CSF Baseball

Playing Smart With Small Ball

2011-06-21T13:34:00.001-07:00

Editor's Note: With the impending coaching change at Cal State Fullerton, a topic that has resurfaced is the Titans' historical "small ball" approach. Beginning with Augie Garrido and then through George Horton and the just-departed Dave Serrano, Fullerton teams have generally adopted a style that involves much sacrifice bunting and aggressive baserunning.

Over the past few seasons, that style has become both predictable and reckless. But some small ball devotees refuse to see that the Titans' offensive approach need to adapt to the times. This does not mean abandoning the small ball approach entirely, but rather install an attack that's more diversified and less predictable.

The following is a statistical analysis provided by CSFBaseball contributor CSF, a former Titan who played from 1999-2003. A complete spreadsheet of the statistical information is also here via this link. We thank Cal State Fullerton SIDs Mel Franks and Mike Greenlee for making this available to us.

By CSF

Growing up a lot in the program, you do learn to appreciate a lot of the skills, like bunting. Doing them well can apply a tremendous amount of pressure on a team. Particularly when the offense can be as talented and diverse as we were most of the years I was in school. There were guys with power, lots of guys with speed, guys that were magnets for hit by pitches, guys that hit for very high averages, guys that had patience and guys that could do all kinds of bunts. Having all the weapons is incredibly beneficial. I want that to remain in place.

Like everyone is saying, it was the predictability and overuse that always gets to me. Sacrifice bunting is just one of the tools in the bag. It's not the most important tool. Use everything, use them all randomly. That's what I want. Complete diversity.

I'm going to go back to 2003 because I thought that was the year that we best personified diversity in the offense. That wasn't a great hitting team. It had a bunch of very good hitters, who had talents at a lot of different skills. No huge power threat, but Costa, Dorn, Boyer all had decent power. No unbelievable speed guys, but Costa, Turner, Boyer and Smyres were all fast enough and good baserunners. A lot of guys that could hit for a high average - Pilittere, Costa, Suzuki, Dorn and Prettyman were all over .340 AVG.

That team, which averaged 7.9 runs per game, only had 49 sac bunts on the season. In the 8 years since that team, nobody has scored more runs per game. Every team has sac bunted a lot more often. Other teams have had higher AVG, OBP and SLG. Others have stolen more bases. That team just did all of it. And they gave up a lot less outs per game then the more recent offenses. That's what I want to see again.

I found a better way to demonstrate all this stuff, take averages over a time frame that I think show the difference. The 2002-03 seasons demonstrate the type of offense I'd like to see in terms of acceptable bunting amounts and pickoffs (and I'm very surprised 2002 is in that cut, I thought we stunk that season). Here's a comparison of the average year during the 2002-03 seasons against the average Serrano year, 2008-2011:

(Click to enlarge)

See complete CSF offensive statistics in Division I (1975-2011)

In general, we are talking about virtually identical talent in terms of offensive capabilities. The batting average and on-base percentage are exactly the same. The H, 3B, BB and HBP are basically the same.

The Serrano years have a slight slugging advantage due to a few more home runs, where the 02-03 years hit doubles a little more. The Serrano years also have a slight edge at SB and stolen base percentage.

So you'd think with all other stuff being equal that the years with more stolen bases and home runs would clearly score more runs. That makes sense at least. As we've seen previously, that's not the case.

The 2002-03 years score 1/2 run more per game. That's actually a fairly noticeable difference this time around. Why? Once again, it's giving up outs. The Serrano years have far more sac bunts, pickoffs and caught stealing on the season. It averages out to about 1 extra out per game given up - and over 2 full outs per game - during the Serrano years.

When you spread all of this over an entire season, the Serrano years give away a little over 2 full games worth of outs compared to the 2002-03 offenses. Maybe showing it in a big number like that changes everything. It's a total of about 19 innings more each year being given away in the Serrano years than in 2002-03.

I've had this conversation tons of times. Maybe not with those exact numbers, but with the overall philosophy. People who have been raised to live by the sac bunt refuse to believe that baseball has evolved in any way.

What's Next for Fullerton Baseball

2011-06-15T23:40:00.000-07:00

By Samuel Chi

When George Horton decided to leave for Oregon four years ago, I was in a panic. But when AD Brian Quinn quickly moved to replace Horton with Dave Serrano, I was both relieved and elated. I thought Serrano was just the right guy to take over the program. He did a great job as the pitching coach under Horton and built UC Irvine into Fullerton's primary rival in the Big West - even beating us in the 2007 CWS. It was a zero-sum game, with Fullerton squarely in the win column and Irvine in the loss column.

He did well in the first season, though we lost in the Supers at Goodwin Field against Stanford. That was OK. Our team was young and despite being a national seed, that Stanford team was better and more experienced than us. No qualms about his performance that season. In fact, we overachieved.

He did better in '09, getting us a No. 2 national seed despite not winning the Big West, the only one of his four Fullerton teams that failed to do so. It also turned out to be his only Omaha team. The Titans breezed through the regionals and Supers, but surprisingly went 2-and-Q in the CWS. That was the first time I questioned his coaching acumen. During the pre-tournament press conference, he brazenly announced that Fullerton would go with its No. 2 pitcher, Noe Ramirez, in the opener against unseeded Arkansas, leaving unsaid that we were "saving" our ace Daniel Renken for the second game. Noe may eventually turn out to be a better pitcher than Renken, but he was a freshman that season and he wasn't ready to handle a Hogs team that rightly felt 'disrespected.' We got blown out in the opener and then dropped the second game against Virginia and was unceremoniously sent home early.

It was in 2010 that I began having some issues with his coaching overall. He pressed the team early and dug them into a hole really for no apparent reason. The Titans battled back during the conference season and won the Big West going away, but all the early-season losses would haunt them, as they failed to secure a national seed and faced a daunting task of having to beat a tough UCLA team on its field in the Supers. But despite not having Gary Brown for just about the entire postseason and having to rebound from a first-game loss at the regionals, the Titans were one out away from going to Omaha again.

That's where everything turned. Little-used Raymond Hernandez was tasked to get the last out, and despite pitching well in the regionals, he was overwhelmed by the moment. After two quick outs that brought us to the edge of our seats, he practically hyperventilated and walked the next batter on four pitches. Up came Tyler Ramatullah, who deposited a 2-1 pitch over the left field fence to save the Bruins. The Titans had a chance in the bottom of the ninth to win it, but amazingly, Richy Pedroza wasn't called on to put down a suicide squeeze, which the moment called for. We stranded the winning run on third with one out, and the loss of that series became the most crushing defeat in Fullerton's glorious history.

The 2011 season was a debacle, and it began in the fall with the poorly handled and abrupt firing of assistant Sergio Brown. Serrano also completely lost this team, both in terms of discipline and fundamentals. It played without much passion and its lack of execution was appalling. It also lost a bunch of big road games early, repeating the 2010 pattern that ultimately cost us a national seed. His coaching was indifferent down the stretch (and now we know why) and while we were bounced out of our own regional by the fourth-seeded Illinois, it was in some ways not that shocking. That loss was a perfect illustration of all of this team's deficiencies, including coaching.

When the Tennessee rumors swirled around after Todd Raleigh's firing, I was more than prepared for Serrano's departure. I knew his ties to the program and certainly would not begrudge him the opportunity. But I was still hoping that he'd return, even with my misgivings over the past two seasons. He was a better coach than seemingly everyone that was available out there - short of George Horton coming back. In his seven seasons as a head coach, he took two teams to the CWS, made the regionals six times, the Supers four times, won 40 games in each of this four seasons at Fullerton and the conference title three times. That's a heck of a resume. We at Fullerton have been spoiled by an amazing run of success and sometimes we take the greatness of our program and coaches for granted.

At the same time, though, I wasn't going to cry over his leaving the program. I wasn't fond of the way he handled the team this season when we clearly underachieved. And there was evidence that his mind was perhaps elsewhere during the crucial late-season stretch. The program has regressed somewhat - at least in the postseason, which is the only thing that counts at Fullerton. So it's just as well that he moved on.

This is a crucial moment for Titan baseball, if we wish to continue our run of excellence. Quinn hit a home run with the Serrano hire four years ago, and he'll have to deliver again. He'll have to look beyond just those with Fullerton ties. That would be nice, but our goal should be getting the best coach available, not settling for someone just because at one time he put on the Fullerton gear. This is a premier job, and one of the most well-paid west of the Rockies. There should be no shortage of quality candidates.

The cupboard isn't bare, but it isn't exactly overflowing, either. If we fail to reach Omaha next year, it would match the longest drought in our Division I history. So the new coach will have much work to do and a short time to accomplish that. Fullerton has never hired a bad coach (in fact, Dave Serrano so far is the only Titan coach who's never won a national championship), and we can't afford this next one to be the first.

A History of Titans Baseball

2011-06-03T19:20:00.000-07:00

Fullerton Regional Preview

2011-06-02T21:56:00.000-07:00

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton went into last weekend needing only one win to clinch their second straight Big West title and it took a little longer than expected last weekend to clinch the conference championship but the Titans eventually did take care of business at Cal State Northridge.

Fullerton came back from their weekend off in the Big West schedule and extended their winning streak to five games with a 6-4 win against San Diego. Michael Lorenzen drove in two runs with a two out single in the fourth inning to give the Titans the lead and Fullerton scored four more runs in the seventh inning to give them a five run lead with Tyler Pill finishing off the scoring with a two run single. The Toreros rallied to score three runs in the ninth and Nick Ramirez was summoned over from 1B to finish things off for his Big West leading fifteenth save.

The Titans drove up to Northridge and didn’t play well in losing the opener of the series 5-4 last Friday. Vincent Roberts held the Titans to only two hits before being taken out in the seventh and Fullerton only had five hits on the day. Fullerton trailed 2-0 going into the seventh and scored once only to see the Matadors score twice in the seventh to increase the lead. Fullerton came back with a two runs in the eighth to cut the lead to 4-3 only to have Northridge score again. The Titans tried to come back once more in the ninth and scored once to cut the lead to 5-4 but couldn’t get the tying run across. Fullerton’s bugaboo this season reared its ugly head again as the Titans committed two errors and there were a couple of more plays that were charitably ruled hits.

Fullerton finally clinched the Big West conference championship on Saturday with a 6-0 win. Tyler Pill threw seven shutout innings and allowed only five hits with no walks and six strikeouts. Ryan Ackland finished things off by allowing only one hit in two innings. The Titans jumped out to a lead on a two run double in the first inning by Nick Ramirez and scratched out a run in the second but were held down until breaking out for three runs in the seventh to put the game away with Carlos Lopez and Greg Velasquez having RBI singles in the inning. The first seven batters in the lineup all had hits for the Titans.

Fullerton wrapped up the regular season and the series with an 11-6 win. The Titans had their hitting shoes on as they rapped out seventeen hits and four hitters had three hits - Lorenzen, Jared Deacon , Richy Pedroza and Pill, who also had four RBI and hit his first HR of the season. Christian Coronado threw five effective innings in his first start for the win and Ramirez came in late when Northridge started to rally to finish things off for his sixteenth save as he moved into second on Fullerton’s single season save list and tied the school career save record that he now shares with former Titan standout Chad Cordero.

Post-season play starts this weekend with Fullerton hosting a regional for the eighth time in nine seasons at Goodwin Field. The first game of the regional will be played at 4:00 on Friday with the second seeded Stanford Cardinal playing the third seeded Kansas State Wildcats. The second game will be played at 8:00 on Friday with Fullerton playing the fourth seeded Illinois Fighting Illini.

2 Seed – Stanford Cardinal

Overall Record – 32-20
Conference Record – 14-12 (5th place)
How they qualified for a regional – At-large
Last Regional Appearance – 2010 (0-2 at Fullerton regional. Lost to New Mexico and Fullerton)
RPI/ISR – 15/16
SOS – 24 (RPI)/3 (ISR)
Record vs. tournament field – 13-12
Record vs. top 50/top 100 RPI – 13-12/20-18

Season Summary

Stanford had similar records the past two seasons, going 30-25, 13-14 in 2009 and 31-25, 14-13 in 2010 but they didn’t play in a regional two years ago and were eliminated after losing their first two games at the Fullerton regional last season. The Cardinal entered this season with high expectations after returning six regular position players and most of their pitching staff from 2010 and bringing in one of the best recruiting classes in the country. Stanford was picked to finish second by the Pac Ten coaches and they were ranked in the top twenty in just about every pre-season poll and ranking.

Stanford got off to a slow start this season against a schedule that would make just about any team in the country start slowly with three straight road series at national seeds Rice, Vanderbilt and Texas. The Cardinal won the series at Rice but lost two of three to both Vanderbilt and Texas. Stanford has been an inconsistent team that has only won seven of their thirteen weekend series, winning series against regional teams like UCLA, Arizona and Cal and losing series to teams that aren’t playing in the post-season like USC and Oregon. They also lost both series to regional hosts Oregon State and ASU. Despite being an experienced team, Stanford is also a young team with FR and Soph’s holding down seven spots in the lineup.

Stanford has recruited very well the last two years and the result has been an increase in the talent level around the diamond. The Cardinal improved their team average from .288 to .300 this season despite having to use the new BBCOR bats. Stanford is pretty much a station to station offense that looks to put together rallies by stringing several hits together and doesn’t rely too much on hitting HR’s or small ball and ended up 9th in the Pac Ten in SB and SAC’s. The Cardinal also isn’t a patient team at the plate and ranked last in the Pac Ten in walks and finished in the middle of the pack in the conf in strikeouts. Stanford has had their issues with scoring runs and they have been held to four runs or less in about half of their games.

Stanford anticipated they would have a good pitching staff with the return of almost every pitcher except for their closer but they got some bad news right before the season when their expected Friday starter was injured and lost for the season. The Cardinal shuffled some pitchers into different roles and they have pitched well most of the time with their staff ERA coming down over a run per game to 3.50. Stanford’s staff isn’t particularly deep and they have relied mostly on seven pitchers but six of them have ERA’s in the low 4’s or better. Stanford has held their opponents to four runs or less in 34 of 52 games.

Offense

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 87 (decreases offense by 13%).
Batting Average – .300 (NCAA ranking – 51, Conf ranking 3)
Runs – 278 (189, 4), 5.3 per game
Home Runs – 23 (167, 6)
Stolen Bases – 29 (276, 9)
Slugging Percentage – .406 (85, 3)
On Base Percentage – .360 (DNR, 4)
Walks – 148 (265, 10), 2.8 per game
HBP’s – 34 (268, 10)
Sac Bunts – 25 (254, 9)
Strikeouts – 378 (DNR, 4), 7.3 per game

Batting Order

C #5 SR Zack Jones (RH – .268/.343/.432, 4-28-6) is in his fourth year as a starter and is a good athlete for a catcher, splitting time between 3B and C during his career and catching every game this season. He led Stanford with ten SB’s in 2010. Jones got off to a terrible start with only one RBI in the first month of the season but has hit well over .300 the last two months and tied for the team lead in HR. He is a good bunter and is tied for the team lead with five SAC’s. Jones missed the 2010 regional with a broken finger and is 7-29 with six RBI in his career against Fullerton.

DH #29 SR Ben Clowe (RH – .232/.307/.360, 2-10-2) has started games at C, 1B and OF during his career but has primarily been the DH this season and started in about half of their games. He hit .346 in part-time duty in 2010. Clowe is tied for the team lead with five SAC’s. He is 3-11 in his career against the Titans and went 1-5 last season at Fullerton.

LF #7 Soph Tyler Gaffney (RH – .320/.421/.478, 3-32-6) is one of the best athletes on the team and is a RB on the football team. He has a good power/speed combo and leads the team in SLG and SB. Gaffney also has very good plate discipline with a solid BB/K ratio (28/28) and leads the team in walks. He is currently on a 17 game hitting streak. Gaffney was honorable mention All-Pac 10. He went 2-5 with a HR last season at Fullerton.

3B #25 Soph Stephen Piscotty (RH – .361/.424/.455, 2-36-2) is the only player for Stanford who was named 1st team All-Pac 10 after finishing in the top ten in the conference in AVG, H, TB and OBP. He was second on the team in RBI. Piscotty was converted from the OF this season and has done a solid job defensively after a slow start adjusting to the hot corner. He went 2-5 with a HR and 4 RBI last season at Fullerton.

1B #21 FR Brian Ragira (RH – .321/.358/.466, 4-40-1) was the Pac 10 Freshman of the Year and honorable mention all-conference. He tied for the team lead in HR, led the team in RBI and finished second in AVG and SLG. Ragira has below average plate discipline with a 13/44 BB/K ratio and finished in the top ten in the Pac 10 in strikeouts.

SS #3 Soph Kenny Diekroger (RH – .299/.353/.373, 2-29-2) was a second round draft pick out of HS and was the Pac 10 Freshman of the Year in 2010 when he led the team with a .356 AVG and 41 RBI. He was hitting over .400 for most of the first half of the season before slumping during the Pac 10 schedule. Diekroger went 1-3 last season at Fullerton.

RF #30 FR Austin Wilson (RH – .313/.349/.413, 4-22-1) was a potential first round pick out of HS and was drafted only in the 12th round because of his decision to go to school. He has strong potential to be a power hitter as he gains more experience and is tied for the team lead in HR and was honorable mention All-Pac 10. Wilson hit well during the Pac 10 schedule and raised his average over 30 points from where it was during the non-conf schedule. He needs to improve his plate discipline because he has a bad 7/53 BB/K ratio.

2B #8 FR Lonnie Kauppila (Both – .288/.333/.359, 1-20-0) was hitting under .200 for the first month of the season before going on a scorching hot 15-20 stretch the first week of April and has been hitting in the .300’s since then. Kauppila doesn’t walk much but does a good job of making contact (11/23 BB/K ratio).

CF #24 Soph Jake Stewart (RH – .294/.341/.394, 0-18-7) is a very good athlete and was starting to hit well before having his appendix removed the first week of May. He missed ten games and recently returned to the lineup. #11 SR Dave Giuliani (Both –.286 in 63 AB’s) has been a part-time player most of the season but has gotten some playing time recently due to Stewart’s absence and usually played LF with Gaffney shifting over to CF.

Defense

Fielding .968 (89, 9) – 65 errors. Double Plays – 45 (113, 3)

Stanford is not as sharp of a fielding team as usual by their standards, especially considering the athletic ability at most positions. Ragira and Piscotty are solid on the corners (six of Piscotty’s twelve errors were in the first thirteen games). Kauppila has been outstanding at 2B. Diekroeger has been inconsistent at SS in his first year there and leads the conf in errors but has great range and is second in the Pac 10 in assists. Gaffney, Stewart and Wilson are all good athletes in the OF. Gaffney and Stewart have very good speed and Wilson has one of the strongest arms in the Pac 10.

Stolen Base Attempts – 29-45 (DNR, 3). Jones has improved against the running game after runners were 36-44 against him in 2010.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 49 (DNR, 9). Jones is a good athlete behind the plate but has struggled with blocking pitches.

Pitching

ERA – 3.50 (56, 6)
AVG – .254 (DNR, 6)
HR – 20 (DNR, 6)
Walks – 170 (100, 7), 3.5 BB/9 IP
Strikeouts – 362 (93, 7), 7.3 K/9 IP

Starting Pitchers

Stanford had some issues with the rotation earlier in the season after losing projected Friday SP Brett Mooneyham to a finger injury. Their Friday SP was converted from a reliever, two of the other SP’s were weekend starters last year and the fourth one has started quite a bit during his career.

FRI – #26 Soph Mark Appel (RHP – 5-6, 3.02 ERA, 15 GS, 1 CG, 95 IP, 100 H, 26 BB, 75 K, .281 BA, 1 HR, 7 HBP, 7 WP, 3-10 SB) is the one power arm in the rotation with a mid 90’s fastball along with a good slider and changeup and he will be a first round pick in 2012. He allowed two runs or less in five straight Pac 10 starts before struggling in two of his next three starts when he allowed seven runs at ASU and six runs (4 ER) at Oregon. Appel rebounded in his two most recent starts against Arizona (8 IP, 0 R) and Cal (7 1/3 IP, 2 R, 1 ER).

SAT – #28 SR Danny Sandbrink (RHP – 3-1, 3.50 ERA, 1 save, 12 apps, 7 GS, 1 CG, 54 IP, 45 H, 14 BB, 39 K, .230 BA, 3 HR, 2 HBP, 3 WP, 4-8 SB) has been a swingman between the bullpen and the rotation during his career. He relies on control, changing speeds and spotting his fastball to get hitters out. Sandbrink was a long reliever and midweek SP earlier this year and moved into the rotation a few weeks into the Pac 10 schedule. He allowed 2 R in 5 1/3 IP against UCLA and had a CG win at ASU (4 R) in his first two conf starts but struggled at Oregon (1 1/3 IP, 4 R) before throwing better against Arizona (6 IP, 4 R). Sandbrink threw 2 2/3 scoreless innings at Fullerton in 2010.

SUN – #16 JR Jordan Pries (RHP – 5-5, 3.53 ERA, 15 GS, 87 IP, 89 H, 30 BB, 68 K, .276 BA, 4 HR, 10 HBP, 11 WP, 2-6 SB) allowed 3 ER or less in his seven starts before struggling against the meat of the Pac 10 schedule when he allowed 4-5 runs in four of his next five conf starts. Pries threw well the last two weeks against Arizona (7 IP, 1 R) and Cal (7 1/3 IP, 2 R, 1 ER). He isn’t a hard thrower but relies on spotting his fastball and gets in trouble when he gets his pitches up. Pries allowed 4 R in 4 IP in his relief appearance at Fullerton in 2009 and allowed 5 R in 6 1/3 IP against New Mexico at the Fullerton regional in 2010.

TUES – #19 Soph Dean McArdle (RHP – 7-4, 4.15 ERA, 15 apps, 12 GS, 56 IP, 55 H, 22 BB, 30 K, .257 BA, 7 HR, 4 HBP, 3 WP) leads the pitching staff in wins and was in the weekend rotation for most of the season before being moved into the midweek spot in late April. When he was in the weekend rotation he had trouble getting past the middle innings and only went past the fifth inning in two of his eight starts. McArdle relies on control and changing speeds and when he is off he has struggled pitching deep into games.

Relief Pitchers

Stanford is 26-1 when leading after seven innings so if they have the lead late the game is pretty much over. The Cardinal has been relying primarily on three relievers at the back end of the bullpen.

Closer – #33 JR Chris Reed (LHP – 6-2, 2.61 ERA, 27 apps, 48 IP, 35 H, 14 BB, 48 K, .205 BA, 1 HR, 4 HBP, 9 WP, 2-3 SB) has been a shutdown closer with a 92-94 fastball and a good curve and is especially tough on LH hitters. He is able to go 2-3 IP when called upon to do so. Reed is projected to be picked in the first two rounds of the draft next week.

#36 JR Scott Snodgress (LHP – 2-2, 4.65 ERA, 2 saves, 25 apps, 31 IP, 27 H, 28 BB, 38 K, .231 BA, 1 HR, 2 HBP, 1 WP, 2-3 SB) is a big lefty with a low 90’s fastball who is projected to be picked around the fifth round in the draft next week.

#17 FR A.J. Vanegas (RHP – 1-0, 3.35 ERA, 22 apps, 3 GS, 40 IP, 36 H, 20 BB, 30 K, .247 BA, 0 HR, 7 HBP, 4 WP, 1-3 SB) is another power arm in the bullpen with a 92-94 fastball and a good curve. He was drafted in the seventh round out of HS despite his commitment to go to school.

None of the other relievers have made more than eight appearances.

3 Seed – Kansas State Wildcats

Overall Record – 36-23
Conference Record – 12-14 (6th place)
How they qualified for a regional – At-large
Last Regional Appearance – 2010 (1-2 at Arkansas Regional. Lost twice to Washington State, Beat Grambling)
RPI/ISR – 41/43
SOS – 49 (RPI)/60 (ISR)
Record vs. tournament field – 7-14
Record vs. top 50/top 100 RPI – 10-14/21-21

Season Summary

Kansas State had never qualified for a regional prior to 2009 when they went 41-16. They had one of the better teams in school history in 2010 when they went 37-22, finished third in the Big XII at 14-12 and qualified for a regional for the second consecutive year. The Wildcats were expected to take a slight step back this season after losing four players who hit .330 or better and were picked by the Big XII to finish in fifth and by Baseball America to finish in seventh. Kansas State split the difference by finishing in sixth with a retooled offense and a strong bullpen to make a late run to get into position to receive an at-large spot in a regional.

Kansas State got off to a good start at 12-2 against mostly soft competition (Pacific, Western Illinois, Long Island) with the only challenge for them coming in a tournament at Coastal Carolina where they went 2-2. The Wildcats struggled for over a month with a 9-13 mark over their next 22 games that included a 5-10 start in their Big XII games with only one series win (against Oklahoma) in their first five conf series. Kansas State rebounded from their midseason slump to go 14-6 down the stretch with sweeps of Texas Tech and Kansas that propelled them from the bottom of the conference standings to the middle. The Wildcats played well last week in the Big XII tournament and beat Oklahoma twice and lost to Texas A&M twice, finally being eliminated 9-8 by the Aggies in eleven innings.

Kansas State had a solid offense last year that hit .323 but knew they might have trouble hitting early after losing several standouts along with having to use the new BBCOR bats. The Wildcats offense ended up hitting 40 points less at .283 and they only hit .272 in Big XII games. Kansas State has never built their offense around playing for the big inning with the long ball and that hasn’t changed this year. The 34 HR’s that the Wildcats hit weren’t far off of the 39 that they hit last year with the old bats but where they drive opposing teams crazy is on the base paths. Kansas State stole 120 bases to lead the Big XII and finish in the top ten in the country in 2010 and have already stolen 123 bases to once again lead the conf and rank in the top ten. Six Wildcats have stolen at least thirteen bases. Kansas State will also bunt to move runners over and try to beat out SAC bunts. The Wildcats will work counts to try to wear pitchers down and had five hitters end up with over twenty walks. Kansas State finished second in the Big XII in scoring but was held to four runs or less 24 times. The Wildcats offense is much better at home using their speed on their field turf where they hit .305 and averaged seven runs per game. Kansas State hit .244 and averaged 4.3 runs per game away from home.

Kansas State won last season primarily due to their offense with a staff ERA of 5.57 and thought there would be some improvement with most of their pitching staff returning and that has been the case with the team ERA tumbling down by almost 1 1/2 runs to 4.16. The Wildcats had the same two pitchers in the Friday and Saturday spots in the rotation all season but their results were up and down as they also were with the Sunday and midweek starters. The backbone of the Kansas State pitching staff has been a dynamite 1-2 combo out of the bullpen at the end of games and a bunch of relievers who would be brought into games for a couple of hitters in situational matchups. The Wildcats held their opponents to four runs or less 34 times.

Offense

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 83 (decreases offense by 17%).
Batting Average – .280 (NCAA ranking – 142, Conf ranking 4)
Runs – 352 (77, 2) 6.0 per game
Home Runs – 34 (81, 5)
Stolen Bases – 123 (4, 1)
Slugging Percentage – .406 (91, 3)
On Base Percentage – .371 (DNR, 5)
Walks – 219 (91, 5), 3.7 per game
HBP’s – 67 (64, 6)
Sac Bunts – 62 (45, 4)
Strikeouts – 332 (DNR, DNR), 5.6 per game

Batting Order

DH #7 FR Ross Kivett (RH – .322/.382/.362, 0-19-8) didn’t play much the first half of the season but once he got his chance he hasn’t come out of the lineup. He doesn’t have much power with only four extra-base hits. Kivett doesn’t walk much or strike out much (11/17 BB/K ratio). He had the second best AVG on the team in conf games at .318. Kivett is a good bunter and is tied for the team lead with 8 SAC’s.

