBP, 1 WP, 4-4 SB) will usually be available out of the bullpen only on Sundays as the DH after playing in LF in the first two games of a series. He is a battler and has been throwing well. Carvutto threw three scoreless innings to pick up the win in the series deciding game at Northridge.

JC transfer #35 Jared Wagner (RHP – 0-3, 6.08 ERA, 15 apps, 2 GS, 27 IP, 38 H, 22 BB, 14 K, .339 BA, 0 HR, 4 HBP, 4 WP, 9-11 SB) has appeared in the most games among the relievers and would be one of the most likely pitchers to come into the game in the middle innings.

SR #25 Robbie Richardson (RHP – 1-2, 9.00 ERA, 13 apps, 16 IP, 28 H, 9 BB, 9 K, .392 BA; ’10 – 1-2, 3.26 ERA, 3 saves, 23 apps, 39 IP, 48 H, 11 BB, 17 K, .320 BA, 3 HR, 0 HBP, 0 WP, 0-3 SB) was very effective in 2010 and was expected to be one of the mainstays in the bullpen but has had a terrible season due to not having good command after having good control last season.

FR #17 Kyle Crawford (LHP – 1-2, 10.20 ERA, 11 apps, 3 GS, 15 IP, 23 H, 6 BB, 5 K) and FR #41 Andrew Wild (LHP – 0-1, 6.52 ERA, 8 apps, 10 IP, 14 H, 10 BB, 1 K) would be the two most likely LHP’s to come into the game.

Outlook

Fullerton enters this series feeling like they should play the theme from M*A*S*H as they take the field with as many players as the Titans have banged up. They won’t get any sympathy from a hot hitting Pacific team that would like nothing better than to get their second straight series win and their second straight series win at Goodwin Field after the Tigers won a series against Fullerton in 2009 for the first time ever.

Pacific enters the series as a better hitting team so Fullerton will have to be careful not to let the Tigers bash away and hit line drives all over the ballpark. The more offensive that this series gets, the better the chances are for Pacific to pull off an upset. The Titans will be without Noe Ramirez once again this weekend so some of the other pitchers are going to have to step up.

Fullerton goes into this series with a significant pitching advantage with a staff ERA about four runs better than Pacific’s. Despite not having Ramirez on the mound, the Titans should win opening game in what looks like it could end up being a much higher scoring game than most Friday games are. Pacific’s pitchers on Saturday and Sunday have been hit and miss but are more than capable of putting together solid outings while Pill and O’Connell have both been throwing well for Fullerton.

This is a series without question that Fullerton should win, even though Pacific is playing much better over the last five weeks than they were earlier in the season. The Titans would like to sweep this series to make sure that they are still in sole possession of first place going into their series at Riverside next weekend but with as banged up as the team is, it looks like they will have their hands full and will probably end up winning two out of three games.

Diamond Club Newsletter (April 24, 2011)

CSF Baseball will continue to host and archive the Diamond Club newsletters throughout the 2011 season. Click on each page to enlarge:

Cal Poly Series Preview

Titans at Cal Poly (Thursday 6 p.m., Friday 6 p.m., Saturday 1 p.m.)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton had their fifth straight successful week with a midweek win against LMU that was followed by a sweep in a Big West series at Goodwin Field against UCSB in which the Titans won all three games by one run.

Fullerton won for the 16th time in 18 games with a 5-0 win last Tuesday at LMU. Colin O’Connell was outstanding in holding the Lions to only two hits in six innings with four strikeouts and three relievers followed with a scoreless inning each to preserve the shutout. The Titans jumped on LMU early with runs in each of the first three innings and that was the only scoring of the day. Fullerton was led at the plate by three hits from Carlos Lopez as eight of the starters either scored and/or drove in a run in a balanced attack.

Fullerton won the series opener with UCSB in a 3-2 pitchers duel with Noe Ramirez going seven strong innings and allowing only two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts for his Big West leading sixth win. Dylan Floro and Nick Ramirez each threw a perfect inning to shut the door on UCSB. Anthony Trajano and Nick Ramirez each had RBI’s in the 3rd inning to give Fullerton a 2-1 lead and Carlos Lopez broke the tie in the 6th inning with an RBI triple. Ivory Thomas had two of Fullerton’s five hits in the game and scored once.

The Titans clinched the series with a 5-4 comeback win over the Gauchos on Saturday. UCSB put together a four run rally in the 2nd inning and O’Connell came on in relief and threw 5 1/3 shutout innings, allowing five hits with nine strikeouts. Fullerton cut into UCSB’s lead in the bottom of the 2nd on an RBI HBP by Trajano and a SF by Ramirez and took the lead in the 6th inning when a SF by Ivory Thomas tied the game and Trajano’s RBI single gave the Titans the lead. The Gauchos were looking to tie the game in the 9th inning when they got a double off of Floro with one out and Nick Ramirez was brought into the game. The next hitter singled to RF but Michael Lorenzen fired off a laser to the plate to nail the runner trying to score. Ramirez retired the next hitter to record his Big West leading ninth save and the win went to O’Connell, who received the Big West pitcher of the week award for his two wins and 11 1/3 scoreless innings during the week. Chad Wallach scored twice in his debut at 3B.

Fullerton saved their best for last in another 5-4 comeback win to finish off the sweep of UCSB. Tyler Pill threw eight strong innings, allowing only five hits and no walks, and tied his career high with 11 strikeouts for the third time this season but his effort nearly went for naught because of some shaky defense behind him that made two of the three runs he allowed unearned. The Titans only scored twice in the first eight innings on RBI’s from Trajano and Wallach and trailed 4-2 in the 9th inning with two outs and a runner on first and it looked like the Gauchos were going to get a win in the series. Thomas singled the runner to third and stole second, which allowed Trajano’s single up the middle to score both runners and tie the game. Ramirez followed with a walk and Blake Barber won the game with an RBI single, setting off a celebration by the Titans in the middle of the infield. Thomas had two hits and scored two runs while Trajano had three RBI in the game and six in the series.

Fullerton has won six games in a row and 19 of their last 21 games and will be looking to extend their lead in the Big West standings when they play one of the teams that is tied for second at 6-3 in the conference race when the Titans head up the 101 to San Luis Obispo to play the Cal Poly Mustangs.

Cal Poly Mustangs

• Overall Record – 16-16 in 2011; 23-32 in 2010
• Conference Record – 6-3 in 2011 (2nd); 10-14 in 2010 (5th).
• Post-Season – None
• 2011 RPI/ISR – 98/80. 2010 RPI/ISR – 140/78
• Current ranking – None
• Predicted conf finish – 4th by the Big West coaches and Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

Cal Poly (16-16, 6-3) finished 37-21 and in third place in the Big West in 2009 and qualified for a regional for the first time as a D1 program after near misses in 2005 and 2007. The Mustangs expected to make a run at getting back into post-season play in 2010 with an experienced lineup and several starting pitchers returning. However, things did not go as planned in SLO and most of the season was a disaster and Cal Poly did not win any of their first ten weekend series and started the season by winning only ten of their first 37 games. The Mustangs got hot once the calendar turned to May and they went 13-5 the rest of the way, winning four of their last five series to go from the bottom of the conference standings to a tie for 5th.

Cal Poly figured they would ride the wave of momentum they built at the end of last season with an improved pitching staff but knew that they had some key pieces to replace in their offense after losing four players who started at least 35 games and hit over .320. The Mustangs got off to a very slow start when they lost their first six games at USC’s tournament (North Carolina, Missouri and USC) and at Oklahoma State and were held to two runs or less in four of the losses and lost four of the games by one run. Cal Poly’s fortunes started to change once they started playing at home and they went 8-6 going into Big West play with a sweep of Valparaiso and series splits with LMU (four games), UCLA (two games) and Minnesota (two games) with only two midweek games played on the road during that stretch. The Mustangs allowed 5+ runs in four of their first six losses but allowed three runs or less in half of their next fourteen non-conference games.

Cal Poly’s offense was held to four runs or less in half of their 20 non-conference games going into the Riverside series and the Mustangs continued to struggle scoring runs once the Big West season started. Cal Poly won the series with Riverside but scored only eight runs in the series and was shut out in their loss and they lost the series at UCSB when they were held to four runs in each of their losses, including a 13 inning marathon that decided the series. The Mustangs bats finally woke up last week when the schedule eased up when they scored 27 runs in winning all four games against Santa Clara and in their Big West series against Northridge. Cal Poly stretched their winning streak to five games with a come from behind 5-4 win against #12 Fresno State when they scored four runs in the 8th inning on four walks, an error and a single.

Cal Poly traditionally has a very good offense and their offense is what carried them to a regional in 2009 when they hit .325 and were at the top of the Big West in most offensive categories. When the Mustangs were winning only ten games through the end of April in 2010, they were near the bottom of the conference in most categories but their hot streak down the stretch moved them into the top third of the Big West in offensive production.

Cal Poly started out slowly again this season dealing with replacing four productive hitters, injuries and the new BBCOR bats. The Mustangs were last in the Big West in AVG and 7th in scoring and SLG before hitting well last week and moving up a couple of spots in each of those categories. Cal Poly has had an offense that was more power oriented the past couple of years but this season they are relying on trying to get guys on and moving them over, often by bunting and without too much running, and driving them in although that hasn’t worked out as well as they would like with a .260 average with runners in scoring position.