LF #17 SR Kent Urban (Both – .237/.369/.368, 2-22-5) split time between 1B and the OF earlier in the year but didn’t hit much and spent most of the season as a part-time player. He was moved into the lineup two weeks ago due to an injury to #24 FR Jared King (Both – .314/.370/.547, 8-40-13), who was 2nd team All-Big XII. King was hit in the face by a ball two weeks ago while sitting in the dugout and is doubtful to questionable for this weekend.

CF #26 JR Nick Martini (LH – .326/.446/.433, 1-42-24) was the Big XII player of the year in 2010 after he hit .416 and got on base at least once in every game as part of his NCAA record streak of 93 straight games that was snapped earlier this season. He has outstanding plate discipline (35/22 BB/K) and is a line drive hitting machine. Martini has had a solid season, ending up in the top ten in the conf in RBI, TB, BB and OBP, but hasn’t been quite as good as he was last year and hit in the .280’s in conf games and was honorable mention All-Big XII. He is a threat to run every time he is on base. Martini is projected to be drafted in the 3rd-4th rounds next week.

3B #28 JR Jason King (Both – .333/.385/.608, 10-57-16) is one of the best power hitters in the Big XII and was among the conf leaders in HR, RBI, TB, SLG, 2B, 3B and R. He was voted 2nd team All-Big XII. King had a monster Big XII tournament last weekend when he went 10-14 in four games. King was one of the conf leaders in Big XII games with 5 HR and 21 RBI.

1B #34 JR Wade Hinkle (LH – .309/.382/.446, 2-27-3) was in and out of the lineup earlier in the year but became a fixture at 1B down the stretch. He was second on the team in AVG before the Big XII tournament but struggled last weekend when he went 1-12.

RF #18 JR Mike Kindel (LH – .246/.323/.448, 7-41-14) is an all or nothing hitter who is third on the team in HR and was among the conf leaders with 16 2B but also led the team with 45 K. He slumped last weekend when he went 1-15 in the Big XII tournament.

SS #5 Soph Tanner Witt (RH – .246/.359/.277, 0-18-14) has good plate discipline (27/30 BB/K) but doesn’t have much power with only five extra-base hits. He is a threat to run like most of the team is when he gets on base.

C #6 JR Dan Klein (RH – .291/.339/.391, 2-9-0) and #27 Soph Chase Graskewicz (Both – .242/.324/.295, 0-13-1) have been splitting time pretty evenly with Klein providing a little more pop at the plate.

2B #8 JR Jake Brown (LH – .262/.365/.321, 1-20-18) is one of the fastest players on the team and is in the top ten in the Big XII in SB. He is also a good bunter and is tied for the team lead with eight SAC’s.

Defense

Fielding .974 (39, 6) – 60 errors. Double Plays – 40 (154, 6)

Kansas State plays on a turf infield that helped a solid fielding team have the best fielding percentage in school history. King and Hinkle are solid on the corners, Witt and Brown have good range up the middle but have combined to make 25 errors. Good speed in the OF with Martini and Kindel, Urban is adequate in LF.

Stolen Base Attempts – 49-71 (DNR, 5). Baserunners are 24-39 against Klein and 25-32 against Graskewicz.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 39 (DNR, DNR). Klein and Graskewicz do a solid job of blocking pitches.

Pitching

ERA – 4.21 (98, 8)
AVG – .265 (DNR, 5)
HR – 31 (DNR, 7)
Walks – 202 (85, 6), 3.3 BB/9 IP
Strikeouts – 439 (79, 4), 7.3 K/9 IP

Kansas State expected to have an improved rotation after returning pitchers who started 47 of 59 games in 2010. Their first two SP’s have usually been solid but they have been shuffling guys in the third weekend spot.

Starting Pitchers

FRI – #32 JR Kyle Hunter (LHP – 5-4, 4.26 ERA, 15 GS, 87 IP, 89 H, 25 BB, 78 K, .269 BA, 2 HR, 4 HBP, 2 WP, 10-14 SB) is the veteran of the rotation after being one of the weekend starters in 2010 and got off to a good start by allowing three runs or less in nine of his first ten starts. He allowed eight runs against Oklahoma State and seven runs against Kansas in two of his last three Big XII starts before getting a no decision last week when he allowed four runs in seven innings against Oklahoma. Hunter is usually around the plate and has allowed only three walks in his last five starts and has allowed two walks or less in eleven starts. He has a high 80’s fastball and his best pitch is his changeup. Hunter is projected to be picked in the teens in the draft next week.

SAT – #15 JR Matt Applegate (RHP – 5-4, 4.31 ERA, 15 GS, 86 IP, 87 H, 26 BB, 76 K, .263 BA, 5 HR, 6 HBP, 2 WP, 4-5 SB) has been on a short leash recently and hasn’t gotten out of the fifth inning in four of his last five starts after pitching into the sixth inning in eight of his first ten starts. He is a converted reliever and won’t usually throw more than 70-80 pitches in a game unless he is throwing well.

SUN – #25 FR Shane Conlon (LHP – 4-1, 4.42 ERA, 11 apps, 6 GS, 37 IP, 37 H, 13 BB, 25 K, .270 BA, 6 HR, 3 HBP, 2 WP, 5-5 SB) didn’t start a game until late April and has been inconsistent with solid starts against Texas Tech (6 2/3 IP, 0 R, 4 H) and last week against Oklahoma (5 IP, 2 R, 4H) mixed in with bad starts against Missouri (4 2/3 IP, 5 R, 6 H) and Kansas (3 IP, 4 R, 5 H).

Midweek – #22 JR Justin Lindsey (RHP – 5-1, 4.31 ERA, 13 apps, 9 GS, 46 IP, 46 H, 20 BB, 30 K, .266 BA, 2 HR, 4 HBP, 1 WP, 7-12 SB) was a weekend starter in 2010 but has been used mostly as midweek starter this season. He only went past the fourth inning in one of his starts when he threw five shutout innings against Bakersfield. Lindsey threw 5 2/3 shutout innings in a relief appearance against Texas A&M last week.

Relief Pitchers

Kansas State went 29-3 when they had the lead after seven innings and have a great of confidence with the lead late in games. They don’t mind going to the bullpen earlier than most teams and have nine pitchers in their bullpen who have made at least ten appearances.

Closer – #20 JR James Allen (RHP – 3-1, 1.35 ERA, 17 saves, 29 apps, 40 IP, 25 H, 11 BB, 45 K, .179 BA, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 2 WP, 1-1 SB) led the conf in saves and was 1st team All-Big XII. He has been lights out the past few seasons. Allen has a low 90’s fastball and a solid slider. He is projected to be picked in the 7th-8th rounds in the draft next week.

#31 JR Evan Marshall (RHP – 4-5, 1.67 ERA, 1 save, 27 apps, 54 IP, 40 H, 14 BB, 48 K, .209 BA, 0 HR, 5 HBP, 3 WP, 3-9 SB) has been part of a great 1-2 combo in the last 3-4 innings of games. He is able to go 2-3 innings. Marshall has a fastball in the 93-94 range and a good slider. He is projected to be picked in the 3rd-4th rounds next week.

#23 JR Kayvon Bahramzadeh (RHP – 3-0, 5.27 ERA, 20 apps, 5 GS, 43 IP, 44 H, 13 BB, 31 K, .262 BA, 5 HR, 3 HBP, 2 WP, 3-4 SB) was pitching out of the bullpen earlier in the year before being moved into the rotation as Big XII play started. He threw well against Texas (5 IP, 1 R) but didn’t get out of the fourth inning in any of his other four weekend starts and was moved back to the bullpen.

#21 FR Gerardo Esquivel (RHP – 1-2, 2.50 ERA, 16 apps, 18 IP, 12 H, 14 BB, 12 K, .188 BA).

#33 FR Jared Moore (LHP – 1-0, 2.55 ERA, 16 apps, 17 IP, 15 H, 10 BB, 15 K, .238 BA).

#39 FR Blake Freeman (LHP – 3-2, 5.74 ERA, 13 apps, 5 GS, 26 IP, 41 H, 10 BB, 22 K, .347 BA).

4 Seed – Illinois Fighting Illini

Overall Record – 26-24
Conference Record – 15-9 (1st place)
How they qualified for a regional – Automatic bid; Won Big Ten tournament (Beat Ohio State, Michigan State twice)
Last Regional Appearance – 2000 (1-2 at Clemson Regional)
RPI/ISR – 135/137
SOS – 138 (RPI)/143 (ISR)
Record vs. tournament field – 0-1
Record vs. top 50/top 100 RPI – 0-1/5-5

Season Summary

Illinois didn’t have too many expectations going into this season after going 25-26 and finishing in ninth in the Big Ten in 2010 and being picked by Baseball America to finish in the same spot again. It has been a Cinderella run for Illinois over the last month of the season and they have gone from 12-20 and 4-6 in Big Ten games to winning fourteen of their last eighteen games, including going 11-3 down the stretch in Big Ten games to win the conference regular season title on the final weekend and winning all three games in the Big Ten tournament to win the conference’s automatic bid.

Illinois played their first four weekends in warmer climates and started out 4-8 after going 1-2 in the Big Ten/Big East challenge, 2-1 at Florida Gulf Coast, 0-3 in Stetson’s tournament and 1-2 at Western Kentucky. Illinois started to play better once they got back to the Midwest and went 4-2 before starting Big Ten play 4-5 with a series win against Iowa surrounded by series losses to Penn State and Michigan. Illinois bounced back from losing the opening game of the series against first place Michigan State to win the next two games and the Illini haven’t been stopped since, winning series with Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue and Indiana before scoring four runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat Ohio State in their first game of the Big Ten tournament and winning their next two games against Michigan State to win the tournament.

Illinois was a below average offensive team last season but returned four of their top six hitters and their offense has improved and they ended up third in the Big Ten in runs. The Illini are aggressive at the plate with their team averaging almost twice as many strikeouts than walks and they finished ninth in the Big Ten in BB. Illinois has average power and finished fourth in the Big Ten in HR and fifth in SLG. Where Illinois gets their offense going is on the base paths. The Fighting Illini were the Flying Illini on the bases last year with 114 SB and they led the Big Ten again this year with 95 SB and had four players steal at least fourteen bases. For a team that runs as much as Illinois does, it is a little surprising that they rarely bunt because they are last in the Big Ten with only 17 SAC bunts on the season. Illinois has had trouble scoring runs when their running game has been held in check and they have scored four runs or less 20 times but their offense has been hot down the stretch and they have scored at least seven runs in nine of their last thirteen games. The Illini have also been very good at coming back in games and have won ten times when tied or trailing after six innings.

Illinois had a below average pitching staff in 2010 with a 5.89 ERA and their staff was better this season with a 4.84 ERA. Their rotation was adequate with their first two starters having ERA’s in the 4.30-4.40 range but the key to the success of the pitching staff has been a solid bullpen that has done a good job of protecting leads (19-1 when leading after seven innings). Illinois doesn’t have any power arms but their pitchers battle and get the most out of their stuff. The Illini have allowed four runs or less 24 times.

Offense

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 72 (decreases offense by 28%).
Batting Average – .284 (NCAA ranking – 150, Conf ranking 5)
Runs – 310 (145, 3) 5.8 per game
Home Runs – 28 (143, 4)
Stolen Bases – 95 (38, 1)
Slugging Percentage – .399 (146, 5)
On Base Percentage – .359 (DNR, 4)
Walks – 167 (230, 9), 3.1 per game
HBP’s – 60 (105, 2)
Sac Bunts – 17 (281, 10)
Strikeouts – 313 (DNR, 6), 5.9 per game

Batting Order

2B #11 SR Pete Cappetta (RH – .326/.404/.451, 2-16-14) has had a solid SR season after hitting only .262 in 2010. He was voted 2nd team All-Big Ten after hitting .403 in conf games and finishing in the top ten in the Big Ten in SB.

DH #15 Soph Justin Parr (LH – .333/.381/.422, 0-30-3) hit .411 in conf games. He was a catalyst last weekend when he went 6-14 in the Big Ten tournament and scored in all three games.

C #27 JR Adam Davis (RH – .300/.357/.448, 5-33-15) is the third hitter at the top of the order who was voted 2nd team All-Big Ten. He is a good athlete behind the plate and projected to be drafted in the 6th-7th rounds next week. Davis was voted the tournament MVP after going 5-13 and helping the pitching staff allow only six runs in three games. He is not a patient hitter and has only walked seven times.

3B #3 Soph Brandon Hohl (RH – .311/.410/.483, 5-38-0) is one of the power threats in the lineup and led the team in RBI and SLG and was second in HR. He also has a good eye at the plate and has a solid BB/K ratio (23/33) and led the team in OBP.

LF #44 SR Casey McMurray (RH – .254/.343/.341, 2-30-9) led the Illini in AVG, SLG, OBP, HR and RBI in 2010 but has struggled this season. He has an outstanding 23/9 BB/K ratio and is the toughest hitter to in the conf to strike out and was voted 3rd team All-Big Ten.

1B #17 SR Matt Dittman (LH – .259/.352/.416, 6-35-2) is a bit of an all or nothing hitter and leads the team in HR, including a grand slam that that put the final game away in the Big Ten tournament, but is second on the team with 40 K.

CF #42 JR Willie Argo (RH – .286/.397/.401, 4-26-25) has outstanding speed and had 41 SB in 2010. His speed is a weapon and he is projected to be drafted in the 6th-7th rounds next week because of it. Argo got off to a slow start and has been hitting better recently and went 5-9 in the Big Ten tournament. He was voted 3rd team All-Big Ten.

RF #2 Soph Davis Hendrickson (LH – .304/.355/.376, 2-24-8) doesn’t have much power and has only seven extra-base hits. He also struggled in Big Ten games, when he had the lowest average among the regulars at .244.

SS #9 JR Josh Parr (RH – .306/.347/.439, 2-33-17) has very good speed and finished in the top ten in the conf in SB and was voted 2nd team All-Big Ten.

Defense

Fielding .974 (39, 2) – 61 errors. Double Plays – 47 (101, 6)

The defense improved when Cappetta (2 E’s) was put in at 2B for Justin Parr (9 E’s). Josh Parr is a good SS and led the Big Ten in assists. Dittman is solid at 1B and Hohl is below average at 3B. McMurray, Argo and Hendrickson have good speed in the OF.

Stolen Base Attempts – 34-51 (DNR, 2). Runners were 30-46 against Davis.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 49 (DNR, 4). Davis does an adequate job of blocking pitches.

Pitching

ERA – 4.84 (186, 9)
AVG – .272 (DNR, 3)
HR – 31 (DNR, 9)
Walks – 198 (172, 7), 3.9 BB/9 IP
Strikeouts – 299 (237, 9), 5.8 K/9 IP

Illinois returned only one weekend starter from last season so they knew that they could have some issues early with the rotation. Two relievers from 2010 have moved into the rotation and they have kept Illinois in games.

Starting Pitchers

FRI – #22 Soph Kevin Johnson (RHP – 2-6, 4.33 ERA, 15 GS, 1 CG, 98 IP, 99 H, 37 BB, 67 K, .269 BA, 6 HR, 8 HBP, 6 WP, 9-13 SB) is the only SP returning from last season. He has been inconsistent during Big Ten games with an ERA over 5 and one reason is he has walked almost a batter every other inning. Johnson doesn’t have a power arm, relying on a breaking pitch as his out pitch, and when he does come around the plate he has been pretty hard and allowed almost three extra-base hits in his conf starts. He allowed 16 runs in starts against Michigan State and Ohio State before throwing better in his last three starts against Purdue (7 IP, 2 R, 8 H, 1 BB, 3 K), Indiana (8 2/3 IP, 2 R, 8 H, 3 BB, 8 K) and Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament (7 2/3 IP, 4 R, 5 H, 2 BB, 6 K).

SAT – #29 SR John Anderson (RHP – 7-6, 4.40 ERA, 16 GS, 4 CG, 90 IP, 88 H, 24 BB, 52 K, .260 BA, 7 HR, 13 HBP, 9 WP, 1-2 SB) pitched out of the bullpen in 2010 but has been a workhorse in the rotation with a Big Ten leading four complete games, including three straight conf starts. He doesn’t throw hard and is a strike thrower with very good control and walked only seven batters in his eight conf starts. After throwing three straight complete games, he struggled in two of his three starts and allowed 13 runs at the end of the season before throwing very well at the Big Ten tournament in his start against Michigan State (7 1/3 IP, 1 R, 6 H, 4 BB, 1 K).

SUN – #31 JR Corey Kimes (LHP – 4-4, 5.26 ERA, 14 GS, 1 CG, 79 IP, 96 H, 35 BB, 54 K, .309 BA, 6 HR, 7 HBP, 7 WP, 7-8 SB) is a “crafty lefty” who has to change speeds and keep the ball down to get hitters out. He struggled in Big Ten games with a 6.23 ERA and allowed batters to hit .312 against him. Kimes started to pitch better late in the season and has allowed 3 ER or less in four of his last five starts, including a CG win against Michigan State to clinch the Big Ten tournament title (9 IP, 1 R, 7 H, 0 BB, 7 K).

Relief Pitchers

Illinois only had two experienced relievers returning and they have been relied on often at the end of games along with a couple of newcomers to give them four reliable options in the middle-late innings.

Closer – #32 SR Wes Braun (RHP – 2-0, 0.49 ERA, 18 apps, 6 saves, 18 IP, 8 H, 11 BB, 13 K, .136 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 2 WP, 0-2 SB) has been very tough to hit and has good movement on his pitches, resulting in him also having some control issues. He will rarely throw more than one inning.

#12 SR Chris Pack (RHP – 7-1, 4.99 ERA, 3 saves, 23 apps, 49 IP, 43 H, 8 BB, 29 K, .234 BA, 4 HR, 10 HBP, 2 WP, 5-7 SB) has been the good luck charm on the staff and shares the team lead in wins. He has very good control and is able to go several innings like he did when he threw 4 2/3 shutout innings against Purdue late in the season. Pack picked up a win and a save last weekend in the Big Ten tournament.

#37 JR Will Strack (RHP – 3-1, 3.35 ERA, 18 apps, 38 IP, 35 H, 25 BB, 29 K, .248 BA, 1 HR, 1 HBP, 5 WP, 2-5 SB) will be the other pitcher along with Pack most likely to be brought into the game in the middle innings. He is also able to go several innings but has had control issues.

#30 FR Luke Joyce (LHP – 1-1, 1.96 ERA, 17 apps, 18 IP, 18 H, 9 BB, 12 K, .269 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 1 WP, 1-2 SB) is a situational lefty who won’t face more than a few batters. He would be more likely to be brought in against the LH heavy lineups of Fullerton and Kansas State than he would against Stanford.

The other four relievers in the bullpen have appeared in ten or less games and are rarely called upon in tight situations.

Cal State Northridge Preview

2011-05-26T07:57:00.000-07:00

Titans at Cal State Northridge (Friday 3 p.m., Saturday, 1 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m.)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton is coming off of their bye week in the Big West schedule and took advantage of the opportunity to rest up many of the banged up players on the roster. Before going into their weekend off, the Titans won four straight games against Long Beach and LMU and came back from their time off by beating San Diego on Tuesday and they go into this weekend needing only one win to wrap up their second straight conference championship.

Fullerton opened the series against Long Beach by winning 4-2 on Friday in a matchup of two pitchers – Noe Ramirez and Drew Gagnon – expected to be drafted in the first couple of rounds in June. Gagnon continued to be a hard luck pitcher as Ramirez held the Dirtbags to one run on two hits with seven strikeouts in eight innings and Nick Ramirez allowed an unearned run while finishing things off for the save. The Titans were led at the plate by Michael Lorenzen’s three hits, a run and an RBI, Richy Pedroza’s two hits and a run and Nick Ramirez’s Big West leading ninth HR.

While runs were expected to be difficult to come by on Friday, nothing could have prepared the fans and teams for what happened in Saturday’s wild 14-12 win in one of the crazier games ever played at Goodwin Field. The Titans got out to a 9-0 lead after two innings and most people were figuring that the game was in the bag, except for the Dirtbags. Tyler Pill didn’t allow a hit until there were two outs in the fifth inning but he had already allowed two runs by then thanks to some shaky defense. The next hitter for Long Beach after the no-hitter was broken up hit a three run HR and it was suddenly 9-5. The Dirtbags scored two more runs in the fifth, two more in the sixth to tie the game and two more in the seventh to take the lead. Fullerton came back to take the lead in the seventh on a three run double by Pedroza and scored two more runs in the eighth to put the game away. Jake Floethe pitched a scoreless eighth to get the win and Ramirez picked up another save despite allowing another unearned run in the ninth. Lorenzen had three more hits and four RBI on his way to winning Big West player of the week honors, Pedroza had two hits and four RBI and eight of the starters got hits and Fullerton had a season high nine walks, three of them by Pill.

Fullerton finished off the sweep on Senior Day with a 6-1 win as the Titans defeated Long Beach for the 12th time in 13 games over the last three seasons. Colin O’Connell was dominant as he shut out the Dirtbags for six innings and allowed only three hits before allowing an unearned run in the seventh. Seniors Ryan Ackland and Raymond Hernandez finished things off by retiring all four batters they faced. Fullerton was held scoreless the first time through the lineup but scored runs in four of the last five innings to win going away. Six different Titans drove in runs, Nick Ramirez had three hits, Keegan Dale had two and senior Zach Tanida scored twice.

Fullerton was supposed to play two midweek games last week but the game at UCLA was canceled because they couldn’t get all of the lights to work at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Titans won the only midweek game they played with an 8-1 win against LMU, the third time the Titans defeated the Lions this season. Seven Fullerton pitchers combined to hold LMU to only five hits and the offense was led by Pedroza’s three runs, Pill’s three hits and Ramirez’s two RBI.

Fullerton came back from their weekend off and extended their winning streak to five games with a 6-4 win against San Diego. Lorenzen drove in two runs with a two out single in the fourth inning to give the Titans the lead and Fullerton scored four more runs in the seventh inning to give them a five run lead with Pill finishing off the scoring with a two run single. The Toreros rallied to score three runs in the ninth and Ramirez was summoned over from 1B to finish things off for his Big West leading fifteenth save and he moved into second on Fullerton’s single season save list and is one away from tying the school career save record.

Fullerton will wrap up the regular season this weekend with a series at Cal State Northridge. The magic number for the Titans is one as they look to finish off the Big West title race early in the series to keep the pressure off. Fullerton is also looking to play well this weekend to stay in position to host a regional next weekend.

Cal State Northridge Matadors

Overall Record – 22-31 in 2011; 29-27 in 2010
Conference Record – 5-16 in 2011 (9th); 9-15 in 2010 (tie for 7th).
2010 Post-Season – None
2011 RPI/ISR – 235/176. 2010 RPI/ISR – 125/73
Current ranking – None
Predicted conference finish – 9th by the Big West coaches and 7th by the Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

Cal State Northridge thought they had a chance to be improved in 2010 with an experienced roster returning both at the plate and on the mound and the Matadors went 29-27 for their first winning record in Steve Rousey’s eight year tenure as the head coach. But, Northridge only finished tied for 7th in the Big West at 9-15 and the results ultimately weren’t enough to save Rousey’s job and he was replaced after the season by Fresno State assistant coach Matt Curtis.

Curtis started making his imprint on the roster by bringing in thirteen newcomers with quite a few of them seeing playing time right away. The Matadors got off to a decent start at 14-11 but many of those games were played against mediocre competition with series against teams like Seattle, Valparaiso, Lafayette and Sacramento State. Northridge wasn’t really prepared for what hit them in Big West play and they started out 1-11 after being swept by UC Irvine and Cal Poly, losing the series to Pacific and being swept by UC Davis with the pitching staff getting abused and allowing at least 20 runs in each series. The Matadors have started to pitch better lately and have gone 4-5 in their last three conf series after winning their series with UCSB, losing their series to UC Riverside and losing a hard fought series at Long Beach last weekend with the final game decided in extra innings.

Northridge’s offensive attack was impacted by the new BBCOR bats more than most of the other Big West teams because they play in a ballpark that favors HR hitters and they also lost three hitters who received All-Big West honors in 2010. The Matadors still lead the Big West with 21 HR’s (after hitting 49 last season) but they have had trouble scoring runs and have been held to four runs or less in 21 of the 27 games they have played over the last nine weekends. Northridge’s offensive numbers are down like they are for most teams and they have played more little ball this season by bunting more often but they are running less after stealing 88 bases in 2010.

Northridge expected to have an improved pitching staff with so many of their starting pitchers back but they haven’t had any consistency from their pitchers until recently. The Matadors have been shuffling pitchers back and forth between the rotation and the bullpen but have started the same three pitchers the last three weekends. Northridge ranks near the bottom of the Big West in almost every pitching category and they have allowed at least six runs in just over half of their games.

Offense

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 99 (decreases offense by 1%). The park factor at Northridge is usually in the 110 range and the park has short dimensions – 325 in the corners and 375 in the power alleys.
Batting Average – .263 (6th in the Big West). .302 in 2010 (7th in the Big West)
Runs Per Game – 4.6 (4th). 6.7 in 2010 (5th).
Home Runs – 21 (1st). 49 in 2010 (3rd).
Slugging Percentage – .357 (6th). .452 in 2010 (4th).
Walks – 166 (4th), 3.1 per game. 190 in 2010 (3rd), 3.4 per game.
HBP’s – 55 (4th). 77 in 2010 (3rd).
Strikeouts – 317 (4th), 6.0 per game. 371 in 2010 (3rd), 6.6 per game.
Stolen Bases – 46-65 (4th). 88-111 in 2010 (2nd).
Sac Bunts – 44 (5th). 28 in 2010 (8th).

Lineup

Infield

Northridge had some rebuilding to do in the infield with only two starters returning and one of them hasn’t played for over a month due to injuries. JC transfers are starting at three of five positions.

C – Soph #14 Marty Bowen (RH – .315/.358/.352, 0-21-0; ’10 – .271 in 59 AB’s) was a seldom-used backup in 2010 and was mostly DH’ing and starting once a weekend behind the plate but he has taken over as the starter and has caught 21 of the last 22 games. He is tied for the team lead in AVG but doesn’t walk much with only 11 BB and has very little power with only four extra-base hits. Bowen has been hitting 5th recently.

DH – JC transfer #1 Steven Keller (Both – .272/.369/.370, 3-29-2) was starting most of the time at catcher for the first half of the season but has settled into the DH spot over the last 20+ games. Keller is a solid run producer who is 2nd on the team in RBI while usually hitting cleanup. He has a very good BB/K ratio (22/23).

1B – JC transfer #20 Adam Barry (LH – .283/.321/.349, 0-14-5) was playing mostly LF earlier in the season but has taken over recently at 1B, where Northridge has had issues replacing three year starter Dominic D’Anna. He does a good job of making contact with only 14 K but rarely walks with only 3 BB. Barry has good speed for a 1B but doesn’t have much power for the position. He has recently settled into the second spot in the lineup. Soph #23 Chris Allen (RH – .189 in 74 AB’s) was seeing more playing time earlier in the year but hasn’t played much lately with some of the lineup shuffling over the last few weeks.