Cal Poly has had a law of diminishing returns with their pitching staff since Jerry Weinstein left as the pitching coach after 2006 as the staff ERA has gone up every season with an ERA of 5.90 in 2009 and the staff bottoming out as the worst in the Big West with a 6.75 ERA in 2010. The Mustangs have gotten back a couple of key contributors from previous seasons back after they missed most to all of last season and along with the new BBCOR bats the staff ERA has come tumbling down by over three runs per game to 3.55. Cal Poly has had a standout Friday starter and usually gotten solid starts out of the other two starters to go with a lights out closer and solid relievers to keep them in games most of the time despite the struggles of the offense. The Mustangs staff is in the top 20 nationally in K/9 IP, they have a solid BB/K ratio and teams are hitting under .250 against them.

Offense

• Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 92 (decreases offense by 8%). Cal Poly has a bit of a spacious ballpark (335 in the corners, 405 to CF) that plays big with lots of foul territory.
• Batting Average – .266 (5th in the Big West). .304 in 2010 (5th in the Big West).
• Runs Per Game – 4.7 (5th). 7.3 in 2010 (9th).
• Home Runs – 8 (6th). 49 in 2010 (2nd).
• Slugging Percentage – .362 (4th). .472 in 2010 (3rd).
• Walks – 113 (4th), 3.6 per game. 222 in 2010 (1st), 4.0 per game.
• HBP’s – 33 (5th). 54 in 2010 (6th).
• Strikeouts – 207 (4th), 6.7 per game. 419 in 2010 (9th), 7.6 per game.
• Stolen Bases – 21-35 (8th). 64-80 in 2010 (3rd).
• Sac Bunts – 44 (3rd). 31 in 2010 (7th).

Infield

Cal Poly returned starters at four out of five positions around the infield but some injuries and lineup decisions have resulted in some players being shuffled around.

C – JR #5 Elliot Stewart (RH – .268/.341/.423, 2-10-1; ’10 – .245/.292/.378, 3-13-0) missed the first two conference series with an injury but played last week against Northridge and went 4-10 with 4 RBI and hit 7th in all three games. FR #14 Chris Hoo (RH – 5-23) started five games in the first two conf series and had a game winning two run RBI single against Fresno State. JR #12 Jordan Hadlock (RH – 3-26; ’10 – .306/.367/.435, 2-16-2) has had a bad season after splitting time with Stewart in 2010 but did have a pinch-hit game winning and series winning RBI double in the 10th inning against Riverside.

1B/3B – SR #20 J.J. Thompson (RH – .343/.377/.444, 1-11-3; ’10 – .277/.375/.445, 4-22-3; ’09 – .292/.338/.439, 7-41-2) is a versatile player who was the starting 3B in 2009, the starting SS in 2010 and has been starting most of the time at 1B this season but could see time at 3B this weekend and played SS on Tuesday against Fresno State. He has been one of the hottest hitters on the team and has a ten game hitting streak and has had two or more hits in 13 of the last 20 games. Thompson has a big swing and has been in the top ten in the Big West in strikeouts in each of the last three seasons and he also isn’t a patient hitter with only six walks. He has been hitting 6th. Thompson had a good series at Fullerton in 2010 when he went 6-11 with an HR and 4 RBI and is 11-34 with 2 HR in his career against the Titans.

FR #24 Tim Wise (RH – 11-35 in 12 games) started the first three weeks of the season, mostly at 1B, but pulled a hamstring and played in only one game over the past six weeks. He returned to the lineup on Tuesday against Fresno State in LF.

2B – Soph #1 Denver Chavez (Both – .294/.402/.368, 0-7-1; ’10 – .233 in 73 AB’s) was a reserve most of 2010 until he got a chance to get into the lineup in May due to injuries to other infielders. He didn’t play much the first couple of weeks but has been playing well since moving into the lineup, although he has cooled off some and is hitting .250 in conf games. Chavez has been batting 2nd and he will almost always look to move runners by bunting because he leads the Big West with 13 SAC’s.

JR #8 Matt Jensen (RH – 8-40 in 11 games; ’10 – .270/.373/.453, 2-32-3; ’09 – .375/.493/.650, 9-53-2) was the Big West FR of the Year in 2009 and 1st team all-conf despite missing the last fifteen games of that season because of a broken collarbone. His bad luck with injuries continued in 2010 when he missed the last month of the season with a knee injury and he missed six weeks with a hand injury this season before returning to the lineup on Tuesday against Fresno State and played 1B. Jensen is a big power threat in the middle of the order when he is healthy. He went 3-12 at Fullerton last season.

SS – JR #2 Mike Miller (RH – .374/.455/.473, 0-18-4; ’10 – .160 in 25 AB’s) is a good defensive player with good speed but couldn’t crack into the lineup in 2010 because of his bat. He has been on fire at the plate this season and leads the Big West in AVG and is second in OBP. Miller is a very good contact hitter and has struck out only six times. He struggled in the Riverside series when he went 1-11 after missing the six previous games with a wrist injury but rebounded to go 9-25 against UCSB and Northridge. Miller has been hitting 3rd.

3B – Soph #11 Evan Busby (Both – .190/.333/.215, 0-6-0; ’10 – .286/.413/.401, 2-27-4) has stayed in the lineup due to injuries to Jensen and Wise but could be losing his spot in the lineup due to having a poor season at the plate. He is a patient hitter who was 6th in the Big West in walks in 2010 but he doesn’t have much power with only two extra base hits. Busby is a very good bunter and is 5th in the conf with 9 SAC’s. He went 2-7 at Fullerton last season.

Outfield

Cal Poly had four OF’s seeing regular playing time in 2010, with one usually at DH, and lost two of them to graduation – Luke Yoder (1st team All-Big West) and Adam Melker (honorable mention All-Big West).

LF – FR #15 Jimmy Allen (RH – .211/.263/.310, 0-9-1) wasn’t playing much earlier in the year and struggled when he was moved into the lineup but has hit a little better the last two weeks with seven hits in his last seven games and has been hitting 9th. FR #13 David Armendariz (RH – .164/.179/.291, 1-4-0) was given the first crack in the OF earlier in the year but also struggled to get going before being replaced by Allen. Wise has played a couple of games in LF and started there on Tuesday in his first game back from his hamstring injury and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him in LF this weekend.

CF – JR #23 Bobby Crocker (RH – 344/.438/.475, 2-12-7; ’10 – .351/.425/.505, 3-49-18; ’09 – .323/.419/.488, 5-24-10) is one of the better athletes on the team and is projected to be drafted in the first ten rounds in June. He has good speed and is the leadoff hitter. Crocker was predicted to be a 1st team All-Big West OF after being honorable mention in 2010, when he split time between CF and RF and was in the top ten in the conf in H, RBI and SB. He is in the top ten in the Big West in AVG, R, H, TB, SLG, HBP, OBP and SB. Crocker had a hit in 15 of his last 17 games and was hitting .403 during that time (27-67) before going 0-5 against Fresno State. He is 6-15 in his career against Fullerton.

RF – Soph #19 Ryan Haniger (RH – .223/.333/.330, 1-14-4; ’10 – .326/.386/.539, 7-46-7) was the Big West Freshman of the Year in 2010 and was second on the team in RBI and SLG but has gotten off to a terrible start this season and is stuck in a sophomore slump. He has been batting in the middle of the lineup despite struggling and has hit 5th most of the time recently and hit a little better last week when he went 6-17 in four games. Haniger is a patient hitter and is 7th in the Big West in walks. He was dealing with a back injury during the Fullerton series last season and had only one AB (0-1).

DH – SR #31 D.J. Gentile (RH – .279/.396/.369, 1-21-0; ’10 – .184 in 49 AB’s; ’09 – 304/.386/.459, 5-41-0) had a solid Soph season in 2009 but got off to a bad start last season and never got going. He has been in the lineup every day and usually batting cleanup and leads the team in RBI. Gentile is a patient hitter and leads the team in walks but has a big swing and also leads the team in strikeouts. Like most of the team, he didn’t hit well against Riverside and UCSB but was hot last week when he went 7-16 with 4 RBI in four games and had a seven game hitting streak snapped against Fresno State. Gentile is 1-14 in his career against Fullerton.

Defense

Fielding % – .965 (8th) with 40 errors. 2010 – .965 (8th) with 75 errors.

Cal Poly has been a poor fielding the team the last two seasons with players often playing out of position. Miller is a solid SS. Thompson is solid at 1B but a liability on the left side of the infield. Chavez is average at 2B. Busby is below average at 3B. Crocker is a very good outfielder, Haniger is solid in RF and Allen has been below average in LF.

Stolen Base Attempts – 31-41 (4th). 2010 – 50-74 (5th).

Cal Poly has been below average at slowing down the running game. Runners are 20-24 against Stewart so look for Fullerton to run often to try to create some offense.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 22 (2nd). 2010 – 69 (8th).

Cal Poly has been much improved at blocking pitches after being bad in that area last season.

Pitching

• ERA – 3.55 (5th in the Big West). 6.75 in 2010 (4th in the Big West).
• BA – .247 (3rd). .317 in 2010 (5th).
• Walks – 93 (4th), 3.1 BB/9 IP. 227 (8th), 4.2 BB/9 IP in 2010.
• Strikeouts – 264 (3rd), 8.8 K/9 IP. 338 (4th), 6.2 K/9 IP in 2010.
• Extra Base Hits – 66 (5th), 2.1 per game. 209 (9th), 3.8 per game in 2010.
• HR – 8 (5th). 45 HR in 2010 (5th).

Starters

Cal Poly lost their two main starting pitchers from last season with the third and weekday starting spots being split up by a bunch of pitchers who are returning. The Mustangs don’t have any pitchers in the rotation who were in there after the first month of the season but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

TH – JR #29 Mason Radeke (RHP – 5-1, 2.48 ERA, 9 GS, 58 IP, 47 H, 19 BB, 67 K, .216 BA, 1 HR, 3 HBP, 2 WP, 11-12 SB; ’10 – 3-1, 2.96 ERA in 4 GS; ’09 – 6-2, 5.31 ERA, 14 apps, 11 GS) was in the weekend rotation in 2009 after becoming eligible half way through the season and was expected to be the Friday SP in 2010 but had an elbow injury that limited him to making only four starts before missing the rest of the season. He allowed seven runs in his second start of the season at Oklahoma State and has been outstanding in his other eight starts with a 1.56 ERA. Radeke allowed only one run in each of his starts against North Carolina, LMU and UCLA. He has won all three of his conf starts against Riverside (8 2/3 IP, 1 R, 4 H, 4 BB, 7 K), UCSB (7 IP, 4 R, 3 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 13 K) and Northridge (7 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 2 BB, 7 K). Radeke is second in the Big West in wins and strikeouts, 3rd in IP and 6th in AVG. His fastball sits around 89-90 and he has a solid slider along with a curveball and a changeup. Radeke has not done a good job of holding runners so expect Fullerton to get runners going to try to create some offense. He won his start against the Titans in 2009 (8 IP, 4 R, 8 H, 2 BB, 5 K).

FRI – SR #40 Steven Fischback (RHP – 3-2, 4.11 ERA, 8 GS, 46 IP, 43 H, 11 BB, 34 K, .248 BA, 2 HR, 0 HBP, 3 WP, 6-7 SB; DNP 2010 and 2009; ’08 – 5-4, 4.55 ERA in 14 GS) missed the last two seasons after having labrum surgery on his shoulder. He threw a fastball in the low 90’s prior to the surgery but now relies on control and sinking his mid 80’s fastball and has a 69/28 fly ball to ground ball ratio. Fischback has been inconsistent with some good starts and some average ones, which is to be expected after not pitching for two years, but he has usually been able to keep his team in the game and has only allowed more than four runs once. In his Big West starts he lost against Riverside (6 2/3 IP, 3 R, 7 H, 2 BB, 5 K), got a no decision at UCSB (5 IP, 4 R, 6 H, 1 BB, 3 K) and got the win against Northridge (8 IP, 2 R, 0 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 7 K).

SAT – FR #32 Chase Johnson (RHP – 1-2, 3.23 ERA, 8 apps, 5 GS, 31 IP, 26 H, 15 BB, 21 K, .234 BA, 0 HR, 4 HBP, 2 WP, 1-3 SB) was splitting time between the bullpen and the rotation as a swingman earlier in the year but has been solid in the weekend rotation during conf games, although he hasn’t been able to get out of the sixth inning in any of his starts against Riverside (5 IP, 2 R, 5 H, 2 BB, 5 K), UCSB (5 1/3 IP, 4 R, 3 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 4 K) or Northridge (5 2/3 IP, 2 R, 0 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 1 K). Johnson relies on a mid to upper 80’s fastball, a changeup and spike curveball to get hitters out. His control can be off at times so Fullerton will be looking to work pitch counts but he does do a better job of holding runners than the other SP’s.

Relievers

The bullpen was a strength for Cal Poly during their run to a regional in 2009 but was a liability in 2010 with so many pitchers shuffling between roles that they weren’t suited to. The bullpen has been much better this season with a shutdown closer and roles clearly defined for their middle relievers.

Closer – JR #44 Jeff Johnson (RHP – 2-0, 0.74 ERA, 14 apps, 4 saves, 24 IP, 13 H, 7 BB, 35 K, .157 BA, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 1 WP, 1-2 SB; ’10 – 3-3, 6.90. ERA, 23 apps, 4 saves, 44 IP, 51 H, 17 BB, 53 K, .291 BA, 5 HR, 2 HBP, 7 WP, 3-4 SB) is easily the hardest thrower on the staff with a mid 90’s fastball that touches the upper 90’s and he has a filthy slider to put hitters away. Johnson is able to go several innings if necessary although he starts to lose command and walk hitters when he does. He went 3 2/3 IP to get the win against Riverside in extra innings (1 R, 2 H, 2 BB, 5 K) and 4 2/3 IP at UCSB (0 R, 3 H, 4 BB, 6 K) when he got a no decision in a 13 inning loss. Johnson hasn’t pitched since that game because the coaching staff has been resting him after he threw 83 pitches at UCSB.

SR #35 Frankie Reed (LHP – 1-2, 3.86 ERA, 14 apps, 1 save, 23 IP, 19 H, 8 BB, 32 K, .216 BA, 2 HR, 0 HBP, 0 WP, 2-2 SB; ’10 – 1-4, 7.81 ERA, 23 apps, 2 saves, 40 IP, 56 H, 20 BB, 22 K, .326 BA, 2 HR, 5 HBP, 3 WP, 3-3 SB) has usually pitched well and is able to go a couple of innings without too many problems and would be one of the main set-up guys to come in this weekend. The only outing he had trouble in during the last three weeks was when he allowed a 3 run HR at UCSB and took the loss. Reed allowed 5 R on 3 H and 2 BB in 2 1/3 IP in one appearance at Fullerton in 2010.

Soph #30 Joey Wagman (RHP – 2-2, 4.08 ERA, 10 apps, 4 GS, 1 save, 35 IP, 31 H, 11 BB, 28 K, .238 BA, 2 HR, 3 HBP, 4 WP, 3-5 SB; ’10 – 1-2, 7.09 ERA, 12 apps, 5 starts, 33 IP, 45 H, 24 BB, 25 K, .328 BA, 2 HR, 6 HBP, 7 WP, 3-5 SB) has made several midweek starts but has been working out of the bullpen since conf play started and would be one of the main set-up guys to come in this weekend. Except for allowing 4 R in 1/3 IP at Oklahoma State, Wagman has usually thrown well and has gone at least five innings five times and was outstanding against Northridge last week when he struck out eight hitters in 3 1/3 IP. He allowed one unearned run in 1 2/3 IP last season at Fullerton.

SR #17 Eugene Wright (RHP – 0-2, 5.27 ERA, 13 apps, 14 IP, 20 H, 4 BB, 11 K, .345 BA, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 3 WP, 1-1 SB; ’10 – 2-5, 7.35 ERA, 18 apps, 8 GS, 60 IP, 75 H, 32 BB, 40 K, .309 BA, 5 HR, 8 HBP, 7 WP, 8-12 SB) ended up pitching in the weekend rotation last season after Cal Poly ran out of options but profiles better as a reliever. He would be likely to come into the game in middle relief if one of the starters is taken out in the 5th or 6th inning.

The other two relievers who might see action this weekend are FR #27 Taylor Chris (LHP – 0-0, 6.48 ERA, 6 apps, 8 IP, 12 H, 4 BB, 11 K) and midweek SP JR #34 Kyle Anderson (LHP – 2-5, 4.59 ERA, 9 apps, 6 GS, 33 IP, 42 H, 11 BB, 25 K, .313 BA, 2 HR, 2 HBP, 2 WP, 5-6 SB; ’10 – 3-4, 9.10 ERA, 13 apps, 11 GS, 59 IP, 99 H, 20 BB, 33 K, .376 BA, 9 HR, 4 HBP, 7 WP, 14-16 SB). Anderson went 6 1/3 IP on Tuesday against Fresno State but Cal Poly doesn’t have a midweek game next week so he could be available out of the bullpen.

Outlook

Except for their lost weekend in the south when they went 0-4, Fullerton has played well on the road this season and gone 12-2 in the rest of their games away from Goodwin Field, which includes a series win at TCU and sweeps of Hawaii (4 games) and UC Davis so the Titans shouldn’t have too many issues with playing a series on the road for the first time in three weeks. Cal Poly is only 3-10 away from home but the Mustangs have played much better at Baggett Stadium, where they are 13-6, and they are looking forward to this series to show that they will be a factor in the Big West race.

Cal Poly’s offense has struggled most of the season but they have hit better in the last week or so. Fullerton’s offense has been inconsistent and they relied on timely hitting and bunching their hits together to score runs last weekend. Runs figure to be at a premium this weekend with the way that these teams have been hitting. The key thing to watch with Cal Poly is how they hit with runners on base, which has been a problem all season. The key thing to watch with Fullerton is how they are able to execute their small ball offense, especially the running game.

Fullerton’s starting pitching has some questions with Noe Ramirez questionable this weekend and Jake Floethe not throwing well in his last two starts. The Titans are going to need some starting pitchers to step up if Ramirez can’t pitch. Cal Poly will likely have an advantage with Radeke throwing in the first game and they have been getting solid work out of their other two starters, who have combined for a 3.00 ERA in their six conference starts.

Fullerton hasn’t been fazed by losing the first game of a series and coming back to win the series, which they have done twice against TCU and UC Irvine. It is very likely that if Cal Poly is going to have any chance to win the series that they must win the opening game with Radeke on the mound. If Fullerton doesn’t let Cal Poly build too much momentum in the series and sticks with their game plan of getting good pitching and scratching out enough runs, the Titans should be able to come out of SLO with a hard fought series win by winning two out of three games.