2B – SR #2 TS Reed (RH – .239/.326/.310, 1-18-3; ’10 – .323/.376/.395, 0-25-11; ’09 – .234/.317/.266, 0-9-7) is in his fourth year as a starter in the middle infield, starting at 2B as a FR and at SS the last two seasons before moving back to 2B this year. He has had the unenviable task of taking over for Ryan Pineda, who was first team All-Big West and hit 16 HR with 66 RBI in 2010. Reed is a gritty little player who will work counts, crowd the plate (team leading 8 HBP) and rarely strikes out (14 K). He is also a good bunter and has led the team in SAC’s the last two seasons (9 in 2010, 8 this year) and will usually hit 9th. Reed went 3-7 in last year’s series against Fullerton and is 8-33 in his career against the Titans.

SS – Soph #5 Tommy Simis (RH – .256/.333/.387, 4-27-4) barely played last season (6 AB’s) but has been in the lineup almost every day. He played most of the season at 3B before shifting over to SS a few weeks ago. Simis has some pop in his bat and leads the team in HR and is 3rd in RBI and SLG. He has usually been hitting 6th. Soph #6 Kyle Attl (RH – .241/.310/.319, 1-15-0) started most of the season at SS after only getting 5 AB’s in 2010 but hasn’t started in the last few weeks after Simis moved over from 3B.

3B – JC transfer #9 Matthew Moreno (RH – .185 in 27 AB’s) moved into the lineup recently with Simis moving over to SS. He has played solid defense but struggled at the plate and usually hits 8th.

Outfield

Northridge returns two starters in the OF who are two of the best players on the team and they have been platooning at the other spot in the OF.

LF – SR #11 Ridge Carpenter (RH – .304/.388/.498, 3-19-15; ’10 – .298/.371/.399, 2-31-20) came in as a JC transfer in 2010 and made an instant impact with his speed and he was 3rd in the Big West in SB. He was a free swinger and was second in the conf with 56 strikeouts but has done a good job of making better contact as the leadoff hitter and cut that number down to 35. Carpenter is in the top ten in the Big West in R, 3B, SB and BB. He went 3-10 at Fullerton last season.

CF – JR #51 Drew Muren (LH – 315, 407/.464, 3-32-9; ’10 – .290/.388/.396, 3-21-13; medical redshirt in 2009; ’08 – .270/.317/.351, 1-14-2) is one of the best athletes on the team, has been their best player and leads them in AVG and OBP and is in the top ten in the Big West in R, 2B, RBI, TB, SLG and BB. Muren was also among the conf leaders in strikeouts in 2010 but has done a solid job of making more contact this season and has a good BB/K ratio (25/31). He will be hitting 3rd. Muren went 2-10 at Fullerton last season.

RF – FR #13 Miles Williams (RH – .271 in 59 AB’s) has moved into the lineup in the last couple of weeks and been hitting 7th. He has 16 hits in the 26 AB’s when he has made contact but making contact has been a major issue because he has struck out 33 times in 59 AB’s. Williams also isn’t that patient with only four BB.

Defense

Fielding % – .968 (6th) with 64 errors. .959 (9th) with 90 errors in 2010.

Northridge’s defense is better this season, going from bad to average, and part of that has been due to cutting down on the errors by the pitchers from 19 to 10. Barry, Reed, Simis and Moreno are all average around the infield. Carpenter is a good OF and Muren is one of the best OF’s in the Big West.

Stolen Base Attempts – 49-69 (4th). 59-76 (7th) in 2010

Northridge’s defense against the running game improved when Bowen started doing the catching on a regular basis. Runners are only 18-29 against him.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 45 (5th). 2010 – 55 (7th).

Bowen does a good job at blocking pitches.

Pitching

ERA – 5.29 (8th in the Big West). 5.81 in 2010 (6th in the Big West).
BA – .313 (8th). .306 in 2010 (4th).
Walks – 183 (8th), 3.8 BB/9 IP. 195 (7th), 3.5 BB/9 IP in 2010.
Strikeouts – 309 (7th), 6.5 K/9 IP. 319 (6th), 5.7 K/9 IP in 2010.
Extra Base Hits – 147 (9th), 2.8 per game. 170 (4th), 3.0 per game in 2010.
HR – 34 (9th). 66 HR in 2010 (9th).

Starters

Northridge returned pitchers who started 49 of their games last season so they expected the rotation to be one of their stronger areas but some of the pitchers they were counting on haven’t pitched well and only one of the weekend starters pitched for them last year with the other two spots being taken over by JC transfers.

FRI – JC transfer #27 Vincent Roberts (RHP – 2-6, 3.75 ERA, 15 apps, 10 GS, 1 SHO, 1 save, 74 IP, 65 H, 28 BB, 50 K, .243 BA, 5 HR, 6 HBP, 9 WP, 9-14 SB) had his struggles earlier in the year as he adjusted to D1 ball and was moved between the rotation and the bullpen. He started to gain some confidence in a six inning relief appearance at Irvine when he allowed only one run and has been effective in Big West games with a 2.58 ERA. Roberts had his first conf start two weeks ago and shut out UCSB for seven innings, struggled against Riverside when he allowed 3 R on 4 H and 4 BB in 4 IP but turned it around last weekend at Long Beach when he threw a shutout and allowed only four hits. Roberts has good stuff and can be tough to hit when his control is on.

SAT – SR #24 Paul Tremlin (RHP – 2-6, 4.11 ERA, 20 apps, 9 GS, 2 saves, 61 IP, 76 H, 13 BB, 30 K, .323 BA, 2 HR, 3 HBP, 0 WP, 8-10 SB; ’10 – 7-6, 6.17 ERA, 19 apps, 12 GS, 1 CG, 70 IP, 80 H, 27 BB, 52 K, .289 BA, 12 HR, 5 HBP, 3 WP, 8-13 SB) is one of the veterans of the pitching staff and has been a swingman between the rotation and the bullpen for the last three years. He was a bit of a good luck charm over the last two years when he led the staff in wins each year when he went 14-7 despite an ERA over five in both seasons. Tremlin is a control specialist who doesn’t throw hard and has to keep the ball down to be successful. He has done a solid job of keeping Northridge in the game in his last three starts against UCSB (6 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 1 K), Riverside (5 2/3 IP, 2 R, 9 H, 0 BB, 1 K) and Long Beach (6 IP, 2 R, 7 H, 2 BB, 2 K). Tremlin has allowed 6 R in 4 IP in four appearances in his career against Fullerton.

SUN – JC transfer #3 Carlos Gonzalez (RHP – 1-3, 5.58 ERA, 16 apps, 9 GS, 40 IP, 50 H, 25 BB, 31 K, .314 BA, 3 HR, 7 HBP, 7 WP, 3-5 SB) is the hardest thrower of the starters but also has had the most issues with his control. He also has been a swingman between the rotation and the bullpen before settling into the weekend rotation over the last month. He struggled in his starts at Davis (4 R in 2 IP) and UCSB (3 R in 2 2/3 IP) but threw better in his last two starts against Riverside (6 IP, 3 R, 5 H, 2 BB, 5 K) and Long Beach (6 IP, 2 R, 5 H, 2 BB, 2 K) when he had better command.

Relievers

Northridge has had lots of guys bouncing back and forth between the rotation and the bullpen so they have eight pitchers who have thrown at least 35 innings and have a fairly deep bullpen. They have done a good job of finishing games and are 18-2 when they lead after seven innings and 18-0 when leading going into the ninth inning.

Closer – JC transfer #10 Josh Goossen-Brown (RHP – 4-3, 4.34 ERA, 18 apps, 4 GS, 5 saves, 48 IP, 68 H, 7 BB, 39 K, .335 BA, 4 HR, 1 HBP, 3 WP, 5-7 SB) is a good athlete who has also been a position player but has been focusing on pitching recently. He has usually thrown well this season, especially out of the bullpen, and his stats were a bit skewed by two bad starts against Cal Poly (7 R in 3 1/3 IP) and Pacific (8 ER in 3 1/3 IP). He has good control but he has had issues with his pitches being too straight and getting teed off on.

SR #32 Ryan Juarez (RHP – 4-6, 5.58 ERA, 21 apps, 4 GS, 2 saves, 61 IP, 85 H, 26 BB, 42 K, .329 BA, 2 HR, 5 HBP, 3 WP, 1-2 SB; ’10 – 3-7, 5.52 ERA, 16 GS, 1 CG, 90 IP, 114 H, 28 BB, 57 K, .302 BA, 12 HR, 5 HBP, 10 WP, 9-11 SB) has mostly been a starter in his first three seasons and was 7-5 in 2009 but has pitched mostly out of the bullpen this year. He was moved back into the rotation at Cal Poly but lost that start and his subsequent starts against Pacific and Davis. Juarez did pick up the win against UCSB with three solid innings of relief before getting hit around by Riverside when he allowed 5 R in 1/3 IP. He has allowed 15 R in 16 IP in three starts against Fullerton in his career, including 5 R on 10 H in 4 IP last season.

JR #4 Justen Gorski (RHP – 3-5, 6.36 ERA, 15 apps, 9 GS, 1 save, 47 IP, 63 H, 17 BB, 34 K, .323 BA, 4 HR, 2 HBP, 4 WP, 9-10 SB; ’10 – 5-3, 5.37 ERA, 1 save, 21 apps, 5 GS, 57 IP, 72 H, 17 BB, 31 K, .309 BA, 6 HR, 4 HBP, 3 WP, 2-6 SB) has also been a swingman between the rotation and the bullpen during his career. His only start during the Big West season was in their opening series at Irvine when he allowed 5 R in 4 1/3 IP. Gorski has allowed 9 R in 10 IP in two starts against Fullerton.

Other relievers who will be available this weekend:

JR #18 Chris DeBoo (RHP –1-1, 3.43 ERA, 14 apps, 24 IP, 26 H, 6 BB, 15 K, .286 BA, 2 HR, 2 HBP, 1 WP, 2-5 SB).

Soph #15 Alex Muren (RHP – 2-1, 4.69 ERA, 13 apps, 5 GS, 40 IP, 42 H, 22 BB, 22 K, .276 BA, 3 HR, 4 HBP, 1 WP, 5-7 SB).

Soph #26 Jacob Petersen (LHP – 3-0, 7.23 ERA, 19 apps, 2 GS, 37 IP, 59 H, 15 BB, 31 K, .369 BA, 4 HR, 5 HBP, 5 WP, 4-5 SB).

Outlook

Fullerton goes into this series almost as healthy as they have been since early in the season and the Titans would like to go into the post-season staying that way. Fullerton is going with their regular starting rotation of Ramirez, Pill and O’Connell but would like to give the rest of the pitching staff some work this weekend to get ready for the regionals.

Northridge has been playing better recently and isn’t going to roll over for Fullerton. The Matadors have been making things difficult for their opponents and have played much better at home during the conference schedule than they have on the road.

Fullerton is obviously the better team in this series with the Titans sitting at the top of the conference standings and the Matadors bringing up the rear. If Northridge keeps playing hard and gets solid pitching like they did last weekend at Long Beach they have a chance to make things interesting but they figure to have trouble scoring against the Fullerton pitching staff and the Titans shouldn’t have much of a problem winning this series.

Diamond Club Newsletter (May 22, 2011)

2011-05-25T07:33:00.000-07:00

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

Long Beach State Preview

2011-05-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

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

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton resumed Big West play last weekend with a trip to one of their least favorite ballparks to play in at UC Riverside but the Titans had most of their walking wounded return to the lineup and, perhaps most importantly, to the Friday night starter spot. The end result of having almost everybody back was Fullerton winning all three games against the Highlanders to build on their lead in the Big West standings and extending their winning streak at UC Riverside to five games and their overall winning streak against the Highlanders to eight games.

Fullerton opened the series at Riverside by welcoming Noe Ramirez back to the rotation after he had missed starts against Cal Poly and Pacific. Ramirez was on his game and held the Highlanders to one unearned run and one hit in six innings to lead the Titans to a 4-1 win. Dylan Floro pitched one scoreless inning and Nick Ramirez finished things off with two perfect innings to pick up the save. Fullerton had 21 batters get on base, including 16 hits, and had the Riverside pitchers in trouble all night but ended up leaving 16 runners on base. Carlos Lopez drove in two runs with a two out RBI single in the first inning to get the Titans off to a fast start, Anthony Trajano had four hits and scored twice, Nick Ramirez had three hits and an RBI and Ivory Thomas, Jared Deacon and Keegan Dale each had two hits.

Fullerton wrapped up the series win on Saturday with a come from behind 5-3 win. Tyler Pill threw seven solid innings and allowed three runs on ten hits to keep the Titans in the game, Chris Devenski threw a scoreless inning to pick up the win and Ramirez picked up another save with a scoreless ninth inning. The Titans were behind 2-0 before tying the game in the seventh inning on a two run RBI single by pinch-hitter Greg Velasquez. After Riverside went ahead in the bottom of the inning, Ramirez tied the game up again with his Big West leading eighth HR. Fullerton continued to put pressure on the Highlanders in the ninth inning and took the lead when they scored two runs on a wild pitch that resulted in the benches clearing when Richy Pedroza and the Riverside pitcher bumped into each other as Pedroza scored the second run. The Titans had fifteen hits in the game with Michael Lorenzen getting three hits in his second game back in the lineup and Pill, Pedroza, Lopez and Deacon each had two hits.

Fullerton finished off the sweep in another close game with a 3-2 win. The Titans continued to scatter hits all over the ballpark and ended up with thirteen hits from nine different players. Pill broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh inning with an RBI single through a drawn in infield and Dale added to the lead with an RBI bunt single in the eighth inning. Floro allowed only one run in five innings while scattering ten hits, Colin O’Connell threw three perfect innings to pick up the win and Ramirez picked up his third save of the series and his Big West leading 12th save to finish things off despite allowing his first run in over two months.

Fullerton had their four game winning streak snapped on Tuesday in a 7-0 loss at Pepperdine. The Titans are looking to bounce back from that game and keep building their lead in the Big West title race as they welcome their long-time rivals from Long Beach to Goodwin Field this weekend.

Long Beach State Dirtbags

Overall Record – 24-22 in 2011; 23-32 in 2010
Conference Record – 8-7 in 2011 (4th); 7-17 in 2010 (9th).
2010 Post-Season – None
2011 RPI/ISR – 66/45. 2010 RPI/ISR – 92/73
Current ranking – None
Predicted conference finish – 5th by the Big West coaches and Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

The wheels fell off of the tracks at Long Beach the past two seasons and the Dirtbags missed the post-season both times after playing in regionals in fourteen of the previous sixteen seasons and the result was a coaching change with pitching coach Troy Buckley taking over for Mike Weathers. Long Beach finished in last place after being swept in their final three series by Fullerton, Northridge and Irvine and ended the season by losing fourteen of their final seventeen games. The Dirtbags expected to contend for a spot in a regional with an experienced team that returned seven starting position players and two starting pitchers but they got off to a slow start, played well for a month when they won four straight series (including Pacific's only series loss during the first ten weeks of the season) before they collapsed down the stretch.

Long Beach pretty much started over this year with seventeen freshmen and five JC transfers coming into the program and thought they might get off to a slow start playing one of the most difficult non-conference schedules in the country. The Dirtbags lost series against Fullerton and Arizona to open the season, won a series against Oregon and took two out of three games at a tournament hosted by Cal before losing series to Oregon State and at Stanford prior to Big West play starting. It hasn’t been surprising that a team as young as Long Beach has been inconsistent during the conference season and they have won series at home against Cal Poly and Riverside but also lost series at UCSB and at home to UC Davis. The Dirtbags were swept last weekend at ASU and it was the first time they didn’t get at least one win in a weekend series. Long Beach has been able to keep their RPI in the at-large conversation and their record over .500 due to their pitching depth that has allowed them to go 8-2 in midweek games, including a 4-2 win on Tuesday against UCLA.

With the change of coaches, Long Beach hasn’t changed their offensive approach, which is to try to get runners on, try to get them over and try to get them in. The Dirtbags have struggled with the getting runners on and getting runners in part of the equation and are near the bottom of the Big West in R, AVG, BB and OBP. Long Beach doesn’t steal much (averaging under a SB per game) or effectively with a success rate that is barely over 60%. The Dirtbags will use the hit and run to get runners moving and will bunt early and often with five players having at least seven SAC’s. Long Beach doesn’t have much power, which isn’t a surprise playing their games at Blair Field, and they are last in the Big West in HR and SLG. The Dirtbags have scored three runs or less in over half of their games and two runs or less nineteen times. Long Beach has hit .288 in Big West games but much of that damage occurred in a 20 run bludgeoning of Pacific’s Friday “staff day” pitching and they have hit .266 in their fourteen other Big West games.

Buckley returned to the program last season after a two year absence and the pitching was improved with the ERA coming down half a run to 4.67 and opponents hit 20 points less at .283 but the bullpen was inconsistent and the Dirtbags only had three saves the entire season and went 4-9 in one run games. Things have improved across the board with two starting pitchers returning, one of the few other returning pitchers doing a good job as the closer and several newcomers stepping up in starting and relieving roles. Long Beach’s ERA has come down by a run to 3.62, teams are hitting only .259 against them and they are among the Big West leaders in strikeouts. The Dirtbags have also done an outstanding job of finishing things off in close games and they are 16-5 in games decided by one or two runs due to a deep bullpen.

Offense

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 75 (decreases offense by 25%).
Batting Average – .265 (6th in the Big West). .301 in 2010 (8th in the Big West)
Runs Per Game – 3.9 (8th). 5.8 in 2010 (8th).
Home Runs – 8 (9th). 26 in 2010 (8th).
Slugging Percentage – .332 (9th). .423 in 2010 (7th).
Walks – 111 (9th), 2.5 per game. 161 in 2010 (8th), 2.9 per game.
HBP’s – 50 (3rd). 52 in 2010 (8th).
Strikeouts – 325 (1st), 7.2 per game. 323 in 2010 (4th), 5.9 per game.
Stolen Bases – 38-61 (4th). 57-95 in 2010 (5th).
Sac Bunts – 64 (2nd). 56 in 2010 (3rd).

Lineup

Infield

Long Beach returned experienced players up the middle at 2B and SS and they have gone with newcomers behind the plate and on the corners.

C/3B - JC transfer #8 Mike Marjama (RH – .305/.349/.362, 0-19-6) splits time behind the plate and 3B and has been a productive hitter as one of two hitters on the team batting over .300 and has hit .333 in Big West games. He has been hitting in the middle of the lineup most of the season and has settled into the 3 hole recently. Marjama is a good bunter and has 7 SAC’s although he hasn’t been asked to bunt much lately. He will hack away and has a below average BB/K ratio (11/30). Marjama injured his left hand on Tuesday against UCLA so his status for this weekend is questionable. He had a good series against Fullerton earlier in the year when he went 5-12 with 3 RBI.

C – FR #42 Royce Murai (RH – .239/.292/.269, 0-1-0) has split time pretty evenly with Marjama. He has struggled at the plate with 23 K’s in 67 AB’s and will usually hit 9th. Murai will bunt often with runners on and has 7 SAC’s.

1B - FR #4 Ino Patron (LH – .321/.398/.436, 3-21-3) has been their best hitter and leads the team in AVG, OBP, SLG, HR and TB. He does a good job of squaring up pitches and has one of the better BB/K ratios on the team (14/21). Patron has hit .352 in Big West games and all three of his HR’s have come during the conference season. He has been hitting in the middle of the lineup most of the season and has recently been hitting cleanup. Patron went 2-7 against Fullerton earlier this season.

2B - Soph #10 Matt Duffy (RH – .276/.311/.300, 0-27-6; ’10 – .244/.261/.291; 0-7-2 in 86 AB's) was a part-time player most of his FR season before starting ten straight games down the stretch. He got off to a slow start but has been hitting better recently and has hit .322 in Big West games and leads the team in RBI. Duffy is currently on an eight game hitting streak. He is a free swinger and has only walked nine times. Duffy had a good series against Fullerton earlier this season when he went 5-13 and is 8-26 in his career against the Titans.

SS - JR #2 Kirk Singer (RH – .228/.316/.294, 1-10-2; ’10 – .315/.395/.493, 5-21-5; ’09 stats – .317 in 41 AB’s) played all over the infield his first two seasons but has settled in at SS this year. He was second on the team in HR’s and SLG in 2010 but has had a very poor season and has been moved down in the lineup and usually hits 8th or 9th. He has decent patience at the plate with 18 BB (second on the team) but has a big swing and is second in the Big West with 42 K’s. Singer was projected to possibly be drafted in the first ten rounds but hasn’t played close to that level. He went 2-10 against Fullerton earlier this season and is 4-20 in his career against the Titans.

3B – FR #23 Michael Hill (LH – .235/.276/.296, 0-7-2) was injured and missed most of the first part of the season but has been playing more lately when Marjama is behind the plate as one of the few LH bats on the roster. He has been in the lineup twelve times in the last six weekend series, usually hitting near the bottom of the order although he did hit 2nd in two of the games last weekend. Hill has a poor 3/24 BB/K ratio.

Outfield

Long Beach returned their CF from 2010 and has been using newcomers and players who were seldom used in the corner OF spots and DH.

LF – FR #40 Jeff McNeil (LH – .258/.319/.290, 0-12-2) has settled into the LF spot and has recently started hitting in the top two spots in the lineup as one of the team’s hotter hitters in Big West action with a .340 AVG. He is a very good bunter and is second in the conf with 12 SAC’s. McNeil does a good job of making contact and has only 15 K’s. He is a versatile player who has also played some 2B this season. McNeil went 2-7 against Fullerton earlier this season.

CF – JR #12 Brennan Metzger (RH – .279/.385/.390, 1-13-8; ’10 – .308/.409/.453, 2-22-9; ’09 – .258/.389/.337, 1-9-11) has good speed and was the leadoff hitter in 2010 and most of this season. He was moved down in the lineup to 6th or 7th the last few weeks after struggling at the plate and has hit only .235 in Big West games. Metzger is a scrappy player who will do whatever he can to get on base and leads the team with 10 HBP (he led the Big West with 20 HBP in 2010) and has a very good BB/K ratio (19/22) and leads the team in walks. He is a good bunter and has 7 SAC’s. Metzger went 4-8 earlier in the season against Fullerton and is 5-17 in his career against the Titans.

RF/DH – Soph #9 Juan Avila (RH – .210/.304/.358, 2-6-0; ’10 – .231 in 52 AB's) has started twelve times over the last six weekends and has hit .306 in Big West games with two HR in the series at Pacific. He went 1-7 against Fullerton earlier this season.

RF/DH – SR #1 Matt Hibbert (RH – .297/.390/.374, 0-9-6) has come out of nowhere after barely playing last season to get regular playing time and will usually hit in one of the first two spots in the lineup. He has a bad 5/27 BB/K ratio in 91 AB’s but crowds the plate and is 5th in the Big West with 9 HBP. Hibbert is second on the team with 8 SAC’s.

DH – FR #35 Johnny Bekakis (RH – .273/.333/.318, 0-6-0) has only recently started getting regular playing time and has been in the lineup the last three games with four RBI in the last two games.

1B/DH – FR #27 Jeff Yamaguchi (RH – .221/.282/.263, 0-8-2) was in the lineup on a more regular basis earlier in the season, splitting time with Patron at 1B/DH, but he has had trouble making contact (34 K’s in 95 AB’s) and has seen his playing time dwindle recently.

Defense

Fielding % – .964 (9th) with 63 errors. .965 (7th) with 74 errors in 2010.

Patron is solid at 1B. Singer and Duffy have been below average up the middle with 22 errors, often making good plays but booting routine plays. Hill is poor at 3B with 11 errors and the defense is stronger with Marjama playing there. Metzger is very good in CF, Hibbert and McNeil are solid in the corners and Avila is below average. The leaky defense has resulted in Long Beach allowing 55 unearned runs.

Stolen Base Attempts – 49-69 (7th). 44-68 (3rd) in 2010

Marjama (23-32) and Murai (27-36) have been decent against the running game. Fullerton went 4-7 on SB attempts in the series earlier this season.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 41 (5th). 2010 – 48 (6th).

Marjama and Murai are average at blocking pitches.

Pitching

ERA – 3.62 (4th in the Big West). 4.67 in 2010 (3rd in the Big West).
BA – .258 (4th). .283 in 2010 (3rd).
Walks – 139 (6th), 3.1 BB/9 IP. 158 (4th), 2.9 BB/9 IP in 2010.
Strikeouts – 335 (3rd), 7.4 K/9 IP. 322 (5th), 5.9 K/9 IP in 2010.
Extra Base Hits – 107 (7th), 2.4 per game. 149 (1st), 2.7 per game in 2010.
HR – 12 (5th). 34 HR in 2010 (2nd).

Starters

Long Beach returned to of their two of their starters from last year and have been using newcomers in the other weekend spot and have had mixed results after their Friday SP.

FRI – JR #24 Andrew Gagnon (RHP – 4-7, 2.73 ERA, 12 GS, 79 IP, 59 H, 30 BB, 74 K, .211 BA, 3 HR, 8 HBP, 6 WP, 12-20 SB; ’10 – 5-7, 3.28 ERA, 15 GS, 93 IP, 87 H, 27 BB, 65 K, .238 BA, 6 HR, 12 HBP, 5 WP, 12-17 SB) has been a hard luck pitcher with Long Beach scoring two runs or less in nine of his starts and he is among the Big West leaders in ERA, K, AVG and IP. He was 2nd team All-Big West in 2010 when he was 5th in the conf in ERA and 4th in AVG. Gagnon is projected to be picked in the first few rounds of the draft in June and has a low 90’s fastball with a solid changeup and slider and good control and he will pitch inside to move hitters off of the plate. He allowed only one hit in eight innings in his start against Riverside and in his first six innings at UCSB but allowed four unearned runs in the 7th in his loss to the Gauchos and has not pitched well in his last two starts against Cal Poly (6 2/3 IP, 6 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 K) and at ASU (7 IP, 5 R, 7 H, 3 BB, 9 K). Gagnon allowed 11 R (7 ER) on 8 H and 6 BB in 4 2/3 IP in two starts against the Titans in his first two seasons but threw very well at Fullerton earlier this season when he shut out the Titans through six innings before allowing two runs in the seventh in a 2-1 loss.

SAT – JR #22 Branden Pinder (RHP – 3-5, 5.53 ERA, 13 apps, 11 GS, 57 IP, 60 H, 13 BB, 51 K, .271 BA, 0 HR, 10 HBP, 2 WP, 8-10 SB; ’10 – 4-7, 4.85 ERA, 17 apps, 15 GS, 85 IP, 106 H, 22 BB, 45 K, .320 BA, 9 HR, 18 HBP, 2 WP, 8-13 SB) had a very good start against Fullerton earlier this season (6 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 4 K) but struggled in six of his next eight starts and ended up having his start skipped against Riverside before throwing well against UCSB (6 1/3 IP, 2 R, 3 H, 1 BB, 6 K) and Cal Poly (7 IP, 3 R, 6 H, 1 BB, 3 K) but got knocked out early at ASU (3 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K). His fastball sits in the upper 80’s and he relies on good control and spotting his fastball to get hitters out. Pinder pitches inside and he has been among the Big West leaders in HBP each of the last two seasons. He allowed 11 R (10 ER) on 21 H and 5 BB in 13 IP in his two starts against Fullerton last season before throwing well against the Titans earlier this year.

SUN – FR #15 Ryan Strufing (LHP – 3-2, 3.92 ERA, 14 apps, 6 GS, 39 IP, 36 H, 17 BB, 27 K, .254 BA, 3 HR, 4 HBP, 4 WP, 4-4 SB) was a middle reliever and midweek starter most of the season before moving into the weekend rotation the last couple of weeks. He threw well in relief at UCSB (4 scoreless innings) and against Cal Poly (5 1/3 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K) but struggled at ASU (4 IP, 8 R, 5 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 3 K). Strufing has a live arm with a good fastball and a solid changeup and breaking pitches but has had trouble with command of his off-speed pitches. He allowed 2 R in 2 1/3 IP and took the loss in his relief appearance against Fullerton earlier this season.

JC transfer #36 Shawn Stuart (RHP – 3-3, 3.72 ERA, 2 saves, 15 apps, 10 GS, 56 IP, 58 H, 25 BB, 49 K, .275 BA, 0 HR, 5 HBP, 3 WP, 4-7 SB) pitched out of the bullpen the first two weeks of the season but was moved into rotation and allowed two runs or less in four of his six starts. He missed his start against Riverside with shoulder soreness and was only able to pitch one inning at UCSB and missed starts against Cal Poly and ASU. Stuart threw very well against UCLA on Tuesday (5 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 2 BB, 4 K) and could end up starting on Sunday, depending on how his arm bounces back. He has one of the better arms on the staff with a low 90’s fastball. Stuart picked up the save in their only win against Fullerton earlier this season with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Relievers

Long Beach's bullpen was a liability last season but a couple of returning pitchers and several newcomers have stepped up and given the Dirtbags a deep group of relievers.

Closer – Soph #33 Eddie Magallon (RHP – 2-1, 2.86 ERA, 9 saves, 19 apps, 28 IP, 24 H, 6 BB, 18 K, .220 BA, 0 HR, 5 HBP, 1 WP, 1-1 SB; ’10 – 1-2, 4.79 ERA, 1 save, 14 apps, 5 GS, 47 IP, 54 H, 9 BB, 29 K, .293 BA, 7 HR, 7 HBP, 1 WP, 6-9 SB) doesn’t throw hard but is a strike thrower with very good control who does a good job of mixing his pitches. He has usually been reliable to finish things off with his only blown save coming at Pacific when he allowed 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th.

JC transfer #16 Matt Johnson (RHP – 3-1, 4.42 ERA, 14 apps, 2 GS, 39 IP, 50 H, 6 BB, 38 K, .327 BA, 2 HR, 7 HBP, 3 WP, 3-7 SB) has seen the most innings out of the bullpen and would be the most likely pitcher to be called on to come into a game in the early to middle innings. He has good control but doesn’t have much movement on his pitches, which has resulted in one of the higher averages on the staff. Johnson started one of the games against Fullerton and was knocked out early (2 2/3 IP, 4 R, 1 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 2 K).

Other relievers who would be likely to come into the game in situational spots, with only one LHP likely to see any action:

Soph #20 Nate Underwood (RHP – 2-0, 2.16 ERA, 1 save, 15 apps, 17 IP, 12 H, 9 BB, 7 K, .197 BA, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 2 WP, 2-2 SB; ’10 – 2-1, 4.11 ERA, 13 apps, 4 GS, 35 IP, 31 H, 7 BB, 7 K, .254 BA)

FR #46 Jon Maciel (RHP – 0-0, 1.59 ERA, 1 save, 14 apps, 17 IP, 14 H, 4 BB, 18 K, .233 BA, 1 HR, 0 HBP, 2 WP, 2-2 SB)

FR #19 Josh Frye (RHP – 0-0, 1.93 ERA, 1 save, 14 apps, 14 IP, 17 H, 5 BB, 10 K, .288 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 1 WP, 3-3 SB)

FR #37 Kyle Friedrichs (RHP – 3-2, 4.58 ERA, 1 save, 17 apps, 39 IP, 42 H, 7 BB, 29 K, .273 BA, 2 HR, 7 HBP, 1 WP, 4-5 SB)

FR #32 Jake Stassi (LHP – 0-1, 3.50 ERA, 10 apps, 3 GS, 18 IP, 16 H, 10 BB, 10 K, .246 BA, 1 HR, 2 HBP, 0 WP, 2-3 SB)

Outlook

Fullerton is starting to get healthy at the right time, although they lost another key player at Riverside when Anthony Trajano injured his hamstring and will not play this weekend. The Titans played at a high level against the Highlanders and needed to do so in order to pull off three close wins. Long Beach has continued to hang tough with a young team but they have started to show a few cracks and have gone 1-6 in their last seven weekend road games.

One of the keys to this series will be who plays better on defense. For two programs that have similar philosophies of being built on pitching and defense, it is surprising that these are the two worst defensive teams in the Big West. Fullerton has fielded at a decent level most of the time but has had their hiccups along the way due to injuries and guys playing out of position while Long Beach has played errorless ball in only eleven games and allowed an average of about an unearned run per game.

Fullerton has had their share of struggles on offense during the season but has been hitting well lately and gotten to double digits in hits in seven of the last nine and 14 of the last 21 games and hit .396 at Riverside. Long Beach has had issues scoring all season and will have trouble coming from behind if the Titans are able to jump on them early and build a lead. The Dirtbags have the pitching depth to keep them in games and the best way that they are going to have a chance to pull off the upset in this series is to keep things tight and low scoring and let their bullpen depth keep them in games.

Fullerton has won nine of the last ten games against Long Beach and outscored them 71-26 during that stretch. The Dirtbags did tighten things up earlier this season and won one game while losing two close games in the first series. The Titans are the better team and played much better last weekend than they did over the previous two weeks. If Fullerton continues to put things together in all areas like they did last weekend they should win this series.

Diamond Club Newsletter (May 15, 2011)

2011-05-16T22:11:00.001-07:00

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Long Beach State Preview

2011-05-11T20:55:00.000-07:00

Overall Record – 24-22 in 2011; 23-32 in 2010
Conference Record – 8-7 in 2011 (4th); 7-17 in 2010 (9th).
2010 Post-Season – None
2011 RPI/ISR – 66/45. 2010 RPI/ISR – 92/73
Current ranking – None
Predicted conference finish – 5th by the Big West coaches and Baseball America

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 75 (decreases offense by 25%).
Batting Average – .265 (6th in the Big West). .301 in 2010 (8th in the Big West)
Runs Per Game – 3.9 (8th). 5.8 in 2010 (8th).
Home Runs – 8 (9th). 26 in 2010 (8th).
Slugging Percentage – .332 (9th). .423 in 2010 (7th).
Walks – 111 (9th), 2.5 per game. 161 in 2010 (8th), 2.9 per game.
HBP’s – 50 (3rd). 52 in 2010 (8th).
Strikeouts – 325 (1st), 7.2 per game. 323 in 2010 (4th), 5.9 per game.
Stolen Bases – 38-61 (4th). 57-95 in 2010 (5th).
Sac Bunts – 64 (2nd). 56 in 2010 (3rd).

ERA – 3.62 (4th in the Big West). 4.67 in 2010 (3rd in the Big West).
BA – .258 (4th). .283 in 2010 (3rd).
Walks – 139 (6th), 3.1 BB/9 IP. 158 (4th), 2.9 BB/9 IP in 2010.
Strikeouts – 335 (3rd), 7.4 K/9 IP. 322 (5th), 5.9 K/9 IP in 2010.
Extra Base Hits – 107 (7th), 2.4 per game. 149 (1st), 2.7 per game in 2010.
HR – 12 (5th). 34 HR in 2010 (2nd).

Diamond Club Newsletter (May 8, 2011)

2011-05-09T20:49:00.001-07:00

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UC Riverside Preview

2011-05-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

Titans at UC Riverside (Friday 6 p.m., Saturday 6 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m.)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton continued to scuffle last week with injuries turning the lineup into a M*A*S*H unit and also impacting the rotation with Noe Ramirez missing his second straight start as the Titans went 2-2, losing their midweek game but winning the weekend series to maintain their lead in the Big West.

San Diego battered the Fullerton pitching staff and sent the Titans to their third defeat in four games in a 12-8 slugfest last Tuesday. All six pitchers who saw time on mound for Fullerton 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 Tyler Pill, Nick Ramirez and Ivory Thomas each scored two runs.

Fullerton was happy to be home after losing three out of four games on the road and defeated Pacific 12-6 in a sloppy opening game of the series that saw the teams combine to make seven errors. Neither starting pitcher was effective as the Tigers jumped out to a 6-4 lead before the Titans bounced back with three runs in the fifth inning and four more runs in the sixth to put the game away. Keegan Dale led the way at the plate in his second game in a Fullerton uniform with three hits and three RBI, Ramirez and Lopez both had two hits and two RBI and Anthony Trajano had two hits and scored three runs. Raymond Hernandez threw 2 1/3 solid innings of relief to get the win but the story of the night on the mound was Chris Devenski throwing four shutout innings with six strikeouts to get his first career save.

Pacific evened things up on Saturday with an 8-7 win in another sloppy game that saw the teams combine to make five more errors. The Tigers jumped on Fullerton for five runs in the first inning with three of the runs unearned thanks to two errors by the Titans and Fullerton was playing catch up the rest of the game. The Titans attempted to put together a rally late in the game with runs in each of the last three innings but were too far behind to come back for the win. The leading hitters on the night for Fullerton were Greg Velasquez with three hits, including his first career HR, Ramirez with two hits (one of them his Big West leading 7th HR) and Pill with two hits and an RBI.

Fullerton bounced back from splitting two poorly played games with Pacific to win the series deciding game 6-4 in a cleanly played contest that didn’t have any errors. The two teams traded runs in the third and fourth innings before Pacific tied the game in the fifth. The game stayed tied until the eighth inning when Lopez hit a two run HR into the arboretum to settle things. Other leaders at the plate for the Titans were Trajano with a two run single and Ramirez with two hits and an RBI. Dylan Floro had a solid seven inning start and Nick Ramirez retired all six batters he faced to pick up his first win of the season.

Fullerton is looking to add to their lead in the Big West standings this weekend at UC Riverside, a ballpark that has been less than hospitable to the Titans since the Highlanders entered the Big West in 2002.

UC Riverside Highlanders

Overall Record – 23-15 in 2011; 32-23 in 2010
Conference Record – 6-6 in 2011 (5th); 13-11 in 2010 (3rd).
2010 Post-Season – None
2011 RPI/ISR – 108/42. 2010 RPI/ISR – 74/34
Current ranking – None
Predicted conference finish – 2nd by the Big West coaches and 3rd Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

UC Riverside won the Big West in 2007, had a rebuilding year in 2008 when they went 21-33 but tied for 3rd in the conf at 14-10, and had similar records the last two seasons (’09 – 33-20, 12-12, 4th and ’10 – 32-23, 13-11, 3rd) when they were on the fringe of at-large consideration for getting into regionals with RPI’s in the 70’s in both seasons. The Highlanders had won seven of eight series and split two others and were on a roll after winning seven of nine games heading into their series at Fullerton last season. The Titans swept Riverside and finished off any hopes that they had at contending for the Big West title and the Highlanders won two of their final three series to end up finishing in third in the conference.

Riverside came into this season with expectations of having their best season since they won the conference in 2007 with all three weekend SP’s and their closer returning along with most of their lineup. The Highlanders haven’t been too consistent and they got off to a slow start by losing three out of four games with LMU, bounced back won seven in a row in a stretch that included a sweep of Sac State and wins in their first three games at ASU’s tournament before the Sun Devils beat them in the final game in ten innings and lost seven of their next ten games, including a series loss at Cal Poly to start the Big West season. Riverside won their series with Pacific and lost the first two games at Long Beach before winning the final game, which ended up being the first win of another seven game winning streak that was snapped last Sunday by UCSB. The Highlanders bounced back to beat USC 10-6 on Tuesday.

Riverside’s offensive approach last year was to play for the big inning by not playing much little ball as they ended up last in the Big West in SB and SAC’s so it wasn’t much of a surprise that the Highlanders would have some issues adjusting to the BBCOR bats. However, they didn’t expect to struggle as much as they did because Riverside was held to four runs or less in 18 of their first 22 games. The Highlanders have started to be more productive on offense and have scored five runs or more in 12 of their last 16 games. Riverside hit .273 in their non-conf games but has improved to .298 in Big West action. The Highlanders have changed their approach somewhat this season instead of waiting for the big inning. They have been more patient at the plate and have been running more and bunting more, already passing last year’s totals in SB and SAC’s, in an effort to try to generate offense with the deadened bats.

Riverside had the most improved pitching staff in the Big West in 2009 with the second best team ERA at 4.22, two runs lower than it was in 2008. Most of the pitchers who were responsible for putting up those numbers were drafted and the Highlanders ERA shot back up to 5.85 in 2010. Riverside expected their pitching staff to bounce back to where they were in 2009 with an experienced group that returned all of their starters along with their closer. Two of the returning starters have had injury problems but they have been replaced by two of last year’s midweek starters who have both pitched well and the Highlanders ERA has come tumbling down to 3.19. Riverside has held their opponents to three runs or less in half of their games (going 15-4 in those games) to help keep the team over .500 while the offense figured things out. The Highlanders don’t have too many power arms but most of their pitchers except for one of their starters have very good control and they do an excellent job of keeping the ball down and preventing big innings by allowing the fewest extra-base hits in the conference.

Offense

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 98 (decreases offense by 2%). Standard dimensions, unique features are a 20 ft wall/batters eye in CF and drainage slopes behind the infield dirt down the 1B and 3B lines.
Batting Average – .281 (3rd in the Big West). .311 in 2010 (3rd in the Big West).
Runs Per Game – 5.5 (4th). 7.1 in 2010 (4th).
Home Runs – 9 (7th). 58 in 2010 (2nd).
Slugging Percentage – .373 (3rd). .491 in 2010 (2nd).
Walks – 149 (2nd), 4.0 per game. 184 in 2010 (5th), 3.3 per game.
HBP’s – 31 (7th). 53 in 2010 (7th).
Strikeouts – 258 (4th), 7.1 per game. 297 in 2010 (7th), 5.4 per game.
Stolen Bases – 26-37 (8th). 22-42 in 2010 (9th).
Sac Bunts – 35 (5th). 25 in 2010 (9th).

Infield

UC Riverside has an experienced infield despite losing starters at C and 1B. The Highlanders have three starters back from 2010 plus a three year starter who redshirted in 2010 along with a veteran catcher who has been in the program for four years.

SR #9 Dan Pellegrino (RH – .238/.270/.295, 0-15-1; ’10 - .283 in 53 AB’s, 2 HR, 8 RBI) has been a solid backup the past three years who could have been starting for many teams but was stuck behind 1st team All-Big West and 2nd round pick Robert Brantly. He hasn’t been the hitter that Brantly was but has done a good job behind the plate. Pellegrino does a solid job of making contact but rarely walks (3/15 BB/K ratio). Soph #36 Bart Steponovich (RH – .311/.415/.333, 0-5-0 in 45 AB’s) is the backup and has been starting once a weekend and has struck out about 40% of the time. Whoever is in the lineup will probably be hitting 8th. Pellegrino has seen enough playing time against Fullerton to go 6-21 in his career against the Titans.

1B/2B – SR #1 Brian Horst (RH – .241/.351/.289, 0-13-3; ’10 – .294/.255/.423, 4-27-1; ’09 - .227/.306/.297, 1-14-4) has been splitting time between 1B and 2B after being the starter at 2B in 2010. Horst doesn’t have much power (only three extra-base hits) but does a solid job of working counts and putting the ball in play. JR #22 Vince Gonzalez (RH – .230/.294/.262, 0-10-1 in 61 AB’s) has been part of the rotation at 1B with Horst and will probably be in the lineup once. He has a poor BB/K ratio (4/15). Whoever is in the lineup will probably be hitting 6th or 7th. Horst went 4-9 last year at Fullerton and is 5-16 in his career against the Titans.

2B – Soph #3 Eddie Young (LH – .257/.339/.295, 0-8-7; ’10 – .270/.362/.357, 0-26-3) was expected to be a reserve infielder in 2010 but was forced into action due to some injuries and saw plenty of playing time against RHP’s at 3B. He is one of the faster runners on the team and leads them in SB’s. Young is also a good bunter and leads them with six SAC’s. He puts together solid AB’s and has a good 14/18 BB/K ratio. Young has been scuffling lately and is 11 for his last 50. He will probably be in the lineup twice and has usually been hitting 9th. Young went 2-9 at Fullerton last season.

SS – SR #10 Trevor Hairgrove (RH – .349/.424/.443, 1-23-3; ’10 – .265/.354/.425, 5-24-0; ’09 – .251/.343/.371, 2-29-3) has been the most improved player on Riverside’s team and is one of the frontrunners for All-Big West honors at SS. He has been a catalyst in the leadoff spot and has been hot and had a 14 game hitting streak snapped last Sunday, improving his average over 100 points during that stretch. Hairgrove had two hits in each of the first two games against UCSB and went 7-13 against both Bakersfield and Long Beach. He is among the conf leaders in AVG, H, 2B and TB. Hairgrove had a good 17/22 BB/K ratio. He went 2-9 at Fullerton last season and is 3-19 in his career against the Titans.

3B – SR #6 Ryan Goetz (Both – .318/.373/.422, 2-23-3; 2010 – Redshirt; 2009 – .340/.386/.502, 5-45-5) started at 3B in his first three years but injured his knee early last year and had to sit out the rest of the season. He got off to a bit of a slow start as he was bouncing back from sitting out last year but has been hitting well lately and is batting .340 in Big West games. Goetz doesn’t walk much or strike out much (11/18 BB/K ratio) and usually puts together good AB’s. He is among the conf leaders in H and 2B and will usually hit 2nd. Goetz is 10-35 in his career against Fullerton.

Outfield

Riverside isn’t quite as experienced in the OF after losing two of the three players who split time between the two corner OF spots and DH but the two players who are returning were both 1st team All-Big West OF’s in 2010.

LF/DH – FR #30 David Andriese (LH – .315/.396/.508, 4-23-1) moved right into the lineup after redshirting last year, replacing Michael Hur who moved on after his SR season. Andriese has been a power bat in the middle of the lineup, usually hitting 5th, and leads the team and is 3rd in the conf in HR and SLG but has a big swing and is among the leaders in the conf with 35 K’s. He got off to a good start and was hitting in the 340’s before going a 6-31 skid but bounced back against UCSB, going 5-11 with an HR and 6 RBI. He will usually start once at DH and twice in LF during the weekend.

CF – SR #15 Tony Nix (RH – .287/.360/.406, 1-30-5; ’10 – .361/.425/.699, 11-43-5; ’09 – .318/.356/.514, 4-39-10) had a tale of two seasons in 2009 and 2010. He was hitting well over .400 going into the Big West schedule in 2009 but barely hit .200 in conf games. Nix got off to a slow start in 2010 but hit a scorching .386 off of Big West pitchers and was among the leaders in HR (7) and RBI (21) during conf games and ended up being one of the 1st team All-Big West OF’s. Nix has been a productive hitter this year in the cleanup spot and is among the conf leaders in RBI and 2B but he hasn’t been consistent and has been in a slump, going 13-58 over the last five weekends. He has only walked eight times but will crowd the plate and is 4th in the conf with 9 HBP. Nix went 2-6 at Fullerton last season and is 3-17 against the Titans in his career.

RF/1B – SR #33 Justin Shults (LH – .297/.439/.422, 2-14-0; ’10 – .390/.458/.695, 11-62-0; ’09 – .310 in 56 AB’s) went from being a reserve in 2009 to one of the most dangerous hitters in the conf on his way to 1st team All-Big West honors when he was among the conf leaders in AVG, HR, RBI, 2B, TB, SLG and OBP. Shults hasn’t adjusted well to the new BBCOR bats and has been struggling in all power categories but he has continued to be patient at the plate and leads the Big West with 33 walks and is 3rd in OBP and R. He has been hitting 3rd and will usually start twice in RF and once at 1B during the weekend. Schults went 2-11 at Fullerton last season.

RF/DH – Soph #4 Phil Holinsworth (RH – .231/.303/.321, 0-8-1; ’10 – 3-10) is the fourth OF and the best defensive corner OF and will usually be a late inning defensive replacement when they have a lead. He has been seeing most of his regular AB’s against LHP’s. Holinsworth will usually be batting 8th or 9th when he is in the lineup.

DH – FR #27 Kyle Boudreau (LH – .258/.372/.303, 0-8-1) has been getting more playing time over the last month against RHP. He doesn’t have much power but he is patient (10 BB in 66 AB). Boudreau has usually been starting twice during a weekend series and hitting 7th.

Defense

Fielding % – .975 (2nd) with 37 errors. 2010 – .971 (3rd) with 63 errors.

Riverside has one of the better infields in the Big West. Horst and Young are both solid at 2B, Hairgrove has been much better at SS and Goetz is a very good 3B. Nix is solid in CF, Shults is average in RF and Andriese is below average in LF.

Stolen Base Attempts – 20-40 (2nd). 2010 – 51-79 (6th).

Pellegrino (14-23) has done a good job at holding down runners and Steponovich (6-14) has been outstanding.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 28 (2nd). 2010 – 46 (5th).

Both Pellegrino and Steponovich have been doing a strong job of blocking pitches and giving the pitching staff confidence in throwing off-speed pitches in the dirt.

Pitching

ERA – 3.19 (3rd in the Big West). 5.85 in 2010 (7th in the Big West).
BA – .250 (4th). .321 in 2010 (9th).
Walks – 104 (2nd), 2.8 BB/9 IP. 164 (5th), 3.0 BB/9 IP in 2010.
Strikeouts – 282 (5th), 7.5 K/9 IP. 316 (7th), 5.9 K/9 IP in 2010.
Extra Base Hits – 68 (1st), 1.8 per game. 181 (5th), 3.3 per game in 2010.
HR – 5 (1st). 37 HR in 2010 (4th).

Starters

Riverside returned all three weekend starters from last season but injuries to two of them have shuffled things around. Two of the starters have moved into the rotation after being relievers and midweek starters in 2010.

FRI – JR #35 Matt Andriese (RHP – 3-3, 2.33 ERA, 10 GS, 1 CG, 70 IP, 55 H, 16 BB, 54 K, .215 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 3 WP, 7-10 SB; ’10 – 5-5, 4.95 ERA, 14 GS, 4 CG, 104 IP, 130 H, 18 BB, 69 K, .315 BA, 4 HR, 9 HBP, 6 WP, 6-13 SB) has thrown much better than his record would indicate because he has not gotten much support with Riverside scoring two runs or less in seven of his starts. He has also thrown much better than his already good stats would indicate because 7 of the 18 ER that he allowed came in one inning (Air Force) and his ERA in his other nine starts is an outstanding 1.45. Andriese got outdueled at Cal Poly by Mason Radeke (6 1/3 IP, 4 R, 3 ER, 7 H, 4 BB, 3 K) but has only allowed 3 R in 33 IP in his last four starts, including ten shutout innings at Long Beach in which he allowed only three hits and a CG one-hitter at Bakersfield. He is among the conf leaders in IP, ERA, K and AVG. Andriese has a fastball that sits in the low 90’s and a sharp breaking slider that he buries to make hitters pound the ball into the ground. He allowed 6 R on 12 H in 8 IP in his start at Fullerton last season.

SAT – JR #21 Eddie Orozco (RHP – 3-1, 2.41 ERA, 7 GS, 41 IP, 33 H, 25 BB, 32 K, .223 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 2 WP, 5-9 SB; ’10 – 1-3, 8.71 ERA, 11 apps, 6 GS, 31 IP, 42 H, 15 BB, 21 K, .333 BA, 4 HR, 8 HBP, 8 WP, 2-4 SB) has one of the better arms on the staff but has had trouble with being consistent with his command during his career. He has been much tougher to hit this season but has still struggled with control and has walked at least four batters in four of his starts. Orozco was a midweek starter earlier in the season but moved into the weekend rotation recently and won his starts against Bakersfield (6 2/3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 8 K) and UCSB (6 1/3 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 5 BB, 5 K), which was his longest start of the year.

SUN – Soph #14 Trevor Frank (RHP – 2-2, 3.77 ERA, 9 GS, 62 IP, 63 H, 9 BB, 45 K, .266 BA, 2 HR, 6 HBP, 3 WP, 1-5 SB; ’10 – 3-3, 8.46 ERA, 17 apps, 8 GS, 50 IP, 79 H, 18 BB, 31 K, .374 BA, 5 HR, 8 HBP, 4 WP, 7-11 SB) had a similar season to Orozco in 2010 as a spot starter and long reliever but his command has been much sharper, he has been difficult to hit and he has been in the weekend rotation all season. He is a strike thrower who has been efficient and able to work deep into games, going at least seven innings in five of his starts. Frank threw well in his last three starts on the road at Cal Poly (8 IP, 2 R, 8 H, 2 BB, 6 K), Long Beach (8 IP, 2 R, 5 H, 0 BB, 0 K) and Bakersfield (5 IP, 2 R, 7 H, 2 BB, 6 K) but has not thrown well in his last two starts at home against Pacific (5 1/3 IP, 4 R, 10 H, 0 BB, 2 K) and UCSB (5 2/3 IP, 8 R, 9 H, 2 BB, 5 K).

JR #34 Dustin Emmons (RHP – 4-2, 4.95 ERA, 12 apps, 5 GS, 36 IP, 36 H, 10 BB, 24 K, .271 BA, 1 HR, 3 HBP, 5 WP, 2-4 SB; ’10 – 9-4, 3.99 ERA, 16 apps, 13 GS, 2 CG, 90 IP, 114 H, 24 BB, 51 K, .314 BA, 4 HR, 9 HBP, 5 WP, 9-10 SB) was in the weekend rotation in 2010 after being 2nd team All-Big West as a reliever in 2009. He was injured to start the season and was working his way bay back as a midweek starter and middle reliever to build up arm strength. He made starts against Pacific and Long Beach, allowing 10 R in 9 1/3 IP, and has started the last two midweek games at San Diego State and USC and pitched into the 7th inning in each game. He allowed 8 R on 10 H in 4 2/3 IP in his start at Fullerton last season.

SR #18 Matt Larkins (RHP – 4-1, 2.48 ERA, 5 GS, 33 IP, 26 H, 8 BB, 40 K; ’10 – 6-5, 5.34 ERA, 14 GS, 86 IP, 103 H, 27 BB, 33 K, .316 BA, 6 HR,11 HBP, 3 WP, 4-14 SB) was in the weekend rotation last season and earlier this year, getting off to a good start and winning four of his five starts before having soreness in his forearm after his start at Cal Poly and he has been shut down. He allowed 6 R on 11 H in 6 1/3 IP in his start at Fullerton last season.

Relievers

Riverside has a decent amount of experience in the bullpen and returns their closer and setup man from last year along with some pitchers who saw a limited amount of innings in 2010.