Diamond Club Newsletter (April 17, 2011)

CSF Baseball will continue to host and archive the Diamond Club newsletters throughout the 2011 season. Click on each page to enlarge:

UC Santa Barbara Preview

Titans vs. UC Santa Barbara (Friday, 7 p.m., Saturday 6 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m., Goodwin Field)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton had its fourth straight successful week since its return from a trip to the south, by winning a midweek game against Pepperdine and following that up with an important Big West series win against UC Irvine.

The Titans had 12 hits against the Waves and they took advantage of six walks, three HBP’s and five errors for an easy 13-3 win last Tuesday that was highlighted by nine runs in the 4th inning. Five pitchers saw action for Fullerton with the win going to David Hurlbut. Carlos Lopez was the hitting star for the Titans with a three run HR and five RBI in the decisive nine run inning. Richy Pedroza drove in three runs and Nick Ramirez, Tyler Pill, Lopez, Jared Deacon and Anthony Trajano all scored two runs apiece.

UC Irvine broke Fullerton’s nine-game winning streak last Friday in a series opening 15-3 rout. There were plenty of lowlights for the Titans and one of the few highlights was a HR by Ramirez to break up a shutout by Matt Summers and RBI’s by Matt Orloff and Michael Lorenzen, who also led Fullerton with two hits.

It was Fullerton’s turn to break a winning streak on Saturday as the Titans won a 2-1 pitching duel to snap the Anteaters six-game streak and tie the series. Noe Ramirez led the way for Fullerton by throwing 7 2/3 outstanding innings and allowed only one run on seven hits with nine strikeouts to earn Big West co-pitcher of the week honors and his conference leading fifth win. Dylan Floro retired the only batter that he faced and Nick Ramirez finished things off with a scoreless ninth for his Big West leading seventh save. The Titans didn’t have much offense in the game with only four hits. Nick Ramirez drove in Ivory Thomas with a SF in the first inning to give Fullerton the lead and the Titans broke the tie in the fifth inning when Irvine was unable to convert a 6-4-3 DP and the throw got past the 1B, allowing Deacon to score what turned out to be the game winning run.

Sunday baseball usually has more offense than night games at Goodwin Field and that was the case in the final game of the series as Fullerton broke out of their hitting funk against UC Irvine pitching and broke open a close game to win 10-4 and win the series on national TV. The Titans scored two runs early before the Anteaters took the lead with a four run fifth inning. Fullerton came right back with four runs in the bottom of the fifth and the rally was highlighted by Lorenzen’s three run triple. The Titans put together another rally in the sixth with Lopez getting the key blow with a two run single. Lorenzen had a monster game with 3 R, 3 RBI and one of the best catches you will ever see in the RF corner. Lopez also had 3 RBI, Deacon had 2 RBI, Pill and Trajano each scored two runs and Blake Barber finished off the scoring with the first HR of his Titan career. Floro was outstanding in relief and was the winning pitcher after allowing only three hits in 4 2/3 scoreless innings.

Fullerton continued to play well by winning for the 16th time in 18 games in a 5-0 win on Tuesday at LMU. Colin O’Connell was outstanding in holding the Lions to only two hits in six innings with four strikeouts and three relievers followed with a scoreless inning each to preserve the shutout. The Titans jumped on LMU early with runs in each of the first three innings and that was the only scoring of the day. Fullerton was led at the plate by three hits from Lopez as eight of the starters either scored and/or drove in a run in a balanced attack.

Fullerton looks to keep up their winning ways this weekend and extend their lead in the Big West standings in their second straight home series as the UCSB Gauchos pay a visit to Goodwin Field.

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos

• Overall Record – 13-13 in 2011; 23-30 in 2010
• Conference Record – 2-1 in 2011; 10-14 in 2010 (5th).
• Post-Season – None
• 2011 RPI/ISR – 112/99. 2010 RPI/ISR – 100/54
• Current ranking – None
• Predicted conf finish – 6th by the Big West coaches and Baseball America
• 2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

UCSB (13-13, 2-1) almost qualified for a regional in 2008 and was one of the last teams left out of the field after finishing tied for 3rd in the Big West but has slid back to mediocrity since then, going 28-23 (11-13, 5th) in 2009, 23-30 (10-14, 5th) in 2010 and starting out this season by winning half of their games. The Gauchos thought they had the potential to be a sleeper in the conference race after losing only three players who started 30+ games and one of their starting pitchers but they have played at their usual middling level of the previous couple of seasons.

UCSB never really got going in 2010 and lost series at San Jose State, Stanford and Sacramento State and at home to New Mexico State (all 1-2 series losses) with their only non-conference series wins coming at home against Northern Illinois (4-0) and San Francisco (2-1). The Gauchos won their Big West opening series with Cal Poly (2-1) and they proceeded to lose six straight conference series before sweeping their final series against Pacific during the Tigers collapse at the end of the season.

UCSB has played well at home this season with a 10-4 record against below average teams like La Salle (2-0), Sacramento State (2-1) and Nevada (2-0) but lost their series to San Jose State (1-2) when they blew a two run lead in the 9th inning of the opener. The Gauchos bounced back to win a hard fought series with Cal Poly last weekend by splitting the first two games before winning the final game in 13 innings.

UCSB has had trouble winning away from Caesar Uyesaka Stadium with a 3-9 record. The Gauchos scored only four runs when they lost both games at frigid Washington State in temperatures that were well below freezing, lost two out of three in a tournament at AT&T Park when they only scored seven runs and lost two out of three at Oregon State when they did get their offense going enough to score 16 runs but their pitching didn’t hold up when they allowed 17 runs in their two losses. UCSB has also lost two of their three midweek road games and scored only eleven runs in those games, including a 3-2 loss at Northridge on Tuesday.

UCSB had the worst offense in the Big West in 2010 despite playing in one of the more favorable hitting parks in the conference and finished last in scoring, AVG and OBP and 8th in SLG. The Gauchos offense has improved to the middle of the pack and they are 5th in scoring, 4th in AVG and 2nd in SLG. UCSB will play for the big inning and doesn’t play much little ball with two players accounting for 18 of their 26 SB’s and they are last in the Big West in SAC’s. The Gauchos are aggressive at the plate and don’t walk much and average under three walks per game (last in the conference) and swing for the fences (second in the Big West in strikeouts). UCSB struck out 37 times in the Cal Poly series.

UCSB had the potential to have a decent pitching staff over the last couple of years but hasn’t had much depth and haven’t had any power arms besides Joe Gardner in 2009 and Mario Hollands in 2008-2010. The staff ERA for the Gauchos was 5.56 in 2009 and 5.30 last season. UCSB has pitched better with the new BBCOR bats helping them to bring their ERA down over a run per game to 3.83. The Gauchos have had eight of their ten pitchers seeing regular action keep their ERA’s under four but their weekend rotation has been inconsistent due to the lack of power arms and pitching to contact. Most of their pitchers have solid control, averaging around three walks per game, but they have trouble putting hitters away and are 6th in the Big West in AVG and 8th in the conference in strikeouts.

Offense

• Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 115 (increases offense by 15%). UCSB plays day games and the winds coming in from the ocean are usually blowing out to LF.
• Batting Average – .270 (4th in the Big West). .276 in 2010 (9th in the Big West).
• Runs Per Game – 4.8 (5th). 5.6 in 2010 (9th).
• Home Runs – 9 (2nd). 43 in 2010 (5th).
• Slugging Percentage – .390 (2nd). .414 in 2010 (8th).
• Walks – 69 (9th), 2.8 per game. 181 in 2010 (6th), 3.3 per game.
• HBP’s – 19 (7th). 70 in 2010 (5th).
• Strikeouts – 208 (8th), 8.0 per game. 404 in 2010 (8th), 7.3 per game.
• Stolen Bases – 24-35 (6th). 59-78 in 2010 (4th).
• Sac Bunts – 16 (9th). 35 in 2010 (6th).

Infield

UCSB lost their starting C and SS and returns starters at the other three positions around the infield.

C – SR #21 Dan Camou (RH – .211/.286/.298, 0-7-0; ’10 – 4-16) and FR #3 Joe Winterburn (RH – 9-30) have taken over behind the plate for two year starter Marty Mullins. Camou was starting most of the time earlier but has gone into a 5-34 slump and Winterburn has been seeing more time recently and has been a little better offensively. Whoever is behind the plate will hit 8th.

1B – SR #35 Trevor Whyte (LH – .292/.396/.371, 0-18-0; ’10 – .304/.392/.443, 5-34-0) is in his second year as the starter, has been a solid run producer and is 10th in the Big West in RBI and 2B. He leads the team in walks (solid 12/13 BB/K ratio) and has done a good job of getting on base and has failed to get on base in only three games. Whyte has struggled recently and has gone 5-25 over the last seven games. He will be hitting 5th. Whyte went 1-10 against Fullerton last season.

2B – SR #10 Sean Williams (RH – .359/.398/.505, 1-13-1; ’10 – .268/.373/.379, 2-17-4) started last year at 2B and is one the most improved players in the Big West and one of the frontrunners for All Big-West honors at 2B. He is 2nd in the conference in AVG and among the Big West leaders in H, R, TB, SLG and TB but has cooled off a bit and gone hitless in his last two games with five strikeouts. Williams handles the bat well and led the team with 10 SAC’s in 2010 but there hasn’t been much need for him to bunt this season. He will be batting 3rd. Williams went 2-10 with one RBI against Fullerton last season.