Closer – Soph #17 Mitch Patito (RHP – 1-3, 3.63 ERA, 6 saves, 16 apps, 17 IP, 16 H, 13 BB, 21 K, .254, 0 HR, 4 HBP, 0 WP, 1-1 SB; ’10 – 3-0, 1.33 ERA, 3 saves, 21 apps, 27 IP, 13 H, 13 BB, 27 K, .138 BA, 1 HR, 8 HBP, 1 WP, 3-3 SB) has a good arm with a low 90’s fastball and a solid curveball but command has been an issue and he has allowed nearly a BB/HBP per IP in 2010 and this year. He has been on a short leash lately with other relievers also being used to close games and has been taken out twice in his last three outings when he couldn’t finish up games.

SR #42 Mike Wolford (RHP – 2-0, 2.14 ERA, 1 save, 14 apps, 21 IP, 20 H, 3 BB, 16 K, .267 BA, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 3 WP, 0-2 SB; ’10 – 3-1, 8.78 ERA, 4 saves, 21 apps, 28 IP, 50 H, 8 BB, 26 K, .400 BA, 6 HR, 3 HBP, 3 WP, 8-8 SB) was the closer last year but was removed from that role due to ineffectiveness. He has thrown much better this year and has been getting the chance to throw key innings. Wolford has good control but he has done a much better job this year of missing bats after getting hit around in 2010.

SR #23 Kevin Dickey (RHP – 1-1, 3.24 ERA, 2 saves, 9 apps, 8 IP, 6 H, 1 BB, 4 K, .222 BA, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 0 WP, 0-0 SB; ’10 – 0-1, 12.96 ERA, 12 apps, 17 IP, 33 H, 8 BB, 11 K) didn’t pitch much last season and when he did the results usually weren’t good but he has slowly worked his way into the equation in the late innings and is a strike thrower who has been pitching well and picked up the save last Fri vs. UCSB when Patito was pulled due to his wildness.

Soph #29 Mark Garcia (LHP – 1-1, 4.74 ERA, 12 apps, 1 GS, 19 IP, 22 H, 8 BB, 15 K, .301 BA, 1 HR, 2 HBP, 3 WP, 2-2 SB; ’10 – 0-0, 10.80 ERA, 8 apps, 8 IP, 13 H, 5 BB, 7 K) and FR #5 Dylan Stuart (LHP – 1-1, 1.54 ERA, 12 apps, 23 IP, 24 H, 9 BB, 25 K, .293 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 1 WP, 2-5 SB) give Riverside a good 1-2 LHP combo to bring into games for situational match-ups. Stuart has a very good move and has picked off three runners.

Outlook

Fullerton goes into the series at Riverside in their first rut of the season (aside from the trip to the south) after going 3-4 over the last two weeks and often playing poor defense with so many new faces in the lineup. The Titans are going to have a very difficult time winning this series if they continue to play as poorly on defense as they did against Pacific and at key times at Cal Poly.

Another reason that Fullerton has struggled the last two weeks has been a pitching staff that was the strength of the team for much of the season allowing six or more runs in four of their last seven games. The Titans cannot pitch that poorly and win the series and getting a good outing from Noe Ramirez on Friday night after missing his last two starts is obviously a big key to Fullerton winning this series.

Despite all of the shuffling around of players in and out of the lineup due to injuries, something that has been surprising recently has been the production of the Fullerton offense because the Titans have scored at least six runs in each of their last five games. Fullerton doesn’t expect to score that frequently off of a good Riverside pitching staff but doing enough at the plate to not put their pitchers behind the eight ball would go a long way towards the Titans winning this series.

Riverside enters this series playing their best baseball of the season after winning eight of their last nine games. The Highlanders have held their opponents to four runs or less in seven of those games and have scored at least five runs in their last six games. Riverside is playing with a great deal of confidence and they are looking to make a run during the final month of the season.

Home teams have been faring very well during the Big West portion of the schedule with visitors coming away with only five series wins in seventeen series (one of those series was at last place Northridge). As most people are aware, Fullerton’s lack of success at Riverside is pretty notorious with the Titans losing nine out of ten games out there before winning the final two games of the series two years ago. If the Highlanders get on a roll in this series then Fullerton is going to be in trouble.

Riverside has been playing a more consistent brand of ball over the last few weeks than Fullerton has. The Titans have been up and down on the mound and have been giving away too many outs in the field. Fullerton obviously has a good enough team to win this series but if the Highlanders keep playing like they have been and Fullerton continues to be inconsistent this weekend then it is likely that Riverside will win two out of three games to win this series.

Diamond Club Newsletter (May 1, 2011)

2011-05-03T17:49:00.001-07:00

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

Pacific Preview

2011-04-27T22:12:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-04-21T10:53:00.001-07:00

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

2011-04-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-04-18T12:31:00.001-07:00

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

2011-04-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-04-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-06T20:49:00.001-07:00

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.

Diamond Club Newsletter (April 3, 2011)

2011-04-01T09:14:00.001-07:00

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

UC Davis Preview

2011-03-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

Titans at UC Davis (Friday 3 p.m., Saturday 1 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m.)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton continued to play well last week after sweeping Washington the previous weekend. The Titans split a two game midweek series with ASU, winning 7-3 win on Tuesday behind a strong start from Jake Floethe, who allowed two runs and four hits in 7 1/3 IP against the hot hitting Sun Devils. Every starter in the lineup got a hit with Ivory Thomas scoring two runs and Austin Kingsolver and Nick Ramirez each driving in two runs. Ramirez pitched the 9th inning for the save. ASU won the second game 10-1 and there weren’t too many highlights for Fullerton except for Michael Lorenzen hitting his second HR of the season and Raymond Hernandez and David Hurlbut combining for five innings of solid relief work.

Fullerton followed up the ASU series with a weekend trip to Hawaii. The Titans went into the series with the Rainbows shorthanded due to leaving eight players behind for a violation of team rules so it was going to be interesting to see how Fullerton handled dealing with that adversity after playing so poorly on their previous road trip when they went 0-4 at LSU and Texas A&M.

Noe Ramirez got the series off to a great start with eight dominant innings in which he only allowed two hits with eight strikeouts to lead Fullerton to a 3-0 win. Anthony Trajano had two hits, one run and one RBI to lead the offense and Nick Ramirez pitched the final inning for the save.

Fullerton had a doubleheader on Saturday and needed a good start out of Tyler Pill in the first game to take pressure off of the shorthanded bullpen and he delivered, retiring the first eighteen hitters on his way to a 4-2 win in a seven inning complete game. The Titans were led at the plate by leadoff hitter Thomas, who hit his first career HR, and two RBI from Michael Lorenzen.

Fullerton got another good pitching performance to win the second game of the doubleheader to clinch the series win with another 4-2 win. Dylan Floro allowed two runs in the first inning but held Hawaii off the scoreboard for the next five innings before Hernandez threw two scoreless innings and Nick Ramirez recorded another save with a scoreless inning of work. The offense was led by a key pinch-hit RBI single by Chad Wallach to give the Titans a 3-2 lead and a towering HR by Ramirez to increase the lead.

Fullerton went for the sweep on Sunday and got another good outing from a starting pitcher, although this one was a surprise. Hurlbut was picked to start the final game of the series and he allowed only three hits with six strikeouts in five shutout innings to lead the Titans to a 3-2 win. Ramirez had the key hit in the game with a two run single in the 7th inning to increase the lead to 3-0. Christian Coronado followed Hurlbut with two scoreless innings and Floethe snuffed out a Hawaii rally in the 8th and retired the final five batters of the game for the save.

Fullerton returned from their successful trip to the islands with 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. Fullerton continued to play well with their ninth win in ten games with a 5-3 win. The Titans were led on the mound by Colin O’Connell’s six effective innings and three scoreless innings from Hernandez and at the plate by Richy Pedroza and Thomas (two runs each) and Pill and Carlos Lopez (two RBI each).

Next up on the schedule for Fullerton will be a road trip to UC Davis for the conference opening series as the Titans look to get off to a good start in defending their Big West title.

UC Davis Aggies

Overall Record – 5-14 in 2011; 26-29 in 2010
Conference Record – 0-0 in 2011; 9-15 in 2010 (tie for 7th).
Post-Season – None
2011 RPI/ISR – 271/239. 2010 – 163 RPI
Current ranking – None
Predicted conference finish – 8th by the Big West coaches, 9th by Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

UC Davis qualified for a regional in 2008 with a veteran team in their first year of D1 eligibility and their first year as a full member of the Big West. The Aggies knew that 2009 would be a rebuilding year after losing so many players from their regional team but they played much worse than expected and went 13-42. UC Davis got off to a 12-9 start in 2010 going into conference play due to getting much better production at the plate and solid pitching. The Aggies continued to hit a decent rate during conference games but their pitching staff had injuries to deal with and pretty much imploded. UC Davis only went 1-11 against the four best teams in the Big West and ended up finishing tied for 7th in the conference.

UC Davis thought they had a chance to be improved this year with so many members of last year’s team returning but the Aggies have gotten off to a very slow start, primarily due to poor hitting. Davis played three one run games with Sac State to start the season, losing two of them and scoring only six runs. The Aggies next series was against USF and they lost two out of three and scored only ten runs. The next series for Davis was against Fresno State and they were swept in two games in which they were held to five runs. They played three midweek games in between those series and before heading to San Jose for a tournament and they lost all three of those games, scoring a total of ten runs. The Aggies offense started to wake up in the tournament in San Jose when they scored 21 runs in four games but their pitching let them down and they lost three out of four games. UC Davis played a doubleheader at San Jose on Monday and split two games, losing the first one 5-2 and winning the second game 9-1. The Aggies bats stayed hot in Wednesday’s game at Santa Clara when they beat the Broncos 9-5.

After having a decent offense in 2010, UC Davis expected to have a better offense with seven starters back but that hasn’t been the case. The Aggies have struggled out of the gate and were hitting .247 going into the week before starting to heat up and getting their average into the .250’s. UC Davis is ranked in the bottom two spots in the conference in just about every major hitting category except for HR’s (tied for 2nd with 7). The Aggies scored four runs or less in their first thirteen games and 15 out of 17 before heating up in their last two games. UC Davis is not patient at the plate and they are only averaging three walks per game. They will bunt runners over, averaging about a SAC per game, but don’t run much. Their game plan is to get a pitch early in the count and try to drive it somewhere.

UC Davis has a 4.41 ERA which is over two runs better than last year’s ERA. The Aggies had a similar ERA going into Big West play in 2010 before the pitching staff melted down so they are looking to avoid a repeat scenario. UC Davis has had one of the better SP’s in the conference thus far along with a very good setup man and closer in the bullpen but haven’t had too much consistency from the other starters or relievers.

Offense

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 73 (decreases offense by 27%). 410 to CF, 385 to the power alleys, plenty of foul territory
Batting Average – .255 (8th in the Big West). .304 in 2010 (5th in the Big West).
Runs Per Game – 3.6 (9th). 6.0 in 2010 (7th).
Home Runs – 7 (2nd). 24 in 2010 (9th).
Slugging Percentage – .324 (8th). .403 in 2010 (9th).
Walks – 53 (9th), 3.0 per game. 153 in 2010 (9th), 2.8 per game.
HBP’s – 17 (6th). 72 in 2010 (4th).
Stolen Bases – 12 (7th). 40 in 2010 (7th).
Sac Bunts – 14 (7th). 38 in 2010 (5th).

Infield

UC Davis has an experienced infield with starters returning at four of the five positions with only their SS moving on.

C – JR #42 Scott Kalush (RH – .237/.348/.316, 0-7-0; ’10 – .270/.327/.297, 0-23-0) is in his third year as the starting catcher. He hit better last season but has gotten off to a slow start. Kalush has very little power and only had four extra base hits last season and has three this year. He will usually hit 7th. Kalush went 1-7 last season at Fullerton. SR #3 Alex Dreyfuss (RH – 4-21, 4 RBI; ’10 – .294 in 34 AB’s) has started five games as the backup C and had only one hit in 16 AB’s before going 3-5 on Monday at San Jose.

1B – JR #19 Eric Johnson (RH – .296/.333/.394, 1-6-3; ’10 – .343/.412/.418, 1-39-4) was a part-time starter as a FR and has been the starter the last two years. He was 3rd on the team in RBI in 2010 and was 2nd in the conf with 17 HBP but has only walked ten times over the last two season. Johnson will usually hit 5th. He went 1-6 at Fullerton last season.

2B – SR #4 Justin Andrade (RH – 3-19, 5 RBI; ’10 – .267 in 30 AB’s), FR #41 Adam Young (RH – 1-18) and JC transfer #22 Ryan Allgrove (RH – 0-13) have been splitting time but all have been poor at the plate. Whoever is in the lineup will usually hit 8th or 9th.

SS – SR #7 Scott Heylman (RH – .293/.379/.310, 0-2-0; ’10 – .257/.368/.286, 0-10-2) was the starting SS in 2009, started at 2B last year and has moved back to SS this season. He has gotten off to a good start but doesn’t have much power and has only one extra base hit. Heylman will usually hit 7th or 8th. He went 5-8 at Fullerton last season and is 6-14 in his career.

3B – Soph #24 Paul Politi (RH – .328./.403/.410, 1-10-2; ’10 – .296/.385/.376, 1-25-2) had a solid season as a FR and has been one of the better hitters in the lineup, leading the team in AVG and is 2nd in OBP. He will hit 2nd or 3rd. Politi went 3-12 with 3 RBI at Fullerton last season.

Outfield

UC Davis also has an experienced outfield after having only one of their outfielders move on after 2010.

LF/DH – JR #20 David Popkins (Both – .323/.429/.477, 2-7-0; ’10 – .388/.473/.580, 5-43-2) barely played as a FR but was outstanding last year and was 1st team All-Big West after finishing 2nd in the conf in OBP, 3rd in AVG and 9th in SLG. He also led the team in RBI and H and was 2nd in R and HR. Popkins has gotten off to a slow start compared to what he did last season but had three hits on Monday at San Jose. He will usually hit 3rd or 4th. Popkins went 4-11 with 4 RBI at Fullerton last season.

CF – JC transfer #9 Brett Morgan (RH – .306/.377/.468, 1-4-3) is a good athlete who has been one of the better hitters in the lineup. He is in the top three on the team in AVG, OBP and SLG. Morgan is the leadoff hitter and is 4th in the Big West with six doubles.

RF – JR #27 Scott Lyman (RH – .257/.325/.357, 2-8-1; ’10 – .356/.388/.525, 5-40-1) focused on pitching as a FR but has been the starter in RF the last two seasons when he’s not pitching. He was honorable mention All-Big West in 2010 when he was one of the team leaders in AVG, OBP, SLG, HR and RBI. Lyman will usually hit 3rd or 4th. He went 3-6 last season at Fullerton.

Soph #8 Seth Batty (RH – 3-20, 1 RBI; ’10 – .292/.376/.308, 0-6-6) and SR #11 Daniel Cepin (Both – .250/.294/.292, 0-5-1; ’10 – .259/.320/.267, 0-8-5) were regulars in 2010 but haven’t seen as much playing time this season. Cepin was the CF but Morgan is a better hitter and has taken over that spot. He will usually be in the lineup when Lyman is pitching. Both have good speed.

Defense

Fielding % – .971 (3rd) with 19 errors. 2010 – .970 with 64 errors (5th). The infielders for Davis have average range and will make most of the plays they are supposed to. Morgan, Cepin and Batty have good speed. Lyman and Popkins have average range but good arms because they are pitchers.

Stolen Base Attempts – 23-35 (5th). 2010 – 90-119 (9th). Davis was terrible against the running game in 2010 but have drastically improved this season.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 28 (9th). 2010 – 82 (9th). The catchers have improved at stopping the running game but they are still having major problems blocking pitches.

Pitching

ERA – 4.41 (7th in the Big West). 5.68 in 2010 (8th in the Big West).
BA – .254 (5th). .308 in 2010 (7th).
BB’s/9 IP – 4.0 (7th). 4.6 in 2010 (9th).
K’s/9 IP – 8.5 (2nd). 6.3 in 2010 (3rd).
Extra Base Hits – 41 (3rd), 2.3 per game. 183 (5th), 2.8 per game in 2010.
HR – 4 (3rd). 30 HR in 2010 (1st).

Starters

UC Davis returns all three starting pitchers from last season so they are experienced and have a good idea what they are doing on the mound.
FRI – JR #6 Dayne Quist (LHP – 1-2, 5.93 ERA, 6 apps, 4 GS, 30 IP, 37 H, 11 BB, 32 K, .306 BA, 1 HR, 4 HBP, 4 WP, 3-5 SB; ’10 – 7-4, 5.57 ERA, 14 GS, 3 CG, 95 IP, 105 H, 40 BB, 79 K, .288 BA, 7 HR, 7 HBP, 10 WP, 17-22 SB) is in his third year in the rotation and is a crafty lefty relies on control, changing speeds and keeping the ball down to get hitters out and when his control is off he can get hit. He has had one solid start (USF – 5 1/3 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 6 K), two ok starts (Sac State – 6 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 8 K and Utah – 7 IP, 4 R, 4 H, 3 BB, 3 K) and one bad start (Fresno – 5 IP, 11 H, 9 R, 2 BB, 8 K). Quist went five innings in relief on Monday at San Jose (5 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 5 K). He has had major issues with Fullerton and has allowed 19 R and 24 H in 12 IP in his two starts against the Titans.

SAT – JR #28 Anthony Kupbens (LHP – 2-2, 2.34 ERA, 6 apps, 5 GS, 1 CG, 35 IP, 35 H, 9 BB, 32 K, .205 BA, 1 HR, 1 HBP, 5 WP, 3-5 SB; ’10 – 3-3, 6.98 ERA, 7 GS, 39 IP, 49 H, 18 BB, 21 K, .316 BA, 3 HR, 5 HBP, 1 WP, 4-7 SB) has better natural stuff than Kupbens but is another lefty who relies on keeping the ball down to get hitters out. He pitched primarily out of the bullpen in 2009 before being converted to a starter last season. Kupbens was throwing well before his start at Fullerton but he was injured during that start (4 2/3 IP, 15 H, 16 R) and lost for the rest of the year. He has had an outstanding start to this season and has not allowed more than three runs in any of his starts. Kupbens threw a complete game at Fresno and held a good hitting Bulldog team to 3 R on 5 H with 1 BB and 8 K. He has only allowed one run in each of his last two starts (UW Milwaukee – 7 2/3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K and Monday at San Jose – 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K).

SUN – JR #27 Scott Lyman (RHP – 0-2, 5.13 ERA, 6 GS, 26 IP, 26 H, 17 BB, 27 K, .257 BA, 0 HR, 6 HBP, 7 WP, 10-11 SB; ’10 – 5-6, 6.50 ERA, 14 GS, 1 CG, 80 IP, 102 H, 46 BB, 61 K,.307 BA, 4 HR, 10 HBP, 18 WP, 17-21 SB) is the hardest thrower in the rotation and somebody that the scouts have their eye on for the first ten rounds of the draft. He has had issues with control and command since arriving on campus so working pitch counts and making him work is a good approach to take. Lyman has also had major problems holding runners, which will be something that Fullerton will look to exploit. He allowed two runs in each of his first three starts (Sac State – 7 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 4 K, USF – 4 2/3 IP, 7 H, 5 BB, 5 K and Nevada – 5 IP, 7 H, 2 BB, 7 K) before being bombed by Santa Clara (4 2/3 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 3 BB, 5 K). Lyman threw three innings at San Jose on Monday (0 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K). He had a good start last season at Fullerton when he kept the Aggies in the game until a game winning HR by Billy Marcoe in the bottom of the 8th (7+ IP, 9 H, 3 R, 4 BB, 2 K).

Relievers

UC Davis didn’t come into the season with an established closer but they did have several experienced relievers in the bullpen and a couple of them have stepped forward.
JR #10 Tom Briner (RHP – 0-1, 0.66 ERA, 9 apps, 3 saves, 14 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 18 K, .133 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 1 WP, 1-1 SB) only made four appearances in 2010 but has been lights out as the closer. If Davis has a lead late in the game they feel confident handing Briner the ball.

JR #20 David Popkins (RHP – 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 6 apps, 13 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 8 K, .150 BA, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 0 WP, 0-0 SB; ’10 – 3-2, 6.67 ERA, 16 apps, 2 GS, 30 IP, 33 H, 17 BB, 18 K, .295 BA, 0 HR, 3 HBP, 3 WP, 7-8 SB) wasn’t too effective last year but has done a very good job in a setup role.

JR #26 Nathan Slater (LHP – 0-3, 8.00 ERA, 5 apps, 9 IP, 14 H, 4 BB, 9 K; ’10 – 2-4, 6.11 ERA, 18 apps, 7 GS, 56 IP, 62 H, 21 BB, 45 K, .283 BA, 4 HR, 5 HBP, 14 WP, 8-10 SB) was in the bullpen early last year but moved into the rotation when Kupbens got hurt. He would be the most likely pitcher to come in for a LHP vs. LH matchup.

Others

JR #23 Scott Walker (LHP – 0-1, 10.12 ERA, 6 apps, 3 GS, 8 IP, 6 H, 13 BB, 6 K, .222 BA, 0 HR, 3 HBP, 5 WP, 1-3 SB)

FR #48 Ryan Lucas (RHP – 0-2, 5.11 ERA, 5 apps, 12 IP, 12 H, 4 BB, 7 K, .245 BA, 1 HR, 3 HBP, 1 WP, 3-3 SB)

JC transfer #35 Joe Biagini (RHP – 1-1, 10.80 ERA, 5 apps, 5 IP, 12 H, 4 BB, 6 K, .500 BA, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 1 WP, 1-1 SB)

FR #31 Harry Stanwyck (RHP) had only made two appearances (2 2/3 IP) before starting the midweek game at Santa Clara, when he threw four innings and allowed one run on four hits.

Outlook

Fullerton goes into the series at UC Davis with a great deal of momentum and playing their best baseball of the season, finding ways to win games with strong pitching and timely hitting. The Titans bonded last weekend in Hawaii and played with a sense of purpose when they could have used the suspensions as a reason to not play well.

Fullerton enters this series as the better team but UC Davis will be motivated to prove that they can be a factor in the conference race. The Titans need to come out and jump on the Aggies like they did in Fullerton last season to take away any confidence that they might have playing at home. Fullerton does not want to let UC Davis hang around and steal a game late with their two best relievers.

Fullerton doesn’t have the decided advantage offensively that they had over UC Davis last season but the Titans have been better at the plate than the Aggies against a more difficult schedule. If Fullerton is able to get out to leads, with the way they have been pitching they should be able to win at least two games in the series, if not sweep all three games.

Diamond Club Newsletter (March 27, 2011)

2011-03-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

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

Hawaii Preview

2011-03-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

Titans at Hawaii (Friday 9:35 p.m., Saturday 6:05 p.m. DH, Sunday, 4:05 p.m.)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton rebounded from a disastrous trip to the south where they lost all four games at LSU and Texas A&M by getting some home cooking and sweeping the Washington Huskies in all three games by a cumulative score of 26-8 before splitting a pair of games with nationally ranked Arizona State.

Noe Ramirez struck out 11 hitters and allowed one run in six innings before giving a couple more in the seventh in an 11-3 win in the opener. The Titans had eleven players either get a hit, score a run and/or drive in a run and were led by Tyler Pill’s two extra-base hits (2B, 3B) and three RBI and three hits, two runs and an RBI from Michael Lorenzen.

Fullerton and Washington played a double-header last Saturday due to rain on Sunday and the Titans swept both games by scores of 6-1 and 9-4. Pill allowed only one run in 7 1/3 IP in the first game and the offense managed to score six runs despite only getting five hits. Nick Ramirez hit his first HR of the season, Ivory Thomas drove in three runs and Lorenzen had two hits and scored two runs. Dylan Floro started the second game and allowed four runs (2 ER) in six innings. Richy Pedroza had four hits and Jared Deacon and Nick Ramirez each had three hits and drove in two runs.

The level of competition stepped up significantly when Arizona State came to town for a two game midweek series. Fullerton extended their winning streak at home to 8 games with a 7-3 win on Tuesday. The Titans got a strong start from Jake Floethe, who allowed two runs and four hits in 7 1/3 IP against the hot hitting Sun Devils. Every starter in the lineup got a hit with Thomas scoring two runs and Austin Kingsolver and Nick Ramirez each driving in two runs. Ramirez pitched the 9th inning for the save. ASU won the second game 10-1 and there weren’t too many highlights for Fullerton except for Lorenzen hitting his second HR of the season and Raymond Hernandez and David Hurbut combining for five innings of solid relief work.

Next up for Fullerton is a four-game series on the islands at Hawaii. The Titans won two games out of three from the Rainbows last season at Fullerton. Hawaii got off to a slow start but has won five consecutive games.

Hawaii Rainbows

Overall Record – 11-9 in 2011; 35-28 in 2010
Conference Record – 12-12 in 2010 (4th).
Post-Season – Won WAC Tournament (4-1). Finished 2nd in ASU regional (2-0 vs. San Diego, 0-2 vs. ASU).
2011 RPI/ISR – 87/103. 2010 – 72 RPI
Current ranking – None
Predicted conference finish – 2nd by the WAC coaches and Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

Hawaii had an experienced team in 2010 that expected to contend for the WAC title and was projected to finish second or third in the conference. The Rainbows had an up and down season and weren’t too consistent, winning only three (and splitting another three) of their first eleven series and sitting at 6-10 in the WAC going into their last two series. Hawaii got hot down the stretch and won ten of their last fourteen games, including winning four out of five games in the WAC tournament, to claim the WAC’s automatic bid for the NCAA regionals. The Rainbows continued to play well as they won the opening game of their regional against San Diego before losing to host ASU, defeating San Diego for a second time and losing to ASU once again to finish as the runner-up in the regional and 35-28 on the season.

Hawaii was projected by the WAC coaches and media to keep the momentum going from 2010 by finishing second and ending up in a regional again this season. The Rainbows have played a pretty difficult schedule to open the 2011 season, which has been a factor in why they were under .500 before last weekend. Hawaii started the season by splitting four games with Oregon and losing 2 of 3 games to Texas at home before coming to the mainland, where they split four games at much improved Loyola Marymount and lost a midweek game at Long Beach. The Rainbows returned home and split four games with Portland before winning all four games against an overmatched Cenentary squad last weekend.

Hawaii has had trouble scoring runs due to using the new BBCOR bats, playing in a pitcher’s park and facing some good pitching staffs. The Rainbows only scored more than five runs twice in their first fourteen games and were only hitting .240 going into the Centenary series, when they fattened up and scored 30 runs and increased their team average by 20 points. Hawaii doesn’t have much pop at the plate and was averaging just over two extra-base hits a game before playing Centenary. The Rainbows also don’t bunt much but they will use the hit and run to get runners moving and will run because they have the top three base stealers in the WAC and lead the conference in SB’s.

Hawaii had a deep pitching staff in 2010 so they have been able to overcome the losses of two of their better starting pitchers to have the second best pitching staff in the WAC after nationally ranked Fresno State. The Rainbows have dropped their team ERA by over two runs and opponents are hitting sixty points less thus far, although those numbers are likely to go up when they start playing conference games in some of the launching pads in the WAC. The Hawaii pitchers have held teams to four runs or less in 14 of their first 20 games.

Offense

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 79 (decreases offense by 21%).
Batting Average – .260 (4th in the WAC). .287 in 2010 (5th in the WAC).
Runs Per Game – 4.8 (5th). 6.0 in 2010 (5th).
Home Runs – 7 (6th). 58 in 2010 (5th).
Slugging Percentage – .369 (4th). .431 in 2010 (5th).
Walks – 83 (2nd), 4.1 per game. 259 in 2010 (3rd), 4.1 per game.
HBP’s – 25 (3rd). 49 in 2010 (4th).
Stolen Bases – 26 (1st). 44 in 2010 (6th).
Sac Bunts – 15 (2nd). 44 in 2010 (1st).

Infield

Hawaii lost starters at C, 1B and SS from last season and return their 3B and their best player at 2B.

C/3B – Soph #9 Pi’ikea Kitamura (RH – .145/.280/.232, 1-8-0; ’10 – .241/.322/.292, 1-28-2) is the best defensive option at 3B but has been playing mostly behind the plate due to an injury to the expected starter. He does not have much power but can get a bunt down (2nd on the team last year with 6 SAC’s). Kitamura has usually been hitting 6th or 7th. He went 3-11 with 2 RBI in last year’s series at Fullerton. When Kitamura is starting at 3B, JC transfer #33 Garrett Champion (RH) will be behind the plate. He played for the first time last week and started three games last weekend against Centenary, going 6-11 with a HR and 2 RBI while batting 7th or 8th.

1B – SR #13 Jeffrey Van Doornum (RH – .294/.422/.397, 1-9-6; ’10 – .330/.391/.585, 14-38-6) was the DH most of the last three years and has been playing more at 1B this season. He has gotten off to a slow start in the power department getting used to the new BBCOR bats after leading the team and finishing 7th in the WAC in HR’s in 2010 when he was 1st team All-WAC after hitting .383 in conference games. Van Doornum will hit in the middle of the lineup. He will see lots of pitches because he is 8th in the WAC with 13 BB’s and has a big swing because he was 3rd in the WAC in 2010 with 55 K’s and is 2nd this season with 22 K’s. Van Doornum is a good baserunner and is 2nd in the WAC with 6 SB’s. He went 0-7 with 5 K’s in last year’s series at Fullerton.

DH – JC transfers #31 Michael Blake (LH – .255/.305/.392, 0-10-0) and #20 David Peterson (RH – .289/.418/.356, 0-4-0) have been seeing some playing time at 1B along with Van Doornum but one of them has usually been the DH. Peterson was catching earlier in the season but has been moved out from behind the plate. Blake got off to a very slow start before going 6-13 with 4 RBI last weekend against Centenary. Whichever one starts will usually hit 5th or 6th.

2B – JR #14 Kolten Wong (LH – .386/.441/.542, 3-14-7; ’10 – .357/.436/.534, 7-40-19) is Hawaii’s best player and one of the best players in the WAC. He was a FR All-American and played on Team USA after his FR season. He had another strong year in 2010 and was 1st team All-WAC when he led the team in R, H, TB and BB and was 2nd in the WAC in SB’s. Wong continued his strong play last summer when he was MVP of the Cape Cod League and he is projected to be drafted in the first two rounds. He has gotten off to a blazing hot start and is among the WAC leaders in AVG, H, HR, SLG and SB and leads the team in RBI. Wong will hit 3rd and has shown his versatility this season by also starting games at C and SS. He went 4-11 with two 2B’s last year at Fullerton.

SS and 3B – Soph Matt Harrison (RH – .114/.244/.143, 0-2-0) was supposed to take over at SS for three year starter Greg Garcia after sitting out last season due to transferring in from North Carolina. Harrison has struggled both offensively and defensively and was replaced in the lineup last weekend at SS by one of the pitchers, JR #2 Jesse Moore (RH – .238/.304/.381, 0-3-1), who went 5-11 after starting the season 0-10. FR #4 Conner George (RH – 0-14) and JC transfer #22 AJ Bayus (RH – 4-20) have each made five starts on the left side of the infield at SS or 3B. Whoever starts at SS will hit 9th.

Outfield

Hawaii lost one of their starting OF’s from 2010 and has a pretty experienced group of outfielders.

LF – SR #8 Sean Montplaisir (LH – .362/.430/.507, 0-9-3; ’10 – .241/.306/.353, 5-26-2) and Wong were the best all-around hitters on the team in 2009 and he was a pre-season All WAC selection going into 2010 but had a poor season and ended up being a part-time starter. Montplaisir has has gotten off to a much better start this year and is among the WAC leaders in AVG, H, 2B and SLG. He is a good bunter (2nd on the team with 6 SAC’s in 2010) and will hit 2nd. Montplaisir went 1-6 last year at Fullerton.

CF – Soph #21 Breland Almadova (RH – .222/.379/.311, 0-7-4) was a part-time player in 2010 (.118 in 34 AB’s) but has gotten a chance to play in the last couple of weeks as the leadoff hitter and has walked 11 times in 14 games. He has good speed and is a good bunter (leads the WAC with 4 SAC’s).

RF – JC transfer #10 Zack Swasey (RH – 310/.375/.423, 0-10-5) moved right into the lineup and has been a threat in the middle of the batting order. He is 3rd in the WAC in SB’s and 10th in 2B’s. Swasey has a big swing and is tied for 2nd in the WAC in K’s with 22.

OF – SR #18 Collin Bennett (RH – .179/.270/.250, 0-4-0; ‘10 – .323/.408/.489, 5-49-4) came in as a JC transfer in 2010 and was a productive member of the lineup, playing CF and leading the team in RBI. He got off to a slow start this season and has been once each of the last two weekends. Bennett went 3-11 with 2 RBI last year at Fullerton.

Defense

Fielding % –.960 (6th) with 33 errors. 2010 – .968 with 77 errors (2nd). Despite playing on turf, defense has been a problem this year with Hawaii allowing 18 unearned runs before not giving up any free runs last weekend. Wong has played below his ability level and has made six errors, partially due to moving around the diamond and playing some SS and C in addition to 2B. SS has been a major issue with Harrison making seven errors and the backups who have played at SS/3B have made six more miscues. Kitamura is good defensively at 3B. There are good athletes at each of the OF spots.

Stolen Base Attempts – 29-35 (7th). 2010 – 63-106 (7th). Hawaii allowed the most SB’s but threw out the most runners in the WAC in 2010. The new C’s have struggled to slow down the running game and have allowed the most SB’s again this season.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 11 (1st). 2010 – 44 (1st). The new catchers have done a good job at blocking pitches and have allowed the fewest WP’s/PB’s in the WAC.

Pitching

ERA – 3.25 (2nd in the WAC). 5.11 in 2010 (1st in the WAC).
BA – .239 (2nd). .296 in 2010 (2nd).
BB’s/9 IP – 2.3 (1st). 2.7 in 2010 (1st).
K’s/9 IP – 6.3 (3rd). 6.8 in 2010 (2nd).
Extra Base Hits – 52 (5th), 3.6 per game. 179 (2nd), 2.8 per game in 2010.
HR – 9 (6th). 40 HR in 2010 (1st).

Starters

Despite losing their top two starting pitchers who made 30 starts last season, Hawaii has an experienced staff with their next seven pitchers in innings pitched returning and all of them threw at least 30 innings in 2010. The Rainbows have been pitching much better this season and their staff has kept them in most games despite the struggles of the offense.

FRI – JR #24 Matt Sisto (RHP – 1-2, 2.48 ERA, 5 GS, 33 IP, 29 H, 6 BB, 19 K, 1 HR, .232 BA, 2 HBP, 1 WP, 4-4 SB; 2010 – 5-5, 5.27 ERA, 15 apps, 13 GS, 72 IP, 86 H, 16 BB, 48 K, 5 HR, .302 BA, 2 HBP, 3 WP, 7-11 SB) is a strike thrower with very good control who hasn’t had much to show for his efforts this year. He has pitched into the sixth inning in all five of his starts and has allowed three runs or less in all four of his starts at home. Sisto is 4th in the WAC in ERA and 6th in AVG and was voted to the pre-season All-WAC team by their coaches. He allowed 6 R on 12 H in 5 1/3 IP in his start at Fullerton last season.

SAT – JR #15 Connor Little (RHP – 2-0, 3.13 ERA, 4 GS, 23 IP, 21 H, 5 BB, 14 K, 3 HR, .244 BA, 1 HBP, 0 WP, 2-3 SB; 2010 – 2-3, 8.08 ERA, 15 apps, 5 GS, 39 IP, 56 H, 11 BB, 37 K, 7 HR, .348 BA, 5 HBP, 4 WP, 7-10 SB) pitched primarily out of the bullpen in 2010. He pitched poorly against Oregon in his first start but has thrown well in his last three starts, allowing five runs in 19 innings. Little is a big guy with a low 90’s fastball and a solid slider and is effective when he is able to have good command of his fastball to set up hitters to chase his slider. He allowed 2 R on 4 H in 1 2/3 IP last season at Fullerton.

SAT – FR #17 Jarrett Arakawa (LHP – 1-1, 4.30 ERA, 6 apps, 3 GS, 23 IP, 21 H, 7 BB, 19 K, 2 HR, .241 BA, 1 HBP, 0 WP, 6-7 SB) started out the season in the bullpen, when he struggled and allowed 6 R in 3 IP in 3 apps. He got his chance to start at Long Beach and has thrown well in each of his starts. Arakawa allowed 3 R (2 ER) in 5 IP at Long Beach, 2 R in 7 IP against Portland and 1 R in 8 IP against Centenary.

SUN – JR #2 Jesse Moore (RHP – 0-2, 3.76 ERA, 5 GS, 26 IP, 29 H, 6 BB, 15 K, 1 HR, .299 BA, 0 HBP, 1 WP, 1-3 SB; 2010 – 1-1, 4.62 ERA, 23 apps, 4 saves, 39 IP, 37 H, 10 BB, 25 K, 5 HR, .255 BA, 3 HBP, 1 WP, 1-5 SB) was used as the main set-up man in 2010. He isn’t a big guy so he is a battler on the mound who gets guys out by keeping the ball down. Moore was limited to four innings in each of his first two starts before going six innings at LMU and seven innings against Portland. He allowed 3 R on 5 H in 2 IP last season at Fullerton.

Relievers

Hawaii had a deep bullpen in 2010 that was led by one of the best closers in the country. They have their closer and several other relievers back and have done a good job once again this season.

JR #34 Lenny Linsky (RHP – 0-1, 0.00 ERA, 9 apps, 4 saves, 11 IP, 4 unearned runs, 4 H, 4 BB, 16 K, 0 HR, .103 BA, 3 HBP, 4 WP, 1-1 SB; 2010 – 4-0, 1.64 ERA, 29 apps, 12 saves, 44 IP, 40 H, 12 BB, 28 K, 2 HR, .235 BA, 2 HBP, 3 WP, 6-7 SB) was 1st team All-WAC and has been outstanding to start this season. He relies on getting hitters out with a hard sinking low 90’s fastball that he buries to get batters to pound the ball into the ground. Linsky is projected to go in the first 7-8 rounds of the draft in June, possibly higher. He got the save at Fullerton in Hawaii’s only win of the series by throwing 2 2/3 scoreless innings.

SR #27 Blair Walters (LHP – 3-1, 4.32 ERA, 10 apps, 17 IP, 14 H, 8 BB, 12 K, 0 HR, .233 BA, 1 HBP, 0 WP, 2-3 SB; 2010 – 2-1, 7.07 ERA, 23 apps, 36 IP, 47 H, 12 BB, 35 K, 1 HR, .338 BA, 3 HBP, 0 WP, 5-9 SB) figures to see quite a bit of action this weekend with the number of LH hitters that Fullerton has. He is a crafty lefty and a ground ball specialist. He allowed four runs in 1/3 IP at Fullerton last season.

SR #32 Zach Gallagher (RHP – 3-0, 1.62 ERA, 7 apps, 1 GS, 17 IP, 14 H, 2 BB, 11 K, 1 HR, .222 BA, 1 HBP, 1 WP, 2-3 SB; 2010 – 3-4, 4.81 ERA, 15 apps, 6 GS, 1 save, 49 IP, 63 H, 15 BB, 29 K, 5 HR, .321 BA, 3 HBP, 3 WP, 3-10 SB) was pretty effective as a SP and middle reliever in 2010 and has been lights out this season. He has been used exclusively out of the bullpen except for a spot start he made last week against Centenary when he threw six shutout innings and allowed only two hits.

SR #29 Alex Capaul (RHP – 1-1, 4.67 ERA, 7 apps, 2 GS, 17 IP, 18 H, 4 BB, 10 K, 0 HR, .265 BA, 1 HBP, 1 WP, 6-6 SB; 2010 – 6-2, 5.65 ERA, 21 apps, 3 GS, 72 IP, 91 H, 14 BB, 44 K, 10 HR, .308 BA, 4 HBP, 5 WP, 9-15 SB) led the team in wins last season and was among the team leaders in IP despite pitching mostly out of the bullpen. He started the season in the rotation and made starts against Oregon (3 R in 6 IP) and LMU (5 R in 3 1/3 IP) but has been working out of the bullpen the last couple of weeks. He allowed 1 R on 4 H in 3 2/3 IP in two apps last season at Fullerton.

JC transfer #31 Michael Blake (LHP – 0.00 ERA, 3 1/3 IP in 5 apps, 1 H, 4 BB, 3 K).

JC transfer #23 Brent Harrison (RHP – 0-1, 6.43 ERA, 4 apps, 7 IP, 7 H, 1 BB, 5 K).

Outlook

Fullerton played very well in winning their first four games at home against Washington and ASU before dropping the second game of the series with the Sun Devils. It will be interesting to see how the Titans respond to playing their third series of the season on the road. Fullerton played well in winning two out of three games at TCU but played poorly in losing all four games at LSU and Texas A&M.

Fullerton will have some adversity to deal with this weekend because there are eight players who have been suspended and will not be making the trip to Hawaii, including the starters on the left side of the infield. The suspensions will result in some shuffling around of players in the infield and will cut into the depth of the bullpen, which could become a factor in a four game series.

Pitching and defense figure to be the keys to winning this series because runs should be at a premium in a notorious pitcher's park. Fullerton has averaged under four runs a game in their ten road games and scored two runs or less in five of them. Hawaii has allowed four runs or less in eleven of the fifteen games they have played at home and the Rainbows scored four runs or less in six of their first eight home games (seven of those against Oregon and Texas) before starting to hit against the lesser pitching of Portland and Centenary.

Hawaii is a tough team to beat on the islands and it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if the Titans and Rainbows end up splitting the four game series. If Fullerton continues to get solid pitching from the four SP’s they are using this weekend and the defense holds up, the Titans have a chance to sneak out three wins. If Fullerton has issues with fielding like they did on their last road trip when the committed eleven errors in four games with some players not starting at positions they are used to playing, that is asking for trouble and giving Hawaii a chance to win the series at home.

Washington Preview

2011-03-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

Washington at Titans (Friday 7 p.m., Saturday 2 p.m. & 6 p.m., Goodwin Field)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton went into their trip to the south with a great deal of momentum, riding a six-game winning streak that had been fueled by standout pitching, timely hitting and strong defense. The Titans came home winless in four games at LSU and Texas A&M after they allowed 24 runs at LSU, were held to 15 hits in the last three games and 2 runs in the last two games of the trip and the defense committed 11 errors that led to 10 unearned runs.

The first game against LSU was a hard fought battle where the Tigers took an early lead, Fullerton came back against the LSU bullpen to take the lead and the Tigers rallied in the 8th inning to win 7-6. After a shaky first inning, Noe Ramirez threw well in allowing only one run in six innings before tiring in the 8th inning. The offense was led by Carlos Lopez’s two hits and four RBI, including a two run double in the 9th inning that was almost the first HR of the season for the Titans and would have tied the game.

The second game against LSU was similar to Friday’s game. The Tigers took an early lead and Fullerton came back against the LSU bullpen to tie the game before the Tigers scored the go ahead run on a controversial full count walk to win 7-6. The highlights of the game for Fullerton were Michael Lorenzen hitting the Titans first HR of the year in the fifteenth game of the season and Ivory Thomas getting on base four times and stealing three bases.

The final game of the LSU series was over almost before it started with the Tigers scoring seven runs in the first two innings to complete the sweep with a 10-2 win. There weren’t too many highlights for Fullerton in this game except for Ryan Ackland throwing two scoreless innings in his first appearance in nearly two years.

Fullerton finished up their road trip with a game on Tuesday at Texas A&M. It was expected to be a pitchers’ duel with both teams having SP’s capable of starting on weekends for most teams and the game lived up to that billing because it was scoreless going into the bottom of the 8th inning before the Aggies took advantage of an error to score twice and win 2-0. Jake Floethe threw 7+ innings, allowing two unearned runs on 7 hits.

Next up for Fullerton is a series at Goodwin Field with the Washington Huskies in the first three game series at home for the Titans after two H/A split series and two road trips. Both teams are going into this game looking to bounce back after recent disappointments.

Washington Huskies

Overall Record – 3-10 in 2011; 28-28 in 2010
Conference Record – 11-16 in 2010 (9th)
Post-Season – None
2011 RPI/ISR – 195/203. 2010 – 149 RPI
Current ranking – None
Predicted conference finish – 10th by the Pac-10 coaches and Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

Washington started a new era in 2010 with the hiring of Lindsay Meggs, who replaced long-time coach Ken Knudsen after the Huskies had missed the post-season the previous five seasons. They had an improved level of effort on the field for their new coach and started out 19-13 before their shaky pitching staff caught up with them and they struggled down the stretch to end up at .500 with a 28-28 record. Washington finished in 9th place in the Pac 10 with an 11-16 record that was highlighted by series wins against Washington State and Stanford, who both played in regionals in 2010.

Meggs made it an emphasis to start bringing in his own players this season and there are 21 newcomers to the roster and there have been growing pains as the Huskies have gotten off to a 3-10 start. Washington lost two out of three games in a tournament in Texas (W – Missouri State, L – Nebraska, L – Air Force) and at home to BYU and Dallas Baptist and were swept at Bakersfield. The Huskies have had trouble both at the plate, hitting .238 and scoring four runs or less in 9 of 13 games. They will bunt runners over often but only have stolen only one base. Washignton has also had issues on the mound in allowing seven or more runs in 6 of 13 games, although they have pitched better recently in giving up three runs or less in 4 of the last 6 games.

Offense

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 85 (decreases offense by 15%).
Batting Average – .238 (9th in the Pac 10). .280 in 2010 (9th in the Pac 10).
Runs Per Game – 3.8 (10th). 5.5 in 2010 (10th).
Home Runs – 4 (7th). 40 in 2010 (7th).
Stolen Bases – 1 (10th). 45 in 2010 (7th).
Slugging Percentage – .314 (9th). .410 in 2010 (8th).
Walks – 38 (9th), 2.9 per game. 199 in 2010 (7th), 3.6 per game.
HBP’s – 19 (6th). 76 in 2010 (3rd).
Sac Bunts – 15 (3rd). 55 in 2010 (3rd).

Lineup

Washington only returned four regulars to their lineup so they knew there would be growing pains this year with fifteen freshmen and four JC transfers on the roster.

Infield

Washington has an experienced left side of the infield but is going with new or seldom used players from last season on the right side of the infield and behind the plate.

C – JC transfer #8 B.K. Santy (RH – .242/.324/.274, 0-2-0) has taken over behind the plate after both catchers from last year moved on and has started in 11 of 13 games. He hit 7th and 8th last weekend.

1B – JR #25 Eric Peterson (LH – .313/.405/.375, 0-5-0. ’10 – .225 in 40 AB’s) didn’t play much last season but is getting his chance this year and leads the team in AVG. He has started six games at 1B and two at DH. He hit 4th and 6th last weekend. Soph #40 Joe Meggs (RH – 4-10) has made three starts, including one last weekend.

2B – FR #2 Willy Reel (RH – .226/.250/.258, 0-2-0) and FR #12 Reggie Jones (RH – .059 across the board, 1-17) have been splitting time and neither has done much at the plate thus far. Either one of them will hit at the bottom of the order.

SS – Soph #18 Jacob Lamb (LH – .294/.327/.431, 2-7-0. ’10 – .347/.413/.475, 4-32-1) has started 8 games at SS and 5 at 3B after being the starter at 3B last season when he was a FR All-American when he was in the top two on the team in AVG, R, H, 2B, RBI, TB and OBP. He was 4th in the Pac 10 with a .363 average in conference games. Lamb has two of the team’s four HR’s and leads the team in RBI. He will hit either 3rd or 5th. Lamb wore out Fullerton in the first two games of last year’s series when he was 6-7 with a HR before being held hitless in the third game.

3B – SR #32 Troy Scott (LH – .320/.433/.520, 1-9-0; ’10 – .233/.351/.402, 7-28-4) is a four year starter who played mostly at 1B before this season and has started seven games at 3B and three at 1B. He has been 2nd on the team in HR each of the last two seasons. Scott will see lots of pitches and has led the team in BB’s the last two seasons but also has a big swing and has been second on the team in K’s the last two seasons, striking out almost 1/3 of the time, although he has cut down on his strikeouts this year. He has been hitting 2nd. Scott went 1-10 in last year’s series with Fullerton.

Outfield and DH

Washington has two experienced players in the OF (although one of them wasn’t an OF last season) and will use the other OF spot to platoon several players.

CF – JR #21 Caleb Brown (RH – .111/.168/.111, 0-3-0. ’10 – .295/.413/.435, 4-29-9) is one of the better athletes on the team but has gotten off to a slow start after breaking his leg last summer and missing fall ball. He led the team in SB and HBP (13) in 2010 and was second on the team in BB and OBP. Brown is the leadoff hitter. He went 4-11 in last year’s series with Fullerton.

RF – Soph #11 Chase Anselment (LH – .265/.345/.408, 1-7-0. ’10 – .347/.421/.581, 6-28-1) was the DH most of the time last season but has been playing in RF and has started behind the plate twice. He had a strong FR season and led the team in AVG, OBP and SLG. He hit 3rd and 5th last weekend.

LF – SR #37 Brendan Gardner-Young (LH – .211/.286/.316, 0-2-1), FR #26 Spencer Rogers (LH – .217/.471/.304, 0-2-0) and FR #33 Will Sparks (RH – 2-7) have been splitting time in LF and whoever is in the lineup will hit lower in the order. Gardner-Young has also played some CF this season.

DH – FR #38 Ryan Wiggins (RH – .286/.390/.371, 0-1-0) has started the last seven games at DH and has been in the lineup in 10 of 13 games. He hit cleanup twice and 6th once last weekend.

Defense

Fielding % –.970 (7th) with 14 errors. 2010 – .970 with 65 errors (7th). Washington isn’t too athletic on the corners, Lamb is playing out of position at SS and they are platooning two FR at 2B. Brown is a good athlete in CF but there are question marks at the corner OF positions.

Stolen Base Attempts – 9-15 (4th). 2010 – 45-68 (7th). Washington’s catchers did a solid job against the running game last year and runners are only 6-11 against Santy, the new catcher.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 14 (9th). 2010 – 36 (2nd). The new catchers have struggled with blocking pitches. Washington is a ground ball staff so they will have more pitches thrown in the dirt to be blocked.

Pitching

ERA – 5.62 (10th in Pac 10). 5.71 in 2010 (10th).
BA – .310 (10th). .305 in 2010 (10th).
BB’s/9 IP – 3.5 (5th). 3.2 in 2010 (3rd).
K’s/9 IP – 7.5 (9th). 6.6 in 2010 (8th).
Extra Base Hits – 42 (10th), 3.2 per game. 272 (10th), 4.9 per game in 2010.
HR – 4 (7th). 75 HR in 2010 (7th).

Starters

Washington has a pretty experienced staff that returned pitchers who started 39 of 56 games, including 22 of 27 conference games, but their project Friday SP has been out for academic issues and the staff has had pitchers projected to be starters coming out of the bullpen and pitchers projected to be relievers in the rotation. The Huskies had issues on the mound in 2010 and things have been about the same to start this season.

FRI – FR #31 Austin Voth (RHP – 1-1, 3.95 ERA, 3 apps, 2 GS, 13.2 IP, 16 H, 3 BB, 12 K, 1 HR, .308 BA, 1 HBP, 1 WP, 0-1 SB) allowed 3 R in 2 IP in his only relief appearance before being inserted into the rotation two weeks ago, taking over for JC transfer #17 Michael Garber, who allowed 11 R in 5.2 IP in two starts in the first two weekends. Voth has been solid in both of his starts when he got the win against BYU (6 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 2 BB, 8 K) and in a loss against Dallas Baptist (5.2 IP, 3 R, 8 H, 0 BB, 2 K).

SAT – Soph #14 Aaron West (RHP – 0-2, 7.23 ERA, 4 GS, 18.2 IP, 26 H, 6 BB, 14 K, 2 HR, .351 BA, 1 HBP, 1 WP, 2-3 SB) made four appearances last season (3 starts) before being shut down with an injury and taking a medical redshirt. He had a bad first outing against Air Force (6 R allowed in 2 IP) and pitched better against Bakersfield (4.2 IP, 3 R, 6 H, 1 BB, 1 K) and BYU (6 IP, 3 R, 6 H, 1 BB, 8 K) before struggling against Dallas Baptist (6 IP, 5 R, 7 H, 3 BB, 2 K).

SUN – SR #24 Jacob Clem (RHP – 1-2, 2.45 ERA, 5 GS, 29.1 IP, 23 H, 8 BB, 21 K, 0 HR, .204 BA, 5 HBP, 2 WP, 2-3 SB. 2010 – 4-4, 3.70 ERA, 30 apps, 6 saves, 0 GS, 66 IP, 52 H, 19 BB, 49 K, 4 HR, .222 BA, 13 HBP, 2 WP, 3-5 SB) threw well out of the bullpen last year when he led the team in saves and had a 3.14 ERA with four saves in sixteen appearances conf games. He allowed batters to only hit .222 against him in 2010, which was 2nd in the Pac 10 last season. Clem has been throwing well in a SP role this year, including a two hit shutout in his most recent start against Dallas Baptist. He allowed 2 R and 4 H in 6.2 IP in a no decision in his previous start against BYU. Clem allowed a run on two hits in one IP last season against Fullerton.

Relievers

Washington got some decent work out of their relievers last year despite having a high team ERA and were 3rd in the Pac 10 with 16 saves even though they were only .500 overall. The bullpen hasn’t been as good this year with Clem in the rotation and some of the returning pitchers struggling and the newcomers working on getting experience.

FR #34 Jeff Brigham (RHP – 1-0, 1.80 ERA, 7 apps, 1 save, 10 IP, 9 H, 5 BB, 12 K, .265 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 2 WP) has been the best reliever and taken over the closer role. He is the hardest thrower in the bullpen but has struggled at times

Soph #42 Adam Cimber (RHP – 0-0, 1.93 ERA, 4 apps, 4.2 IP, 8 H, 2 BB, 5 K, .364 BA, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 1 WP) was pretty effective out of the pen last season, leading the team in apperances, and ended up being a part-time SP (5-2, 4.97 ERA, 31 apps, 6 saves, 4 GS, 67 IP, 87 H, 21 BB, 37 K, .322 BA, 10 HR, 10 HBP, 2 WP). He threw 2 2/3 scoreless innings against Fullerton last season, allowing only one hit.