SS – FR #16 Brandon Trinkwon (LH – .260/.309/.360, 1-5-0) and Soph #3 Steven Moon (RH – .231/.273/.365, 0-9-0; ’10 – 1-19) have split time at SS in taking over for two year starter Matt Valaika. Moon was starting almost every game for the first month of the season but Trinkwon started eight straight games before Moon got a start in the midweek game at Northridge on Tuesday. Moon is a little ahead of Trinkwon defensively but Trinkwon has a much better bat and is also a LH hitter. Trinkwon started out hot, including hitting a HR at the tournament at AT&T Park, but has cooled off and gone 3-23 the last two weeks. Trinkwon will be hitting 2nd.

3B – JR #17 Ryan Palermo (RH – .250/.277/.364, 0-13-1; ‘10 – .245/.311/.377, 3-25-0) is in his second year as a starter. He got off to a good start and is 4th in the Big West in 2B but has cooled off lately and is 9 for his last 47. Palermo has a big swing and has struck out almost 25% of the time. He will be batting 6th. Palermo went 2-10 against Fullerton last season but did have a good game in UCSB’s win when he got both of his hits and drove in a run.

DH – SR #22 Beck Wheeler (RH – 6-24; ’10 – .297/.326/.424, 2-22-0) and JR #8 Lance Roenicke (RH – .260/.315/.340, 0-3-1; ’10 – .196 in 51 AB’s) have split time at DH with Roenicke getting more of the starts earlier in the season when Wheeler was out of the lineup. Roenicke has trouble making contact and has struck out 19 times in only 50 AB’s. Wheeler started most of the time last season and has been playing more recently and went 2-9 last weekend, including the game and series winning RBI single in the 13th inning last Sunday against Cal Poly. Roenicke is a backup OF and Wheeler is a backup IF. Whoever is the DH will be hitting 9th.

Outfield

UCSB returned only their RF from last season and brought in a JC transfer to start in LF and has been using part-time players from 2010 in CF.

LF – JC transfer #40 Joe Wallace (RH – .236/.330/.416, 3-13-7) is a good athlete who has been inconsistent in his adjustment to D1 pitching. He was on a 3-30 skid before going on a 8-22 run, went 1-11 two weekends ago against San Jose State and then turned it around when he went 5-12 against Cal Poly and hit a game winning 3 run HR last Saturday and had two more hits at Northridge on Tuesday. Part of the reason that Wallace is inconsistent is he has a big swing and leads the team and is 5th in the Big West with 26 K’s. Wallace is tied for 3rd in the Big West in HR and is 5th in SB.

CF – SR #7 Ben Edelstein (RH – .238/.303/.288, 0-3-4; ’10 – .344 in 64 AB’s, 2-10-6) and SR #29 Derek Eligio (RH – .167 in 24 AB’s; ’10 – .277 in 47 AB’s) have been sharing time with Edelstein getting most of the starts. Edelstein has better speed than Eligio and is more likely to run on the bases. Edelstein has been in a 5-35 slump and has had issues with making contact and Eligio has started the last three games, going 2-11 with an HR last Saturday. Whoever is starting will be hitting leadoff.

RF – SR #25 Mark Haddow (RH – .358/.446/.600, 3-23-10; ’10 – .273/.373/.419, 6-26-17; ’09 – .298/.371/.521, 5-25-10) is probably the best athlete on team and has been watched by the scouts for a while due to his power/speed combination. Before going hitless Tuesday at Northridge he had hits in six straight games and 12 out of 13, when he went 20-50 with 16 RBI, and went 12-23 with 8 RBI the last two weekends. Haddow leads the Big West in SLG, TB and 3B and is among the conference leaders in AVG, R, H, HR, RBI, OBP and SB and is the biggest threat in the lineup. He has a big swing and has struck out between 25%-30% of the time over the last three seasons. Haddow is the cleanup hitter. He went 3-11 last season against Fullerton with all three hits coming in UCSB’s win.

Defense

Fielding % – .967 (7th) with 33 errors. 2010 – .968 (6th) with 67 errors.

UCSB plays on an uneven playing surface that is known for being difficult for infielders to get true bounces on grounders. The Gauchos are average around the infield with Williams their best infielder and Palermo has made too many errors at 3B. They have good speed in the OF with good athletes in the corner OF spots.

Stolen Base Attempts – 13-21 (2nd). 2010 – 59-72 (7th).

UCSB has done a much better job of slowing down the running game this season, especially with help from the pitchers. The Gauchos have picked off eight runners to lead the Big West.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 20 (2nd). 2010 – 26 (1st).

Camou is better at blocking pitches than Winterburn so Fullerton will be more aggressive at taking extra bases on Winterburn with balls in the dirt.

Pitching

• ERA – 3.83 (5th in the Big West). 5.30 in 2010 (4th in the Big West).
• BA – .270 (6th). .307 in 2010 (5th).
• BB’s/9 IP – 2.9 (1st). 2.8 in 2010 (2nd).
• K’s/9 IP – 5.9 (8th). 5.7 in 2010 (8th).
• Extra Base Hits – 54 (3rd), 2.1 per game. 165 (2nd), 3.0 per game in 2010.
• HR – 5 (2nd). 50 HR in 2010 (8th).

Starters

FRI – SR #28 Jesse Meaux (RHP – 2-3, 4.36 ERA, 7 starts, 43 IP, 50 H, 10 BB, 22 K, .298 BA, 2 HR, 6 HBP, 5 WP, 5-7 SB; ’10 – 8-3, 4.41 ERA, 18 apps, 14 GS, 2 CG, 3 saves, 98 IP, 123 H, 18 BB, 39 K, .307 BA, 7 HR, 8 HBP, 4 WP, 14-15 SB) is a control specialist who doesn’t throw hard and relies on keeping the ball down. When he is off and has to get too much of the plate, he is prone to giving up hits. Meaux has not gotten out of the sixth inning in his last three starts at Oregon State (4 2/3 IP, 4 R, 6 H, 3 BB, 1 K), vs. San Jose State (5 1/3 IP, 3 R, 10 H, 0 BB, 1 K) and vs. Cal Poly (5 2/3 IP, 6 R, 7 H, 3 BB, 4 K). He has not pitched well in his career against Fullerton and has allowed 14 R (12 ER) on 17 H in 9 IP in four appearances against the Titans.

SAT – SR #34 Greg Davis (RHP – 3-1, 3.38 ERA, 10 apps, 5 GS, 3 saves, 37 IP, 36 H, 10 BB, 18 K, .261 BA, 1 HR, 5 HBP, 5 WP, 3-6 SB; ’10 – 2-2, 4.91 ERA, 20 apps, 7 GS, 1 CG, 0 saves, 55 IP, 66 H, 14 BB, 47 K, .293 BA, 2 HR, 6 HBP, 2 WP, 13-17 SB) was primarily a middle reliever and midweek SP last season who threw well in relief but struggled with throwing extended innings as a starter. He has been a swingman and started most weekends but has also been the closer in midweek games. Davis threw well in a no decision against Rice in the tournament at AT&T Park (7 1/3 IP, 1 R, 9 H, 2 BB, 1 K) and in a win at Oregon State (5 1/3 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K) but blew the save in Meaux’s start vs. San Jose State (2/3 IP, 3 R, 3 H, 2 BB) and wasn’t sharp against Cal Poly (6 1/3 IP, 4 R, 6 H, 5 BB, 2 K).

SUN – JC transfer #27 Matthew Vedo (RHP – 3-4, 4.84 ERA, 9 apps, 8 GS, 1 CG, 1 save, 45 IP, 43 H, 26 BB, 31 K, .269 BA, 0 HR, 10 HBP, 2 WP, 0-2 SB) is the hardest thrower of the three SP’s with a low 90’s fastball. He is also the most inconsistent and has put 36 runners on base by walks or HBP’s in only 45 IP. Vedo threw well in four of his first five starts and had a 2.56 ERA, including a near no-hitter against Nevada (9 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 K) when he didn’t give up a hit until the 9th inning. He struggled in his next two starts at Oregon State (1 1/3 IP, 6 R, 5 H, 2 BB, 1 K) and San Jose State (4 2/3 IP, 7 R, 10 H, 6 BB, 1 K) but threw better against Cal Poly (7 IP, 4 R, 2 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 5 K).

Relievers

UCSB has an experienced bullpen with four pitchers returning from 2010, although a couple of them were starters last season so those two pitchers have the ability to go several innings.
Closer – SR #23 Nick Loredo (RHP – 3-1, 3.90 ERA, 11 apps, 5 GS, 4 saves, 30 IP, 39 H, 5 BB, 26 K, .322 BA, 0 HR, 4 HBP, 1 WP, 1-1 SB; ’10 – 0-5, 7.28 ERA, 18 apps, 6 GS, 2 saves, 56 IP, 75 H, 16 BB, 24 K, .329 AVG, 10 HR, 8 HBP, 1 WP, 0-1 SB) was in the weekend rotation early in 2010 but after some poor starts was moved into a long relief role. He has been much more effective this season as the closer and a midweek SP. Loredo has allowed 1 R on 6 H in 6 2/3 IP in six relief appearances. He is questionable for this weekend with a broken jaw after missing his start on Tuesday at Northridge. Loredo allowed 1 R and 3 H in 2 IP in one appearance against Fullerton in 2010.