SR #13 Geoff Brown (LHP – 0-2, 15.43 ERA, 7 apps, 1 save, 4.2 IP, 13 H, 2 BB, 6 K, 1 HR, .565 BA, 0 HBP, 0 WP) was a SP most of the time last season (1-6, 5.79 ERA, 20 apps, 11 GS, 65 IP, 86 H, 28 BB, 38 K, .321 BA, 11 HR, 6 HBP, 3 WP). He started the Sunday game against Fullerton last year, allowing 5 R (1 ER) on 9 H in 5 1/3 IP.

SR #20 Ben Guidos (LHP – 0-0, 6.35 ERA, 5 apps, 5.2 IP, 5 H, 4 BB, 2 K, 1 HR, .294 BA, 1 HBP, 1 WP) pitched mostly out of the bullpen but was also a part-time SP last season (2-4, 5.77 ERA, 19 apps, 1 save, 6 GS, 53 IP, 66 H, 22 BB, 31 K, 2 HR, .325 BA, 4 HBP, 2 WP). He allowed 2 R on 3 H in 2/3 IP against Fullerton last season.

FR #16 Tyler Kane (RHP – 0-1, 5.40 ERA, 5 apps, 6.2 IP, 9 H, 1 BB, 8 K, .375 BA, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 1 WP)

Outlook

Fullerton dominated the series in Seattle last season when the Titans swept Washington and outscored the Huskies 34-13. The Washington pitchers struggled to get Fullerton out all weekend and only one of the games was competitive.

If Fullerton is going to get back to playing well they are going to have to get back to being comfortable on the mound, in the field and at the plate. The Titans were pressing in all four games and the results showed on the scoreboard. Fullerton battled in three of the games but made way too many mistakes to beat good teams like LSU and Texas A&M.

Fullerton goes into the series with Washington as the better team despite the results of last weekend but that won’t mean much if the Titans don’t turn things around in all areas. If Fullerton plays like they did during their six-game winning streak the Titans should be able to win at least two games, if not all three of them. If Fullerton continues to make mistakes and have trouble scoring runs the Huskies have enough talent to give the Titans a battle in this series.

Diamond Club Newsletter (March 13, 2011)

2011-03-11T09:25:00.000-08:00

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

LSU Preview

2011-03-09T22:45:00.000-08:00

Titans at LSU (Friday 5 p.m., Saturday noon, Sunday 11 a.m. PT)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton started off a bit sluggishly by going 2-2 opening weekend and losing the opening game at TCU. Since that 4-1 loss in the Friday game against the Horned Frogs, the Titans have won six straight game behind some timely hitting and some outstanding pitching. Fullerton won all four games last week with a midweek win against LMU and a sweep last weekend of USC.

Jake Floethe went seven innings and allowed one run to lead Fullerton to a 5-1 win last Tuesday. The Titans offense was led by Richie Pedroza, who had two hits, scored a run and drove in a run, and Anthony Trajano, who also scored a run and drove in a run.

Noe Ramirez set the tone for last weekend’s series with USC by allowing one run on only one hit in eight innings as Fullerton won in a 10-1 rout. The combined one-hitter was first one for the Titans since 2007. Trajano had two hits and four RBI, Carlos Lopez had three hits and two RBI and Austin Kingsolver scored three runs and drove in two.

USC gave Fullerton more of a challenge on Saturday and had a 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the 5th before the Titans put together a four run rally on their way to a 7-3 win. Tyler Pill had another solid start by allowing three runs (one ER) on three hits in seven innings before Dylan Floro finished off the night with two scoreless innings. Pedroza had three hits and two runs, Trajano had two runs, two hits and two RBI, Nick Ramirez had two hits and two RBI and Walker Moore had two hits and two RBI.

Sunday’s game was a pitcher’s duel as Colin O’Connell and Logan Odom were both outstanding and the teams combined for only seven hits in the game. Odom allowed only two runs (one ER) in 7 2/3 innings but O’Connell was even better and allowed only one unearned run in eight innings before Nick Ramirez came in to finish off the game for his third save with three strikeouts in the 9th inning. Trajano hit a triple and scored the eventual game winning run to wrap up a 6-11 week and win Big West Player of the Week and National Player of the Week honors.

Next up for Fullerton is another trip to the southern part of the country, this one to the Bayou for a series with the LSU Tigers. LSU didn’t have a season that lived up to their expectations last year after winning the national title in 2009 and they are looking to get back to the level of contending for a spot in the College World Series and a trip to Omaha.

LSU Tigers

Overall Record – 41-22 in 2010; 12-1 in 2011
Conference Record – 14-16 (8th)
Postseason – SEC Tournament Champions; 1-2 at UCLA Regional (W – UC Irvine, L – UCLA, L – UC Irvine)
2010 RPI/ISR – 22/27. 2011 – 32 RPI
Current ranking – 7th by Collegiate Baseball, 8th by USA Today/Coaches Poll, 10th by NCBWA, 16th by Baseball America
Predicted conference finish – 1st in the SEC West by the SEC coaches and Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

When you mention college baseball to somebody, one of the first schools that will come to mind is USC, last week’s opponent for Fullerton. One of the other schools on that short list of teams that people think of is the LSU Tigers. USC leads the country with twelve national titles and LSU (along with Texas) is next on that list with six. Unlike USC, who has only won one of those titles in the last thirty years, LSU has won six national titles in the last twenty years and the Tigers were the national champions once again in 2009.

LSU started out the defense of their national title by winning 32 of their first 38 games before going into a terrible slump in which they lost 13 of their next 15 games. The main reason for the Tigers slump was a pitching staff that had lots of injuries and ineffective performances and had a 6.72 ERA in SEC games. LSU rebounded to win their last series of the season against SEC West cellar dweller Mississippi State and they entered the SEC Tournament as the #8 seed, where they proceeded to get red hot and win all four games to win the championship and the SEC’s automatic bid. The Tigers were sent on the road for a regional for the first time since 1989 and were the #2 seed at UCLA, where they won their first game 11-10 in extra innings against UC Irvine before dropping their next two games to UCLA (3-6) and Irvine (3-4) to be eliminated.

LSU brings a relatively young and inexperienced team into the 2011 season after losing most of their pitching staff and several key contributors from last season and their 2009 championship team. The Tigers brought in lots of talent with one the highest rated recruiting classes in the country that was ranked 1st by Collegiate Baseball and 2nd by Baseball America. With so many newcomers, LSU wanted to ease their team into their schedule by playing their first sixteen games at home. The Tigers swept Wake Forest and Holy Cross in their first two weekends and picked up three midweek wins the first two weeks before playing Princeton last weekend, whom LSU won the first two games against before losing 8-7 last Sunday.

LSU’s offense has been humming along and averaging ten runs per game against the often overmatched pitching staffs that they have seen. The Tigers have hit 14 HR’s despite using the new BBCOR bats and have a .520 SLG % but they aren’t just swinging for the fences and they have 22 SB’s and 16 SAC’s, which nearly matches their total of 20 SAC bunts in 2010. Nine of the thirteen pitchers that have seen action for LSU are newcomers and the difference has been night and day on the mound with the Tigers bringing a 2.83 ERA into the series and are only allowing teams to hit .195 against them.

Offense

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 127 (increases offense by 27%). The power alleys at Alex Box Stadium are 365 feet from home plate, where most HR’s are hit, are 20 feet shorter than at Goodwin Field.
Batting Average – .321 (2nd in the SEC, 64th in the NCAA). .326 in 2011 (1st in the SEC).
Runs Per Game – 8.0 (2/55). 10.1 in 2011 (1st).
Home Runs – 77 (7/40). 14 in 2011 (1st).
Stolen Bases – 75 (4/94). 22 in 2011 (3rd).
Slugging Percentage – .502 (2/51). .520 in 2011 (2nd).
Walks – 294 (3/16), 4.8 per game. 55 in 2011, 4.6 per game (5th).
HBP’s – 59 (8/129). 13 in 2011, 1.1 per game (7th).
Sac Bunts – 20 (11/234). 16 in 2011, 1.25 per game (2nd).

Lineup

LSU lost much of the power from their lineup from 2010, losing three of their top four HR hitters who also were also their three leaders in RBI. The Tigers lost a three year starter at C along with their 1B, RF and DH. LSU returns their starting middle infield and the rest of their outfield.

C – FR #26 Ty Ross (RH – .167/.300/.167, 0-5-0 in 24 AB’s) and JC Transfer Jordy Snikeris (RH – .267/.353/.267, 0-1-0 in 15 AB’s) have been splitting time behind the plate, with Ross making eight starts and Snikeris making four starts. They have the unenviable task of replacing Micah Gibbs, who started for three years behind the plate and led the team in AVG (.392), was 2nd in RBI and was 1st team All SEC. Ross was highly thought of coming out of HS but has struggled at the plate and Snikeris has been getting more playing time lately. Either one of them will be hitting 8th.

1B – Soph #13 Alex Edward (RH – .364/.463/.424, 0-11-0. ’10 – .316/.389/.442, 2-14-0 in 95 AB’s) was a part-time player at 3B and LF last year and is taking over for Blake Dean, who was a four year starter and led the team in RBI and was 2nd in HR. Edward has been doing a good job of making contact with only one strikeout in 33 AB’s after striking out almost 1/4 of the time in 2010. Edward will hit 7th.

2B – FR #23 JaCoby Jones (RH – .447/.475/.711, 3-13-4) is a very good athlete who was rated the third best prospect in MS for the 2010 draft and would have been picked in the first 5-6 rounds if he didn’t have a strong commitment to going to LSU. He was projected to be the starter at 3B after fall ball but was switched to the middle infield in Jan. Jones has been a sparkplug for the lineup and leads the team in AVG and is second in OBP, SLG and OPS. He will be hit 9th.

SS – JR #36 Austin Nola (RH – .333/.426/.611, 1-13-0. ’10 – .325/.390/.460, 5-51-1) is a three year starter, the glue who holds things together for the infield and was 2nd team All SEC in 2010. Nola doesn’t run much with only one SB in the last two seasons but he already has five doubles and a triple early in the season and has been showing more pop in his bat than he did last year. He will be hit 5th.

3B – JR #11 Tyler Hanover (RH – .297/.447/.378, 0-5-2. ’10 – .333/.407/.433, 2-34-5) was the starting 2B the past two years but shifted over to 3B in Jan when Jones was moved over to 2B. He doesn’t have much power for a #3 hitter, where he has hit in every game, but makes good contact (striking out about 10% of the time the last two years) and does a good job of drawing walks. Hanover is one of the few players who will bunt and led the team with four SAC’s last year and already have five SAC’s this season.

LF – JR #3 Trey Watkins (RH .250/.388/.475, 2-11-5. '10 – .277/.434/.437, 2-15-14) only made 31 starts last season due to an elbow injury and didn’t hit nearly as well after returning (.204 in SEC games) and has gotten off to a slow start. He has very good speed and was one of three Tigers in double digits in SB’s in 2010. Watkins is a good bunter and has four SAC’s. He will hit in the leadoff spot.

CF – JR #8 Mikey Mahtook (RH – .342/.500/.895, 6-14-7. '10 – .333/.435/.632, 14-50-22) is one of the best outfielders in the country, is a pre-season All-American and is projected to be picked in the first two rounds of the draft. Mahtook is a three year starter and was one of the catalysts in the national championship run in 2009. He finished in the top ten in the SEC in R, 2B, 3B, TB, SLG and SB in 2010 and played on Team USA during the summer. Mahtook takes a big swing at the plate and had 51 K’s in 2010. He has gotten off to a blazing hot start with six HR’s and 7 SB’s and will hit cleanup.

RF – Soph #5 Mason Katz (RH – .395/.447/.651, 1-15-2. '10 – .325 in 40 AB’s) didn’t play much last season but has made the most of his opportunity and is 2nd on the team in AVG, RBI and 2B’s with six and 3rd in SLG. He will hit 5th.

DH – JC transfer #4 Raph Rhymes (RH – .388/.415/.592, 1-16-2) was the national JC player of the year in 2010. Matt Gaudet was 2nd team All SEC at DH in 2010 and led the team with 19 HR’s but Rhymes has moved right into the lineup and leads the team in RBI and 2B’s (seven) and is second in total bases.

Reserves – LSU has ten players who have between two and ten AB’s on the season, with three LH bats if they want to bring in somebody to pinch-hit with an all RH lineup, including JR #14 Mike Lowery who is 5-6 this season.

Defense

Fielding % - .974 (4/18) – 60 errors. 2011 – .956 with 19 errors. LSU had a very good middle infield with Nola and Hanover before shifting Jones to 2B and Hanover to 3B, who has had some struggles and made three errors. Very good speed in the OF with Watkins, Hanover and Katz.

Stolen Base Attempts – 59-75. 2011 – 11-13. LSU has struggled to stop the running game with new catchers replacing Gibbs so this will be an area that Fullerton looks to exploit.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 38. 2011 – 9. The new catchers have been decent at blocking pitches.

Pitching

ERA – 5.57 (8/107). 2.83 in 2011 (5th in SEC).
BA – .282 (7/xx). .195 in 2011 (1st).
HR – 75 (6/xx). 7 HR in 2011 (11th).
H’s/9 IP – 9.9 (xx/65). 6.4 in 2011 (1st).
BB’s/9 IP – 3.6 (7/91). 3.2 in 2011 (7th).
K’s/9 IP – 7.5 (7/66). 8.5 in 2011 (3rd).

Starters

LSU lost most of their pitching staff from last season due to the draft (Anthony Renaudo was a supplemental 1st round draft pick), graduation, injuries and transfers and that has allowed their large recruiting class to step right into prominent roles.

FRI/SAT – FR #12 Kevin Gausman (RHP – 2-0, 2.55 ERA, 3 GS, 17.2 IP, 13 H, 4 BB, 22 K, 2 HR, .206 BA, 0 HBP, 0 WP, 2-2 SB) could be nicknamed “Gas Man” because he throws gas with a fastball that sits in the mid to upper 90’s along with a changeup, curve and slider. He was projected to be picked in the first two rounds of the draft but had a strong commitment to going to LSU and he was still drafted in the 6th round despite his strong desire to go to college because of his upside. Gausman allowed 2 R on 6 H in 5 2/3 IP with 6 K’s and received a no decision against Wake Forest before winning his next two starts against Sacred Heart (6 IP, 3 R, 4 H, 3 BB, 7 K) and Princeton (6 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 1 BB, 9 K).

FRI/SAT – FR #39 Kurt McCune (RHP – 3-0, 1.47 ERA, 3 GS, 18.1 IP, 8 H, 5 BB, 13 K, 1 HR, .123 BA, 3 HBP, 0 WP, 3-3 SB) pitches from a 3/4 arm slot with a low 90’s fastball and slider as his two best pitches. He was the second best HS pitching prospect from Louisiana in last year’s draft but ended up not being drafted due to his commitment to going to LSU. McCune has picked up wins in each of his three starts against Wake Forest (6 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 2 BB, 7 K), Sacred Heart (6 IP, 2 R, 4 H, 0 BB, 3 K) and Princeton (6 1/3 IP, 2 R, 3 H, 3 BB, 3 K).

SUN – SR #47 Ben Aslup (RHP – 2-1, 2.30 ERA, 3 GS, 15.2 IP, 12 H, 9 BB, 12 K, 0 HR, .211 BA, 2 HBP, 1 WP, 3-4 SB. 2010 – 5-1, 3.88 ERA, 18 apps, 3 GS, 49 IP, 49 H, 16 BB, 33 K, 3 HR, .271 BA, 3 HBP, 4 WP, 0-0 SB) was a middle reliever for his first few seasons (6.14 in 15 apps and 29 IP in 2009) before becoming one of the better pitchers on the staff after injuries and ineffectiveness took most of the other pitchers out of the equation. Aslup responded once he got his chance to move into the rotation at the end of the year and pitched a one-hitter against Mississippi in the SEC Tournament before suffering his first loss of the season when he allowed 3 R on 4 H in 4 2/3 IP to Irvine in the final game of the season. Aslup doesn’t throw hard and is a ground ball pitcher who has to have good control and keep the ball down to be effective.

Relievers

LSU returns one of the most decorated closers in the history of their program and a couple of middle relievers but the rest of the bullpen is filled with newcomers looking for innings. Most of them have good fastballs in the low 90’s.

JR #22 Matty Ott (RHP – 2-4, 6.38 ERA, 28 apps, 11 saves, 42 IP, 40 H, 21 BB, 40 K, 7 HR, .247 BA, 4 HBP, 1 WP, 2-2 SB. ’09 – 4-2, 2.68 ERA, 37 apps, 16 saves, 50 IP, 46 H, 6 BB, 69 K, 7 HR, .237 BA, 5 HBP, 1 WP, 1-1 SB) is tied for the school record with 29 saves after picking up two saves this season (5 apps, 5 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 7 K). He was a 2nd team All-American and 1st team All SEC as a FR when he would come in and shut things down at the end of the game for the national champions. Ott wasn’t nearly as sharp last season as he lost command of his pitches and they started to flatten out. He had a good summer, regained his confidence and he has been throwing well this season.

JC transfer #30 Tyler Jones (RHP – 3-0, 2.84 ERA, 4 apps, 3 GS, 19 IP, 13 H, 8 BB, 14 K, 2 HR, .227 BA, 2 HBP, 2 WP, 0-0 SB) is the midweek SP and went 7 innings on Wednesday.

FR #37 Ryan Eades (RHP – 1-0, 5.40 ERA, 3 apps, 5 IP, 5 H, 7 BB, 6 K) is the hardest thrower in the bullpen with a fastball that sits in the 93-95 range but he has had major control issues.

Soph #58 Chris Cotton (LHP – 0.00 ERA, 5 apps, 5 IP, 2 H, 0 BB, 8 K) is the only LHP in the bullpen.

Soph transfer #33 Kevin Berry (RHP – 0.00 ERA, 7 apps, 1 save, 6 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 4 K).

JC transfer #17 Jimmy Dykstra (RHP – 1-0, 4.50 ERA, 4 apps, 8 IP, 9 H, 1 BB, 8 K).

FR #9 Samuel Peterson (RHP – 0.00 ERA, 4 apps, 2 2/3 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K).

FR #38 Nick Rumbelow (RHP – 5.79 ERA, 3 apps, 4 2/3 IP, 4 H, 4 BB, 5 K).

FR #21 Joe Broussard (RHP – 6.75 ERA, 2 apps, 2 2/3 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 2 K).

SR #24 Daniel Bradshaw (RHP – 10.38 ERA, 3 apps, 1 start, 4 1/3 IP, 7 H, 0 BB, 3 K) is the only other experience pitcher on the staff (5-1, 5.01 ERA, 20 apps, 5 GS, 47 IP, 59 H, 12 BB, 29 K, 9 HR, .310 BA in 2010).

Outlook

Unlike when Fullerton went on the road to TCU two weeks ago, the Titans are going into the series with LSU playing well in most facets of the game. The Fullerton pitching has been outstanding, the team has made only one error during the six game winning streak and the hitters have come through with clutch hits in key situations.

LSU has been playing solid all-around baseball but the competition level has been below average. The Tigers are going to have to step their game up several notches.

Fullerton is going to have to keep this series from turning into Home Run Derby because that is definitely not to the Titans advantage. How the Fullerton pitching staff keeps LSU from banging the ball around the yard is one of the key things to watch for this weekend.

The other thing to watch this weekend is how LSU handles the pressure that Fullerton puts on teams. The Tigers have struggled with holding down teams from stealing bases. If the Titans are able to get runners on and moving around the bases, they are going to have a good chance to put some numbers up on the board.

These are two pretty evenly matched teams and LSU has one of the best home field advantages in college baseball. If Fullerton is able to dictate the tempo of the game like they were able to do at TCU two weeks ago, the Titans have a solid shot of winning the series. If LSU gets up on the Titans early and the crowd starts rocking and rolling, this will be a series that the Tigers have a good chance to win.

Diamond Club Newsletter (March 6, 2011)

2011-03-06T11:36:00.001-08:00

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

USC Preview

2011-03-03T20:04:00.000-08:00

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

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton got off to a bit of a slow start on opening weekend after splitting four games against Long Beach (2-1) and North Carolina (0-1) and struggling to score runs, averaging 3.5 runs per game. Things didn’t look promising for the Titans as they headed into their first road trip of the season at TCU with the Horned Frogs ranked in the top five in the country in every major poll and ranking.

The series got off to a tough start last Friday as Kyle Winkler shut down Fullerton for the second year in a row and TCU won the opening game 4-1. Noe Ramirez had a solid start in allowing two runs in six innings but he was outdueled by Winkler, who allowed only one unearned run in 7 1/3 innings. Richy Pedroza’s play was one of the few highlights for the offense with three hits.

Fullerton was looking for somebody to help pick them up in the second game and has often been the case in the opening two weeks of the season, that person was one of the starting pitchers. Tyler Pill had an outstanding start in holding TCU scoreless into the 7th inning and leaving with a 3-0 lead and two runners on base. The Horned Frogs scratched for three runs in the 7th and 8th innings to tie the game before the Titans rallied to score five runs against TCU’s closer in the 9th inning to win 8-4 with Nick Ramirez’s three run double breaking the game open. Four hitters each had two hits and seven of them either scored a run and/or drove in a run.

TCU All-American Matt Purke was unavailable to pitch on Sunday but the game was still a pitcher’s duel with Andrew Mitchell and Trent Appleby combining to hold the Titans scoreless for seven innings and Colin O’Connell allowing only one run in seven innings. Pedroza singled (his sixth hit of the series on his way to winning Big West Player of the Week honors) and Nick Ramirez drove him in with a double to tie the game in the 8th inning. Anthony Hutting doubled to lead off the 9th inning and Michael Lorenzen singled to drive him in with the go ahead run. Dylan Floro threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings to get the win and Nick Ramirez struck out the final two hitters for the save.

Fullerton returned home on Tuesday for a midweek game with LMU, who was 7-1 going into the game. Jake Floethe gave the Titans the eighth straight solid outing by a starting pitcher and allowed one run in seven innings to lead Fullerton to a 5-1 win. The Titans offense was once again led by Pedroza, who had two hits, scored a run and drove in a run.

Next up for Fullerton is a series with the USC Trojans, with the first two games at Goodwin Field before the teams go up to USC for the final game of the series on Sunday. The Trojans have been struggling for most of the last decade but have hopes for improvement this season with a new coach and an experienced team that is looking to put the program back on the map.

USC Trojans

Overall Record – 28-32; 3-5 in 2011
Conference Record – 7-20 (10th)
Postseason – None
RPI/ISR – 61/41
Pre-season ranking – None
Predicted conference finish – 9th by the Pac 10 coaches and Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

When you mention college baseball to somebody, one of the first schools that will come to mind is USC and with good reason. The Trojans have won 12 national titles, which is as many as the next two schools combined (LSU and Texas share second place with six national titles each). But, much of the history that USC has in baseball is not too recent because they have not qualified for a regional for five straight years and seven of the last eight seasons.

Longtime coach Mike Gillespie left the program after the 2006 season (it has been often speculated that he was forced out by then A.D. Mike Garrett) and was replaced by his son-in-law Chad Kreuter, whose only previous college coaching experience after a lengthy career in the majors was one year as an assistant to Gillespie.

The next four years under Kreuter can only be described as a disaster as none of his teams finished over .500, one finished in 9th place in the Pac-10 and two finished in last. One of the first things that new A.D. Pat Haden did after taking over last summer was to replace Kreuter on an interim basis for the 2011 season with assistant coach Frank Cruz, who has 20 years of college coaching experience, including 12 years as the head coach at Loyola Marymount.

USC has been playing like a team that is being coached better and got off to a 3-1 start, winning games against Missouri (9-3) and Cal Poly (5-2, 5 innings) before losing 11-7 to North Carolina in the tournament USC hosted and following that up with a midweek win at Riverside (6-3). USC went down to Houston to play Rice, who entered the series in the top 20 in most polls and rankings, and the Trojans were in each game but ended up being swept (7-10, 5-6 and 2-3). USC’s losing streak was extended to four games on Tuesday at Long Beach after the Dirtbags scored in the bottom of the 9th to win 5-4.

USC had one of the worst offenses in the Pac 10 last season but they have an experienced lineup and have improved despite hitting with the BBCOR bats. The Trojans scored at least five runs in each of their first six games before being held to six runs in the last two games. USC has been working counts and seeing lots of pitches, averaging nearly five walks per game, but they have also been taking lots of called third strikes and had issues making contact and they have been averaging almost nine strikeouts per game. The Trojans also have an experienced pitching staff but the results have been inconsistent, with a mixture of good and bad outings. USC has a 5.32 ERA and have already used twelve pitchers.

Offense

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 95 (decreases offense by 5%).
Batting Average – .286 (7th in the Pac 10, 212 in the NCAA). .291 in 2011.
Runs Per Game – 5.4 (8/253). 5.6 in 2011.
Home Runs – 51 (3/94). 2 in 2011.
Stolen Bases – 34 (10/272). 6 in 2011.
Slugging Percentage – .434 (5/169). .391 in 2011.
Walks – 263 (4/100), 4.7 per game. 36 in 2011, 4.5 per game.
HBP’s – 34 (10/239). 12 in 2011, 1.5 per game.
Sac Bunts – 42 (5/47). 9 in 2011, just over 1 per game.

Lineup

USC returns their catcher and most of their infielders so they have a good deal of experience, although several of them have changed positions. The Trojans CF graduated but they return the rest of their OF’s.

C – JR #10 Kevin Roundtree (LH – .288/.341/.359, 1-22-3. ’09 – .214 in 28 AB’s) didn’t play much the first couple of weeks last year after being a reserve in 2009 but once he got his chance to play he almost never came out of the lineup. He does a very good job of making contact and only had 12 K’s in over 150 AB’s in 2010. Roundtree usually hit in the lower part of the lineup but this year has been hit second most of the time and has gotten off to a very good start at 7-15 with 6 BB/HBP. He was hit in the helmet last Friday in his first AB and didn’t play behind the plate all weekend but pinch-hit on Sunday and started on Tuesday at Long Beach. Roundtree is a solid prospect and figures to go in the 10th -15th round range in the draft.

FR #20 Jake Hernandez (RH) has been behind the plate for four of USC’s eight games and has gotten off to a solid start at 4-16. He was one of the better HS catching prospects in the area last year and was drafted in the 22nd round after sliding quite a bit down the draft board due to his strong commitment to go to college.

1B/DH – JR #7 Matt Foat (RH – .275/.362/.423, 5-33-0) transferred in last year from a JC and hit in the middle of the lineup from day one and was second on the team in RBI and third in HR. He had issues with making contact and struck out almost 25% of the time. Foat was the LF last season but has been primarily at 1B this year. He has gotten off to a cold start at 5-24 with 0 RBI and 9 K’s. Foat has started four times at 1B and three times at DH. The other options are two players who didn’t see much time last season, JR #14 Brandon Garcia (LH – .182 in 22 AB's) and JR #6 Mike Greco (RH – .154 in 13 AB's). Garcia has been hot with a 7-16 start with 3 RBI and Greco is 2-9 with 2 RBI.

2B – SR #4 Joe DePinto (RH – .291/.355/.393, 2-19-4. ’09 – .277/.369/.387, 3-22-11) is one of the better all-around players on the team and one of the team leaders as a three year starter. He shifted between playing 2B and SS last year but is only playing 2B this season. DePinto usually hit in one of the top two spots in the lineup last year and led the team in runs but he has often been hitting cleanup this season. He has gotten off to a very hot start at 14-28 with 9 RBI and 7 R.