SR #20 Nick Capito (LHP – 2-2, 3.54 ERA, 13 apps, 1 GS, 1 save, 28 IP, 22 H, 9 BB, 20 K, .218 BA, 1 HR, 6 HBP, 1 WP, 2-3 SB, 5 runners picked off; ’10 – 4-6, 7.09 ERA, 18 apps, 13 GS, 2 CG, 72 IP, 106 H, 19 BB, 42 K, .349 AVG, 13 HR, 11 HBP, 0 WP, 12-16 SB) was in the weekend rotation most of 2010 but like Loredo he has been much more effective out of the bullpen this season. He got off to a very slow start and allowed 9 R in his first 9 IP but has only allowed 4 R (3 ER) in his last 19 IP and was very effective in his two most recent outings when he got a spot start against San Jose State (5 2/3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K) and an extended relief outing to get the win in extra innings against Cal Poly (5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K). It will be difficult to steal on Capito because he has picked off five runners. Capito was battered by the Fullerton hitters in his start last year and allowed 14 runs in 4 2/3 IP.

SR # 31 Bryce Uhrig (RHP – 1-1, 2.76 ERA, 19 apps, 16 IP, 8 H, 4 BB, 13 K, .160 BA, 0 HR, 4 HBP, 0 WP, 1-1 SB) has been a workhorse out of the bullpen and has appeared in 11 of the last 13 games. He usually only goes an inning or so when he comes into the game and has allowed runs in only three of his 16 appearances, including his most recent outing when he blew the save at Northridge with Loredo and Capito unavailable to pitch.

JC transfer #18 Zak Edgington (LHP – 0-0, 3.38 ERA, 8 apps, 1 GS, 16 IP, 16 H, 5 BB, 5 K) got a spot start on Tuesday at Northridge after seeing only limited action previously and threw an outstanding game, leaving with the lead (8+ IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 3 K).

Others – these three are likely to only face 1-2 hitters when they come into the game.

JR #30 Matthew Brady (RHP – 0-1, 1.93 ERA, 13 apps, 4 2/3 IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 2 K; ’10 – 0-1, 3.86 ERA, 16 apps, 23 IP, 23 H, 13 BB, 8 K)

SR #41 Connor Whalen (LHP – 0-0, 3.38 ERA, 10 apps, 5 1/3 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 5 K; ’10 – 1-1, 4.00 ERA, 24 apps, 18 IP, 24 H, 15 BB, 21 K)

Fr #12 Cameron Cuneo (LHP – 0-0, 1.29 ERA, 11 apps, 7 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 6 K)

Outlook

Fullerton has been dominant at home this season and the Titans have won 12 of their last 14 games at Goodwin Field. UCSB has been below average on the road in going 3-9 away from home.

UCSB’s offense is improved and Fullerton doesn’t have the offensive firepower that they had in 2010 but the Gauchos have had issues scoring on the road, averaging 3.6 runs per game, while the Titans have been averaging almost seven runs per game after the opening weekend of the season.

Fullerton has much better pitching than UCSB. The Gauchos have also had an improved pitching staff but don’t have the arms that the Titans do. Fullerton’s team ERA aside from the LSU series is 2.11 and games like last Friday’s have been few and far between and UCSB doesn’t have the plate discipline that UC Irvine has.

Fullerton has traditionally had their way with UCSB and has won eight of the last nine series they have played against the Gauchos, primarily because the Titans have usually had the better team. Fullerton is a prohibitive favorite to win this series and the only time they have had trouble with UCSB the last three seasons was when Mario Hollands was pitching against them when he won two of his starts at home and nearly a third at Fullerton. The Titans should win at least two games this weekend, if not all three against the Gauchos.

Diamond Club Newsletter (April 10, 2011)

CSF Baseball will continue to host and archive the Diamond Club newsletters throughout the 2011 season. Click on each page to enlarge:

UC Irvine Preview

Titans vs. UC Irvine (Friday 7 p.m., Saturday 6 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m., Goodwin Field)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

The Cal State Fullerton Titans continued on their hot streak last week and they have now won nine games in a row and 13 out of 14 since their trip to the South. The Titans got last week started with a 5-3 win in a midweek game against UCLA, the team that eliminated the Titans in a Super Regional last season to leave them one step short of a trip to Omaha. They were led on the mound by Colin O’Connell’s six effective innings and three scoreless innings from Ray Hernandez and at the plate by Richy Pedroza and Ivory Thomas (two runs each) and Tyler Pill and Carlos Lopez (two RBI each).

Fullerton opened the defense of their Big West championship with a trip to UC Davis and won all three games against the Aggies by a combined score of 25-2, although two of the games were much closer than the totals would indicate.

The Titans were dominant in Friday’s game and scored ten runs in the last three innings on their way to a 14-0 win. Jake Floethe was outstanding and held UC Davis to two hits in eight innings and struck out six batters on his way to Big West Pitcher of the Week honors. Thirteen different hitters either drove in and/or scored a run and Fullerton was led by Joe Terry’s four hits with two runs and an RBI and Pedroza’s three hits and three runs.

Saturday’s game was expected to be a pitchers duel with two of the Big West leaders in ERA on the mound and it lived up to expectations. Anthony Kupbens held the Titans off of the scoreboard until the 8th inning when Nick Ramirez hit a sac fly to break the scoreless tie. Fullerton broke through against the UC Davis bullpen in the 9th inning for six runs with Anthony Hutting doubling in the first run, Thomas doubling in two more runs and Ramirez finishing things off with his third HR of the season. Noe Ramirez threw five scoreless innings and the bullpen trio of Dylan Floro, Hernandez and Ryan Ackland threw the final four innings in a 7-0 win for the Titans.

Sunday’s game was also a pitchers duel in which the Aggies hung tough but couldn’t get over the hump as Fullerton completed the sweep with a 4-2 win. Tyler Pill allowed two runs in seven innings and tied his career high with 11 strikeouts for the second week in a row. Nick Ramirez threw a scoreless 9th for his Big West leading sixth save. Ramirez had three hits in the game and drove in the first run of the game on his way to earning Big West Player of the Week honors. Blake Barber’s double drove in Casey Watkins to tie the game in the 7th inning and Thomas singled in Barber later in the inning to give the Titans the lead for good.

Fullerton returned home on Tuesday for a midweek game with Pepperdine and the Titans continued to swing the bats well at home with twelve hits and they took advantage of six walks and five errors by the Waves for an easy 13-3 win that was highlighted by nine runs in the 4th inning. Five pitchers saw action for Fullerton with the win going to David Hurlbut. Lopez was the hitting star for the Titans with a three run HR and five RBI in the decisive nine run inning. Pedroza drove in three runs and Ramirez, Pill, Lopez, Jared Deacon and Anthony Trajano all scored two runs apiece.

Fullerton looks to stay on their torrid pace this weekend with what figures to be one of the key series in the race for the Big West title as the Titans welcome their intra-county rivals from UC Irvine to Goodwin Field.

UC Irvine Anteaters

• Overall Record – 18-6 in 2011; 39-21 in 2010
• Conference Record – 3-0 in 2011; 17-7 in 2010 (2nd).
• Post-Season – 2nd at UCLA Regional (L 10-11 LSU; W 19-9 Kent State; W 4-3 LSU; L 2-6 UCLA)
• 2011 RPI/ISR – 49/23. 2010 RPI/ISR – 39/20
• Current ranking – 16th by USA Today/Coaches Poll, 19th by NCBWA, 27th by Collegiate Baseball
• Predicted conference finish – 2nd (tied) by the Big West coaches and 2nd by Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

UC Irvine went into 2010 with very high expectations after winning the Big West championship for the first time in 2009 with a 22-2 record and hosting a regional for the first time as a national seed and the consensus #1 team in the country. The Anteaters returned seven of nine position players and all of the pitchers who were responsible for UC Irvine having the best regular season in school history and were ranked in the top ten in most of the polls and rankings going into the season.

Things didn’t go nearly as well as expected almost from the start with UC Irvine losing three games at Coastal Carolina’s tournament and losing a series at Nevada as well as weekend games against lower level teams like Saint Mary’s and Sac State. After opening defense of their Big West title with a sweep at Northridge, the Anteaters dropped the next two series at home to Fullerton and Pacific and were sitting at 20-13, 5-4 in late April and unranked. UC Irvine recovered to go 17-6 the rest of the way to finish second in the Big West and qualify for the post-season as an at-large team. The Anteaters played well at the UCLA regional, where the lost an extra-inning game to defending national champion LSU. UC Irvine came back to beat Kent State and win a rematch with LSU before being eliminated by UCLA, who went on to Omaha and finished as the runner-up in the College World Series.

UC Irvine didn’t go into this season with the lofty expectations that the 2010 team had after losing all three starting pitchers and their closer as well as four of the leaders from their lineup who all had been starting for at least two seasons. The Anteaters were picked to finish second in the Big West and were on the fringe of the top 25-30 in most of the pre-season polls and rankings. UC Irvine got off to a very fast 13-1 start against a soft schedule that was rated in the bottom 50 nationally to that point with sweeps at home of Nevada and Sac State, three wins in the RBI Tournament and a split at Saint Mary’s along with some midweek wins. The Anteaters started to struggle once they started playing better teams and had to play on the road and they split games at LMU, lost a midweek game at UNLV and were swept at Gonzaga. UC Irvine scored a total of eight runs in those six games. The Anteaters have bounced back to win their last five games in a midweek game at USC, a sweep of Northridge to open Big West play and a midweek game at USD on Tuesday.

UC Irvine has had the best offense in the Big West this season and leads the conference in scoring, AVG, SLG and OBP. The Anteaters offense was on fire to start the season when they were playing almost all of their games at home and their home/road splits are pretty drastically different. UC Irvine is 14-0 at home and averaging 9.6 runs per game with an AVG/OBP/SLG line of .352/.468/.499 and a .967 OPS but they are only 4-6 on the road and averaging 2.7 runs per game with .220/.322/.256 numbers and a .578 OPS. The key to the Anteaters lineup has been the production from the first four hitters in the lineup, all of whom appear all over the place at the top of the Big West hitting leader board. The hitters for UC Irvine will work deep into counts and they lead the conference in walks. They also make very good contact and have the fewest strikeouts in the conference and average under five per game. The Anteaters will bunt often to move runners along and use the hit and run to get runners going but they don’t use straight steals much to take extra bases.

The pitching staff for UC Irvine has exceeded expectations considering the personnel losses that they had from last season as well as losing their pitching coach, Ted Silva, to LMU. The Anteaters have the second best ERA in the Big West as well as the second best AVG. UC Irvine has had a solid starter on Fridays but the other spots in the weekend rotation have been in a state of flux with pitchers going back and forth from the rotation to the bullpen. The Anteaters have had a pitching staff that goes ten deep and that has allowed them to mix and match starters and relievers with positive results. Even when they went 2-5 on their seven game road trip they only allowed an average of 3.3 runs per game.

Offense

• Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 87 (decreases offense by 13%).
• Batting Average – .300 (1st in the Big West). .308 in 2010 (4th in the Big West).
• Runs Per Game – 6.8 (1st). 6.6 in 2010 (3rd).
• Home Runs – 6 (4th). 41 in 2010 (6th).
• Slugging Percentage – .403 (1st). .445 in 2010 (6th).
• Walks – 109 (1st), 4.5 per game. 208 in 2010 (2nd), 3.5 per game.
• HBP’s – 38 (2nd). 82 in 2010 (2nd).
• Strikeouts – 117 (1st), 4.9 per game. 257 in 2010 (1st), 4.3 per game.
• Stolen Bases – 21 (5th). 40 in 2010 (7th).
• Sac Bunts – 23 (4th). 61 in 2010 (2nd).

Infield

Irvine has an experienced left side of the infield at SS and 3B but is breaking in new starters on the right side of the infield at 1B and 2B as well as behind the plate but all three of those players have seen playing time on at least a part-time basis previously.

C – JR #5 Ronnie Shaeffer (RH – .266/.333/.367, 1-11-0; ’10 – .318/.370/.439, 3-31-1) was 2nd team All-Big West in 2009 after hitting .388 as a FR, when he went from not playing much to 3rd in the conf in AVG and led the team in SLG and was 2nd in OBP. He was the DH in 2010 and the backup behind the plate to two-time 1st team All-Big West C Francis Larson. Shaeffer got off to a very slow start while playing every game at C and was only hitting .239 going into last week, including 3-21 during the seven game road trip, before going 9-19 with a HR and 9 RBI over the last five games against USC, Northridge and USD. He leads the team and is 9th in the Big West with 5 SAC’s. Shaeffer has usually been hitting 7th but was bumped up to 6th in the last two games of the Northridge series and at USD. He went 1-9 against Fullerton last season and is 4-20 against the Titans in his career.

1B – JR #43 Jordan Fox (LH – .362/.426/.436, 0-19-4; ’10 – .275 in 69 AB’s) was only a part-time player in his first two seasons (’09 – .289 in 38 AB’s) but replaced 2nd team All-Big West 1B and four year starter Jeff Cusick and has been one of the best hitters in the conference in the first half of the season. He is among the leaders in the Big West in AVG, OBP, H, R, RBI and TB and has been outstanding at making contact because he is among the national leaders in fewest strikeouts with only three K’s in over 100 plate appearances. Like most of his teammates, Fox struggled during Irvine’s road trip when he went 4-25 before going 6-14 last week against USC and Northridge. He will be hitting second.

DH – JR #33 Jordan Leyland (RH – .259/.312/.400, 2-19-1; ’10 – .301/.326/.494, 2-13-2 in 83 AB’s) was another part-time player during his first two years at Irvine (’09 - .310 in 42 AB’s) and was hitting around .300 before going 6-29 on Irvine’s road trip. Despite his recent struggles at the plate, Leyland is 4th in the Big West in RBI and usually hits 5th and will occasionally play 1B. He leads the team with 18 K’s and struck out three times last Friday against Northridge and didn’t play in the final two games of the series before going 1-3 at USD. SR #26 Jonathon Hurst (RH – 5-23; ’10 – .342 in 79 AB’s) was the DH last Sat and Sun, going 2-6 with 2 RBI while hitting 8th.

2B – JR #3 Tommy Reyes (RH – .278/.426/.370, 0-11-2; ’10 – .229/.369/.257, 0-9-4) has taken over for two year starter Casey Stevenson and gotten off to a good start after a bad Soph season. Reyes was honorable mention All-Big West as a FR when he hit .348 and played all over the field as a utility player. He started the year 11-25 before going 2-21 on Irvine’s road trip. Reyes drove in four runs out of the 9 hole against Northridge and went 2-3 at USD. He is a very good bunter and had two SAC’s last weekend.

SS – JR #32 D.J. Crumlich (RH – .319/.439/.451, 1-19-2; ’10 – .284/.396/.388, 1-16-2) has been known more for his defense at 3B as a FR (.261 in 2009) and at SS last year than for his bat but that has changed this year. He has been the guy to get the offense going out of the leadoff spot, leading the Big West in runs and is 3rd in the conf in OBP and has 21 BB/HBP while striking out only nine times. Crumlich started out hitting .400 in his first 50 AB’s and had a 10 game hitting streak earlier in the season but has cooled off since then by hitting only .205 in his last 44 AB’s. He went 2-9 last year against Fullerton and is 4-17 in his career against the Titans.

3B – SR #14 Brian Hernandez (RH – .340/.423/.404, 0-18-1; ’10 – .322/.389/.470, 4-44-5) was forced to redshirt in 2009 due to a paperwork issue with his transfer to Irvine but has been doing nothing but hitting line drives on a consistent basis as the #3 hitter in the lineup the last two seasons and was 1st team All-Big West in 2010 when he hit .371 in conference games. He was one of the few players who kept hitting on the road trip, going 9-29, and wore out Northridge’s pitching staff by going 7-12 in the series. Hernandez went 3-12 last season against Fullerton and hit a 2 run HR in the opening game of the series.

Outfield

Irvine lost several OF’s from last season and only has one starter returning with the other two spots being taken over by a part-time player and a redshirt from last year.

LF – SR #7 Drew Hillman (RH – .322/.406/.478, 2-21-4; ’10 – .352/.423/.582, 4-19-0 in 91 AB’s) hardly left the bench for much of the first couple months of 2010 as a JC transfer but once he got his chance to play, all he did was hit and he went 13-28 in Big West games down the stretch. He has continued to hit well this season as the cleanup hitter and is among the conf leaders in RBI, SLG and TB and had an 11 game hitting streak earlier in the season. Hillman got off to a great start like most of the hitters for Irvine but went only 9-35 in ten games before getting two hits at USD. He is a versatile player who will be a late inning replacement at 3B in save situations.

CF – JR #1 Christian Ramirez (LH – .273/.393/.409, 0-7-0; redshirt in 2010) didn’t play last year as a JC transfer with Irvine having a logjam in the OF. He has good speed but didn’t get much of a chance to use it early in the season because he was only 6-35 going into the Northridge series before going 6-9 against the Matadors and hitting a two run triple at USD. Six of his 13 hits have gone for extra bases (four 2B’s and two 3B’s) so the Fullerton OF’s will have to be ready to keep him from taking an extra base and turning singles into doubles. Ramirez is a good bunter and bunted twice for hits against Northridge. He will usually hit 8th but was bumped up to 7th in the final two games last weekend. Soph #12 Scott Gottschling (RH – 8-25) got some playing time while Ramirez was struggling but hasn’t played in the last four games except as a late inning defensive replacement when Hernandez went in to finish games.

RF – SR #2 Sean Madigan (LH – .303/.451/.395, 0-14-6; ’10 – .280/.364/.352, 1-29-1) is in his fourth year as a starter and is the last player left in the program who played for Dave Serrano. He was a regular his first two seasons (hit a combined .330 in ’07 and ’08) but injured his knee the second weekend of 2009 and had to take a medical redshirt. Madigan usually hit in the top of the lineup earlier in his career but has been hitting 6th most of the time this season. He is a gamer who will do whatever it takes to get on base (14 HBP’s the last two years) and is 2nd in the Big West in OBP and he has an outstanding 19/13 BB/K ratio. Madigan only went 4-25 on Irvine’s road trip but he torched Northridge’s pitching and went 6-10 with 4 RBI in the series. He is Irvine’s most aggressive base runner and is 6-10 on SB attempts. Madigan went 3-11 last year against Fullerton and is 9-37 in his career against the Titans.

Defense

Fielding % – .976 (1st) with 23 errors. 2010 – .974 (1st) with 62 errors. Crumlich and Hernandez are outstanding on the left side of the infield. Reyes and Fox are good athletes for their positions on the right side of the infield. The OF defense has been solid after being an issue last season with so many players being shuffled in and out of the lineup.

Stolen Base Attempts – 7-21 (1st). 2010 – 33-68 (1st). Larson was a good defensive catcher but Shaeffer has been outstanding at completely shutting down the running game. Fullerton will have to be more careful than usual on the basebaths to avoid running their way out of innings.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 26 (7th). 2010 – 40 (3rd). Shaeffer has had some issues with blocking pitches so the one way that Fullerton might be able to move runners up on the bases is by being aggressive with pitches in the dirt.

Pitching

• ERA – 2.88 (2nd in the Big West). 3.98 in 2010 (2nd in the Big West).
• BA – .234 (2nd). .267 in 2010 (2nd).
• BB’s/9 IP – 3.4 (6th). 2.6 in 2010 (2nd).
• K’s/9 IP – 7.3 (6th). 8.0 in 2010 (2nd).
• Extra Base Hits – 49 (3rd), 2.0 per game. 193 (6th), 3.2 per game in 2010.
• HR – 6 (6th). 34 HR in 2010 (2nd).

Starters

UC Irvine had to rebuild their rotation after losing three SR starting pitchers and another starting pitcher, Evan Brock, due to an injury and he was expected to be their Friday SP after he led the Big West in AVG and was 3rd in ERA in 2010. The Anteaters have used six starting pitchers and have had trouble with getting their SP’s to pitch deep into games and other than their Friday SP, the Irvine starters have gone less than five innings in eleven of the last thirteen games.

FRI – JR #25 Matt Summers (RHP – 3-2, 2.45 ERA, 7 GS, 40 IP, 29 H, 21 BB, 36 K, .201 BA, 0 HR, 9 HBP, 3 WP, 0-2 SB; ’10 – 2-2, 8.51 ERA, 21 apps, 4 GS, 31 IP, 40 H, 18 BB, 32 K, .317 BA, 5 HR, 6 HBP, 4 WP, 3-5 SB) barely pitched as a FR and was primarily a middle reliever in 2010 but he had a good summer and has developed into a good SP. He is a good athlete (also played OF last season) and has a live arm with a low 90’s fastball with his best secondary pitch a good slider with late movement. Summers is in the top ten in the Big West in ERA, K, AVG and IP and he is tough to hit but he has also had major issues with control so expect Fullerton to work counts. He has walked at least three hitters in four of his seven starts but has not allowed more than three ER in any of his starts (allowed 4 R with 2 ER in two of them). Summers getting his pitch counts up due to his control issues has limited him to only going more than 6 1/3 IP twice. He allowed one run on two hits in 1 2/3 IP in one appearance against Fullerton in 2010.

SAT – FR #30 Andrew Thurman (RHP – 1-2, 3.29 ERA, 9 apps, 4 GS, 31 IP, 35 H, 10 BB, 25 K, .299 BA, 1 HR, 2 HBP, 3 WP, 3-8 SB) did a solid job out of the bullpen in five appearances (12 IP, 14 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 11 K) and took advantage of some of the issues with other starters to move into the rotation. Thurman’s longest start has been six innings at Gonzaga two weeks ago (6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K) and he wasn’t able to get out of the third inning last week against Northridge (3 2/3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 3 K). He has been prone to being nervous early in his starts, like he was in his first weekend start three weeks ago at LMU (4 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 5 BB, 1 K) so expect Fullerton to try to put pressure on him to see if he will get rattled.

SUN – TBA

The most likely candidate to start is JR #13 Crosby Slaught (RHP – 3-0, 2.38 ERA, 5 GS, 23 IP, 16 H, 8 BB, 19 K, .200 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 3 WP, 2-2 SB; ’10 – Redshirt; ’09 – 8-0, 4.62 ERA, 16 GS, 76 IP, 87 H, 23 BB, 52 K,.297 BA, 2 HR, 5 HBP, 6 WP, 5-7 SB), who was the Sunday SP in 2009 but was a medical redshirt last season with an elbow injury. He threw well in his first four starts, allowing three runs or less in each of them, but sat out the last three weekends with a sore shoulder. Slaught threw three scoreless innings on Tuesday at San Diego and allowed only one hit and would be on a pitch count as he builds up arm strength while starting on short rest. He has a fastball that sits in the upper 80’s and his best pitch is his changeup. Slaught allowed one run on seven hits in 5 2/3 IP in his start at Fullerton in 2009.

Relievers

UC Irvine wasn’t sure what to expect out of their bullpen after losing the two SR pitchers who closed games for them and had thirteen saves in 2010. The Anteaters have been pleasantly surprised by the results from their relievers, who have been called upon early and often and six of them have already appeared in at least nine games. UC Irvine has several LHP options in the bullpen so expect them to see a good amount of work against Fullerton’s LH heavy lineup.

SR #14 Brian Hernandez (RHP – 2-0, 0.00 ERA, 11 apps, 6 saves, 12 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 10 K, .182 BA, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 1 WP, 0-1 SB) hadn’t pitched since high school but started pitching again during the fall and has been lights out thus far and shares the Big West lead in saves. UC Irvine would prefer that he doesn’t go into the game before the 9th inning to limit how much he throws and to keep his glove at 3B.

JR #21 Nick Hoover (RHP – 2-1, 2.05 ERA, 12 apps, 22 IP, 12 H, 5 BB, 14 K, .164 BA, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 2 WP, 0-0 SB; ’10 – 2-0, 2.48 ERA, 20 apps, 1 save, 29 IP, 18 H, 14 BB, 34 K, .186 BA, 1 HR, 3 HBP, 0 WP, 5-6 SB) was the most experienced returning reliever and he has been a workhorse out of the pen and is tied for 4th in the Big West in appearances. He doesn’t have any problems going several innings and last Sat he came into the game in the 4th in relief of Thurman and finished the game by throwing 5 1/3 innings, allowing 1 R on 3 H with 4 K. Hoover threw 2/3 IP against Fullerton last season without allowing a run.

Soph #28 Kyle Hooper (RHP – 3-0, 4.66 ERA, 7 apps, 5 GS, 29 IP, 36 H, 9 BB, 19 K, .316 BA, 2 HR, 1 HBP, 5 WP, 1-5 SB; ’10 – 0-0, 7.61 ERA, 18 apps, 24 IP, 45 H, 4 BB, 14 K) got his feet wet last year as a FR, often pitching in midweek games and mop up situations. He was in the rotation for the first month of the season but wasn’t able to get out of the 4th inning in his last three starts and was moved to the bullpen. Hooper came into last Sunday’s game against Northridge in the 3rd inning and threw 5 1/3 effective innings to get the win, allowing 2 R on 4 H and 1 BB with 5 K. He allowed 2 H in 1/3 IP against Fullerton last season.

Soph #44 Matt Whitehouse (LHP – 1-0, 2.65 ERA, 12 apps, 2 GS, 17 IP, 10 H, 8 BB, 18 K, .167 BA, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 0 WP, 0-1 SB; ’10 – 0-0, 4.50 ERA, 10 apps, 6 IP) is tied for 4th in the Big West in appearances. He started two games last week, throwing 4 2/3 shutout innings at USC but struggled against Northridge when he allowed 2 R and only went 2 2/3 IP. He threw 2/3 scoreless innings against Fullerton last season.

Soph #23 Andy Lines (LHP – 1-1, 2.45 ERA, 11 apps, 2 GS, 15 IP, 12 H, 9 BB, 11 K, .222 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 2 WP, 1-1 SB; ’10 – 1-1, 8.44 ERA, 20 apps, 11 IP) has done a good job out of the bullpen, allowing 3 R in 8 1/3 IP in nine appearances. He had a good spot start at LMU when he threw five shutout innings but struggled in his start at Gonzaga when he allowed 1 R on 1 H and 4 BB in 1 1/3 IP and was moved back to the bullpen last weekend.

FR #16 Jimmy Litchfield (LHP – 1-0, 3.00 ERA, 13 apps, 1 save, 15 IP, 16 H, 2 BB, 12 K, .265 BA, 3 HR, 0 HBP, 0 WP, 0-0 SB) is 3rd in the Big West in appearances and wouldn’t be likely to go more than an inning as a situational LHP.

FR #50 Phillip Ferragamo (RHP – 1-0, 2.35 ERA, 9 apps, 15 IP, 12 H, 4 BB, 9 K, .226 BA, 0 HR, 3 HBP, 0 WP, 0-1 SB) is one of the biggest players you will see on a baseball diamond at 6’8”, 260 and has quite a bit of upside.

Outlook

For both Fullerton and UC Irvine, 2011 has been a tale of two seasons. The Titans got off to an 8-7 start playing only five of their first 15 games at Goodwin Field and have gotten red hot, winning 13 of their last 14 games. The Anteaters got off to a blistering 13-1 start against a schedule played predominantly at home, lost five out of six games on the road and have won their last five games.

One of the keys to this series will be how UC Irvine’s offense does playing away from home. The Anteaters have been shut out four times and scored four runs in their other two losses in their six road losses. The pitching for UC Irvine has been solid both at home and on the road but the Anteaters are going to have trouble winning this series if their offense is shut down by a very good Fullerton pitching staff.

Another key to this series will be how the relatively inexperienced pitching staff of UC Irvine handles the pressure of going into Goodwin Field to face a Fullerton team that has gone 10-1 at home after losing the first game of the season and averaged 7.4 runs per game in their last ten home games. If Fullerton is able to put up a solid number of runs with the way their pitchers have been throwing, this figures to be a long weekend for the Anteaters.

The key intangible for this weekend favors UC Irvine. The visiting teams are 12-6 in the six series these teams have played over the previous five seasons and in each of the last four years, the home team was the higher ranked team and the visitors came out ahead each time.

It is doubtful that UC Irvine can win this series without winning the first game with the pitching advantage that Fullerton would likely to have in the next two games. If the Anteaters are able to sneak out what will probably be a low scoring game on Friday, they have a chance to win the series. If the Titans win the opening game, it would be highly unlikely that UC Irvine would be able to put together back to back solid games on the road the way they have played away from home to win the series with the way that Fullerton has played at Goodwin Field.