SS – FR #15 James Roberts (RH) has been in the lineup in every game and is a good athlete who will likely be a three year starter at SS. He got off to a slow 2-13 start in his first four games before having a good series at Rice when he went 4-10. Roberts has usually hit either 8th or 9th.

3B – JR #33 Ricky Oropesa (LH – .336/.413/.655, 16-60-7. ’09 – .314/.385/.578, 13-48-3) has been the best player on the team during his first two years on campus, was 1st team All-Pac 10 in 2010 and is a pre-season 2nd team All-American. He led the team in just about every major hitting category and was in the top 100 in the country in HR, RBI, SLG and total bases. The one area that Oropesa could use a little work on is making more contact because he struck out almost 25% of the time last year and is striking out at the same rate this season. Oropesa has gotten off to a bit of a slow start for him at 9-32 with 0 HR and 5 RBI. Oropesa played 1B almost exclusively in 2010 until he played at 3B the last 6 games of the season but has been splitting time between both positions. He will be hitting third.

Utility – Soph #2 Adam Landecker (RH – .258/.346/.358, 1-11-0) started at least ten games at 2B, SS and 3B last season and is the backup at all of those spots this year. He has been in the lineup at 3B three times when Oropesa has been at 1B. Landecker hit second the last two games of the Rice series with Roundtree out of the lineup and is off to a slow start at 2-15.

LF – Soph #24 Alex Glenn (LH – .180 in 50 AB’s) was a reserve last season and has worked his way into the lineup due to having solid speed to cover ground in the OF. He is 3-14 with 8 K’s and has started six times, usually hitting in the bottom part of the lineup.

CF – SR #8 Matt Hart (RH – .258/.315/.356, 0-11-3) came in as a JC transfer last season and started almost every game at 3B before getting hurt and missing most of the last month of the season. He usually hit in the lower part of the lineup but this year he has been the leadoff hitter. Hart has gotten off to a slow start at 3-18 but he does lead the team with seven walks.

RF – JR #40 Alex Sherrod (LH – .315/.380/.492, 6-28-2. '09 – .296/.377/.357, 0-11-1) is one of the better athletes on the team. He was a productive player last season when he was second on the team in HR and SLG and third in AVG and RBI. Sherrod has gotten off to a very good start this year with 7 RBI and USC’s only two HR’s while hitting .367 (11-30) and scoring seven runs but he does have 8 K’s. He started the first three games in CF but has settled into being the RF.

OF – FR #11 Omar Cotto Lozada (Both) and #25 Garret Houts (RH – .303 in 63 AB’s) have combined for three starts in the OF. Cotto Lozada has outstanding speed and was one of the fastest players in HS last year when he was drafted in the 12th round.

Defense

Fielding % - .962 (9/142) – 84 errors. The defense has been better this year with six errors in eight games and a .978 FLD %. USC had only made four errors in the first seven games before making two key errors at Long Beach that factored into the loss. De Pinto is solid at 2B. Roberts is a good athlete at SS. Oropesa is solid at 1B but has struggled at 3B in the past. Landecker is solid at 3B. Good athletes in OF and Hart and Sherrod have good arms in CF and RF.

Stolen Base Attempts – 59-93. Roundtree did a good job once he got in the lineup and runners were 43-65 against him and are 1-3 against him. Hernandez isn’t as far along defensively and runners are 4-5 on SB attempts.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 46. Roundtree does a good job of blocking pitches and only allowed 2 PB’s in 45 starts.

Pitching

ERA – 5.25 (9/77). 5.32 in 2011.
BA – .301 (9/xx). .288 in 2011.
HR – 32 (3/xx). 4 HR in 2011.
H’s/9 IP – 10.9 (xx/143). 10.1 in 2011.
BB’s/9 IP – 3.9 (9/140). 4.3 in 2011.
K’s/9 IP – 7.1 (6/107). 7.3 in 2011.

Starters

USC returns two of their three SP’s from last season and has brought in a JC transfer who was drafted in the first five rounds last year.

FRI – JR #31 Andrew Triggs (RHP – 2-7, 3.95 ERA, 11 GS, 71 IP, 71 H, 21 BB, 62 K, 3 HR, .257 BA, 8 HBP, 3 WP, 11-16 SB. ’09 – 5-3, 3.96 ERA, 15 apps, 10 starts, 75 IP, 79 H, 20 BB, 40 K, 2 HR, .276 BA, 6 HBP, 2 WP, 5-11 SB) had a solid season in 2010 despite a poor W/L record due to not having much support and facing the other team’s ace every Friday before missing the last month of the season. Triggs ERA was under four in both conf games and overall. He is a big guy with a good fastball that sits in the 92 range and gets up to 94 along with a solid changeup, curve and slider. Triggs was drafted in the 24th round as a redshirt soph but projects to go in the 5th-8th rounds in June. He has not gotten out of the fifth inning in either of his starts, going 4 2/3 IP against Missouri and allowing 3 R (1 ER) on 5 H with 1 BB and 3 K and throwing four scoreless innings at Rice before allowing 6 R in the 5th inning (4 2/3 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 4 BB, 1 K).

SAT – JC Transfer #12 Austin Wood (RHP) is a big guy and one of the hardest throwing pitchers in the country with a fastball that sits in the mid 90’s and often hits the upper 90’s. His other pitches are a slider and a changeup. Wood started out as a FR at Florida State before transferring to a JC in Florida last year. He was drafted in the fourth round but decided to go to USC and it looks like a good decision because he threw well in the Cape Cod League last summer and his draft stock is rising and he will be drafted in the first two rounds in June. Part of the reason why Wood has pitched for three schools in three years has been his struggles with his command and control so that is something to keep an eye on. Wood threw a rain abbreviated complete game in a win against Cal Poly in his first start (5 IP, 2 R, 6 H, 1 BB, 6 K) and had a solid outing at Rice when he received a no decision (6 2/3 IP, 3 R, 4 H, 3 BB, 5 K).

SUN – SR #43 Logan Odom (RHP – 1-0, 7.43 ERA, 22 apps, 4 GS, 40 IP, 55 H, 21 BB, 24 K, 2 HR, .331 BA, 9 HBP, 2 WP, 7-11 SB) is another big guy who came in as a JC transfer last year and pitched primarily out of the bullpen as a middle reliever and a midweek SP. He threw well in fall ball and won the Sunday SP job. He struggled against North Carolina when he allowed 6 R on 7 H and 3 BB in 4 IP but threw well at Rice when he allowed 3 R on 4 H and 3 BB in 6 2/3 IP. Odom had trouble with his pitches straightening out in 2010 and batters hit .331 against him but in two starts has cut that number to .256.

Relievers

USC has most of their relievers back from last season and has added several FR to the mix but things have been in flux and the relievers have been inconsistent. USC has used eight relievers so they will do make lots of situtational switches with their relievers and they have had five games where they used at least four relief pitchers.

JR #16 Chad Smith (RHP – 4-6, 4.64 ERA, 21 apps, 6 GS, 2 saves, 54 IP, 50 H, 31 BB, 58 K, 4 HR, .244 BA, 8 HBP, 3 WP, 5-7 SB. ’09 – 3-4, 3.40 ERA, 18 apps, 4 GS, 45 IP, 51 H, 16 BB, 38 K, 3 HR, .273 BA, 3 HBP, 5 WP, 5-7 SB) was one of the main options out of the bullpen last year at the end of games and is the closer. He has a good arm and is projected to be drafted in the 6th-8th rounds. Smith has allowed 2 R on 6 H and 4 BB in 5 IP in 4 apps. He took losses against North Carolina and Long Beach had a save at Riverside.

JR #45 Ben Mount (RHP – 5-5, 3.95 ERA, 15 apps, 13 GS, 87 IP, 97 H, 26 BB, 63 K, 3 HR, .287 BA, 13 HBP, 7 WP, 9-19 SB. ’09 – 5-3, 3.96 ERA, 15 apps, 10 GS, 75 IP, 79 H, 20 BB, 50 K, 2 HR, .276 BA, 6 HBP, 2 WP, 5-11 SB) is the midweek SP after being one of the weekend SP’s previously and leading the team in wins, K’s and IP in 2010. He allowed 2 R (1 ER) in 5 IP on Tuesday at Long Beach.

SR #51 Chris Mezger (RHP – 4-2, 4.56 ERA, 18 apps, 4 GS, 49 IP, 55 H, 17 BB, 40 K, 5 HR, .286 BA, 6 HBP, 7 WP, 6-12 SB) has allowed 4 R on 6 H and 2 BB in 4 1/3 IP in 4 apps and got the win against Missouri.

Brandon Garcia (RHP – 1-3, 4.41 ERA, 17 apps, 33 IP, 35 H, 23 BB, 18 K, 1 HR, .280 BA, 10 HBP, 3 WP, 4-4 SB) has allowed 5 R (4 ER) on 4 H and 4 BB in 3 IP in 5 apps and struggled in his two outings at Rice, taking one of the losses.

Soph #29 Matt Munson (RHP - DNP 2010) has allowed 3 H and 0 R in 4 IP in 5 apps.

JR #30 Chris McCaffrey (RHP - DNP 2010) has not allowed a run or a hit with one BB in 2 1/3 IP in 3 apps.

JC transfer #49 Brad Douthit (LHP) has allowed 3 R on 3 H in 2 IP in 5 apps.

FR #50 Kyle Richter (LHP) has allowed 2 R on 4 H and 4 BB in 3 2/3 IP with 6 K’s in 4 apps.

FR #27 Bobby Wheatley (LHP) has allowed one run and one hit in one IP in 2 apps.

Outlook

Fullerton went into last weekend needing to do a better job of manufacturing runs to win the series at TCU and that is exactly what they did in the late innings of the last two games and continued to do against LMU on Tuesday. If the Titans continue to do that against USC, they should be in good shape to win the series.

Fullerton goes into this series as the better team and has played at a high level the last three games. USC started out well but has scuffled the past four games. The best chance that the Trojans have to win this series is to bang the ball around and make this a higher scoring series than the Titans want. The lower scoring these games are, the more likely it is that Fullerton will win the series. USC does have talented starting pitching but they have been inconsistent.

Fullerton has gotten solid starting pitching in all eight games with the SP’s having an ERA of 1.93. The bullpen has had its ups and downs and has an ERA of 4.35. The Titans cannot allow USC to hang around and have the relievers blow leads late in games. As long as the Fullerton pitching staff keeps things under control and the offense manufactures some runs, the Titans should win this series.

Diamond Club Newsletter (February 27, 2011)

2011-03-02T18:01:00.000-08:00

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

LMU Preview

2011-03-01T15:53:00.000-08:00

Loyola Marymount at Titans (Tuesday 6 p.m., Goodwin Field)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

LMU has started put on fire at 7-1. The Lions won 3 out of 4 against Riverside. They won 4-1 at home, split a DH at Riverside (0-3, 4-2) and won 2-1 at home to win the series. LMU followed that up last week by winning 5-1 at Long Beach and they swept Nevada at home (8-5, 7-3, 8-3).

Last year LMU hit .295 as a team, averaged 6.4 runs per game, hit 46 HR and had 37 SB. This year the Lions are hitting .287 and averaging 4.8 runs per game with 0 HR and 15 SB. Why are they 7-1?

Last year LMU had a team ERA of 7.21, allowed teams to hit .336 and had a .963 FLD %. This year the Lions have a team ERA of 2.03, opponents are hitting .220 and they have a FLD % of .984. Much of the credit for the pitching improvement has to go to new pitching coach Ted Silva. Also, they are being much more aggressive on the bases and fielding the ball much better.

Lineup

1 - LF #25 Lowenstein (LH) - .519/.611/.593, 0-5-2

2 - 2B #8 Johnson (LH) - .259/.344/.333, 0-5-3

3 - C # 4 Koch (RH) - .357/.382/.464, 0-6-0

4 - RF #28 Simonitsch (RH) - .281/.344/.333, 0-3-3

5 - 3B #16 Guthrie (RH) - .143/.273/.214, 0-2-0

6 - SS #3 Roe (RH) - .226/250/.387, 0-4-1

7 - DH #23 Devian (RH) - .300/.300/.300, 0-1-3

8 - CF #5 Fujimoto (LH) - .346/.414/.346, 0-4-2

9 - 1B #9 Dahlson (RH) - .176/.222/.176, 0-1-0

Pitchers

SP - LHP #36 Lally - 0-0, 1.35 ERA, 3 apps, 1 GS, 6 2/3 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 4 K, .261 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 1 WP.

Closer - RHP #2 Hawthorne - 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 4 apps, 3 saves, 3 1/3 IP, 0 H, 3 BB, 5 K, .000 BA, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 0 WP.

RP - RHP #34 Griffin - 2-0, 2.61 ERA, 4 apps, 1 GS, 10 1/3 IP, 10 H, 1 BB, 12 K, .250 BA, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 0
WP.

RP - RHP #17 Eusebio - 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 3 apps, 4 1/3 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, .250 BA, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 0 WP.

RP - RHP #41 Smigelski - 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 2 apps, 1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 1 K, .250 BA, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 0 WP.

RP - LHP #13 Florer - 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 3 apps, 3 1/3 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 2 K, .154 BA, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 0 WP.

TCU Preview

2011-02-24T10:30:00.000-08:00

Titans at TCU (Friday 4:30 p.m., Saturday noon, Sunday 11 a.m. PT)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

The season got off to an interesting start for Cal State Fullerton with something that doesn’t happen too often around here – a rain out last Friday. The Titans opened the season with a doubleheader at Goodwin Field against North Carolina and Long Beach, which ended up being the first game of the three-game series against the Dirtbags. North Carolina won the day game 4-3 in 11 innings after Carlos Lopez tied the game with a two-out RBI double in the bottom of the ninth. Fullerton won the nightcap 2-1 behind seven strong innings from Noe Ramirez, RBIs from Tyler Pill and Richy Pedroza and two innings of relief from Nick Ramirez.

The second and third games of the series with the Dirtbags were played at Blair Field. Jake Floethe threw five solid innings in his debut with the Titans and left the game leading 4-2 but the bullpen surrendered the lead in the 6th inning and Fullerton squandered 18 hits in an 8-5 loss. The Titans won the deciding game 4-3 on Monday, taking advantage of four errors and four HBP’s and getting solid starting pitching for the fourth game in a row with Colin O’Connell allowing only one run in seven innings.

Next up for Fullerton is a trip to Fort Worth for a series with TCU. The Horned Frogs had a magical year in 2010 in what ended up being the best season in the history of their program with their first trip to Omaha. TCU has high expectations again this season with the all three of their outstanding starting pitchers returning along with seven of their position starters. The Horned Frogs were ranked in the top three of every major national pre-season poll and were the unanimous choice by the MWC coaches to once again win their conference.

TCU Horned Frogs

Overall Record – 54-14
Conference Record – 19-5 (1st)
Postaeason – 3rd (tied) in College World Series (2-0 vs. Florida State, 1-2 vs. UCLA). Won Super Regional 2-1 at Texas. 3-0 in Regional at Fort Worth (Wins against Lamar, Arizona and Baylor).
RPI/ISR – 9/3
Pre-season ranking – 1st by Collegiate Baseball and NCBWA, 2nd by USA/Today Coaches Poll, 3rd by Baseball America
Predicted conference finish – 1st by the Mountain West coaches and Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

TCU has appeared in regionals in all seven seasons that Jim Schlossnagle has been in Fort Worth and have been improving almost every year. The Horned Frogs program took another step forward by both hosting and winning a regional for the second time before playing Texas in a super regional rematch and defeating the Longhorns to advance to Omaha, where they went 3-2 to finish tied for 3rd.

TCU has gotten off to a solid 3-1 start after winning two of three games at home against Kansas and following that up with a midweek win at Baylor. The Horned Frogs easily won the first two games against Kansas (8-2, 7-1) before losing a 4-3 marathon in 14 innings. TCU continued to get good pitching at Baylor in a 2-0 shutout.

TCU expected to have an outstanding pitching staff going into this season with all three standout weekend starting pitchers returning and they have lived up to expectations in holding their opponents to a .130 AVG with a 1.32 ERA and a 4-1 K/BB ratio (36/8) in 41 IP. The Horned Frogs hit well in their first two games but scuffled in their next two games and are only hitting .262 with a .383 SLG % and two HR's. TCU has been playing quite a bit of little ball to make up for the lack of power with 6 SAC's and 8-11 SB's.

Offense

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 75 from 2007-2010 (decreases offense by 25%), 85 from 2006-2009 (decreases offense by 15%). TCU's strong pitching staff has helped to cut down the scoring significantly.
Batting Average – .334 (2nd in the Mountain West, 21st in the NCAA)
Runs Per Game – 8.4 (1/25)
Home Runs – 101 (1/9)
Stolen Bases – 72 (1/117)
Slugging Percentage – .551 (1/10)
Walks – 269 (2/36)
HBP’s – 52 (1/68)
Sac Bunts – 63 (1/10)

Lineup

TCU returns three of their infielders but lost two major contributors at C and 1B who combined for 35 HR’s. The Horned Frogs return all of their outfielders.

C – SR #31 Jimmie Pharr (RH – .363, 7-21-0 in 91 AB's) got playing time mostly at DH last season (18 starts) but has won the starting position behind the plate to replace three year starter and Johnny Bench Award winner Bryan Holaday. Pharr has started in all four games, three times behind the plate and once at DH. He has hit 6th twice and 7th twice and been one of the hotter hitters after going 7-19 with 2 RBI. Soph #24 Josh Elander (RH – .356/.438/.510, 2-33-11) will be sharing playing time with Pharr. He stepped right into the lineup last year as a FR, starting most of the time either in RF (33 games) or at DH (17 games) and was 2nd on the team in AVG and OBP while earning FR All-American honors. Elander did have issues making contact and struck out over 25% of the time with 50 K's. He went 4-12 with an RBI at Fullerton. Elander started once behind the plate against Kansas.

1B – SR #33 Joe Weik (RH – .357/.417/.580, 6-29-0) came in as a JC transfer and was looked at to provide power. He was in the lineup most of the non-conf schedule before being a part-timer during conf play and regaining his position in the lineup during the post-season, when he made the Fort Worth all regional team. Weik made all 30 of his starts at DH and will be taking over at 1B for Matt Curry, who was one of the team leaders in HR and RBI. He went 2-6 with an RBI at Fullerton. Weik has hit cleanup in all four games and gotten off to a slow 1-14 start, with the only hit a solo HR.

2B – SR #2 Jerome Pena (Both – .313/.386/.510, 11-52-7) came in as a JC transfer after being drafted in the 40th round and gave the lineup quite a bit of power for both a middle infielder and a leadoff hitter and was 1st team All-MWC. He got off to a good start by getting on base at least once in each of the first 24 games and continued to hit well by leading the team with 31 RBI in MWC games. Pena has a big swing and struck out 56 times. He went 2-11 with an RBI at Fullerton. Pena was the leadoff hitter last season and hit second in all four games, going 4-17 with 3 RBI.

SS –JR #12 Taylor Featherston (RH – .313/.386/.510, 11-52-7. '09 – .322/.395/.461, 5-28-8) came into TCU with high expectations and has lived up to them as the starting SS his first two years and was 2nd team All-MWC in '09 and 1st team All-MWC last season. He was MVP of the Fort Worth regional after going 7-12 with 8 RBI and stayed hot in Omaha, going 5-15 with 7 RBI to make the all CWS team. Featherston is projected to go in the first five rounds of the draft in June. He went 2-12 with 3 RBI last season at Fullerton and is 6-23 with 6 RBI in his career against the Titans. Featherston has gotten off to a slow 3-14 start but had the only two RBI in the Baylor game and has hit fifth in all four games.

3B – Soph #35 Janzen Witte (RH – .374/.425/.552, 4-39-2) missed the first three weeks of last season with a broken wrist but was tough to get out of the lineup after that and led the team in AVG. He is a good bunter who was second on the team with 11 SAC's. Witte made the MWC conf all-tournament and Fort Worth all-regional teams and got hits in four of five games in Omaha. He is the pre-season All-MWC choice at 3B. Witte has hit 6th twice and 8th twice, going 5-13 with an HR and 3 RBI.

LF – JR #38 Jason Coats (RH – .361/.403/.617, 13-69-8. '09 – .316/.393/.518, 6-32-2) is one of the most dangerous hitters in the country and is projected to be picked in the first two rounds of the draft. He was 1st team All-MWC and MVP of the Fort Worth regional last season after starting as a FR. Coats was in the top ten in the MWC in AVG, R, H, 2B, HR, RBI and SLG in 2010. He has absolutely worn our Fullerton pitching and went 8-14 with 2 HR and 3 RBI last season against the Titans and is 12-25 in his career. Coats has hit third in all four games and gotten off to a slow 2-18 start and Fullerton is hoping he continues to stay cold.

CF – JR #29 Aaron Schultz (RH – .293/.371/.482, 9-53-11. '09 – .254 in 71 AB’s) started the season playing 3B while Witte was out and eventually settled into playing CF. He was a clutch hitter who was tied for third on the team in RBI. Schultz is a good bunter who led the team with 11 SAC's. He was voted to the all Fort Worth regional team after getting five hits and five RBI. Schultz went 3-8 with 3 RBI at Fullerton last season. He has hit 7th twice and 8th twice and gotten off to a good 5-13 with two 2B's and a 3B.

RF – JR #5 Brance Rivera (RH – .342/.404/.481, 6-28-9. '09 – .250 in 32 AB’s) didn't play much as a FR and was only a part-timer early last season but started to get more playing time as TCU got closer to the MWC schedule. When Rivera got his chance, he was scorching hot and hit .471, a .736 SLG %, 6 HR and 21 RBI in 21 conf starts to be named 1st team All MWC. He is also a good bunter and had 10 SAC's. Rivera went 1-2 at Fullerton last season. He got off to a hot 7-16 start with a 2B and a 3B, leading off twice and batting 9th twice.

OF/DH - Soph #1 Kyle VonTungeln (LH – .236/.364/.324, 0-16-3 in 89 AB's) is one of the fastest runners on the team and was starting in CF early before losing his position due to shuffling with the lineup. He went 1-14 with an RBI at Fullerton last season. VonTungeln started once at DH and once in RF last weekend, leading off both times and going hitless in nine AB's. JR #23 Zac Jordan (RH – .273 in 44 AB's) saw limited time last season and has started in one game at DH and is 2-6 with 2 RBI.

Defense

Fielding % - .971 (1/52) – 78 errors. Experienced with 2B Pena, SS Featherston and 3B Witte. All three have very good range (Pena and Featherston were both in the top five in the MWC in assists) but had some issues with making errors and combined for 40 of them. Featherston made 27 errors as a FR before cutting that down to 16 last year. Good range and good arms at all three OF spots with Curry, Schultz and Rivera. TCU has fielded .982 and made three errors (Featherston, Pena and Weik).

Stolen Base Attempts – 30-57. Holaday did a good job of shutting down the running game. Kansas went 5-5 last weekend (4-4 against Pharr, 1-1 against Elander) and Baylor did not attempt to steal a base.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 33. Holaday was also very good at blocking pitches. TCU allowed three wild pitches against Kansas and none against Baylor.

Pitching

ERA – 3.55 (1/9)
BA – .252 (1/xx)
HR – 52 (3/xx)
H’s/9 IP – 8.5 (xx/9)
BB’s/9 IP – 2.99 (2/22)
K’s/9 IP – 8.2 (1/29)

Starters

TCU returns all three starting pitchers from one of the best rotations in the country in 2010 and they combined to go 39-5 with a 3.05 ERA.

FRI – JR #8 Kyle Winkler (RHP – 12-3, 3.39 ERA, 19 GS, 117 IP, 111 H, 36 BB, 92 K, 15 HR, .252 BA, 6 HBP, 3 WP, 1-5 SB. ’09 – 7-1, 4.15 ERA, 17 apps, 14 starts, 74 IP, 70 H, 35 BB, 48 K, 5 HR, .262 BA, 7 HBP, 4 WP, 7-11 SB) ended up being the best SP on TCU’s staff as a FR, not suffering his first loss until the super regional at Texas. He was even better last season and ended up 2nd team All-MWC, won the super regional clinching game at Texas with 7 2/3 scoreless innings, pitched for Team USA last summer and is a 2nd team pre-season All-American. Winkler has a fastball in the low to mid 90’s, a power sinker and a solid changeup and is projected to be drafted in the first five rounds. He was the MWC pitcher of the week after holding Kansas to one unearned run on 1 H in 7 IP with 0 BB’s and 8 K’s. Winkler won the series deciding game at Fullerton when he held the Titans to one unearned run and 4 H in 6 IP.

SAT – SR #4 Steven Maxwell (RHP – 11-2, 2.70 ERA, 18 GS, 103 IP, 89 H, 34 BB, 93 K, 9 HR, .239 BA, 9 HBP, 3 WP, 4-13 SB. ’09 – 3-2, 6.10 ERA, 12 apps, 10 starts, 38 IP, 49 H, 10 BB, 27 K, 5 HR, .331 BA, 3 HBP, 2 WP, 3-8 SB) had a slow path back from TJ surgery in 2008 after making only three starts that season (one was a win against Fullerton – 7 IP, 2 R). He had a strong JR season and was MWC Pitcher of the Year and a 2nd team All-American. Maxwell was drafted in the 12th round but decided to come back for his SR year. He has a fastball in the low 90’s with a power curveball and a good changeup. Maxwell allowed 2 R on 6 H in 6 IP and received a no decision last Sun against Kansas. He was outstanding at Fullerton when he took a no-hitter into the 7th inning and ended up allowing 1 R on 2 H in 6 1/3 IP.

SUN – Soph #47 Matt Purke (LHP – 16-0, 3.02 ERA, 20 apps, 18 GS, 116 IP, 91 H, 34 BB, 142 K, 6 HR, .212 BA, 10 HBP, 7 WP, 10-17 SB) was the 1st round pick of the Texas Rangers out of HS but couldn’t agree to terms with them and ended up on campus in Fort Worth. He came into TCU with a great deal of hype and lived up to all of the expectations and was 1st team All-MWC and the consensus national Freshman of the Year and is expected to be drafted in the first five picks in June as a draft eligible Soph. Purke has a mid to upper 90’s fastball, a wipeout curve and a solid changeup. He threw four innings last week against Kansas before leaving with an 8-0 lead and received the win in what was designated as a “staff day” and has had his start pushed back due to blisters. Purke didn’t struggle often last year but one of the two starts that he didn’t get the win in was at Fullerton in his second career start when he allowed 4 R on 5 H in 2 1/3 IP.

Relievers

TCU had a very deep and experienced bullpen last season but most of those relievers have moved on with the expected closer out for the season with an elbow injury so there are only two returners and several freshmen who are looking to make their mark.

JR #43 Erik Miller (RHP – 1-1, 4.67 ERA, 19 apps, 27 IP, 28 H, 12 BB, 30 K, 2 HR, .275 BA, 3 HBP, 2 WP, 6-9 SB. ’09 – 0-2, 4.50 ERA, 22 apps, 26 IP, 3 saves) has moved into the closer role and has the upside with a good fastball to do well in that role. He threw two shutout innings last Sat and came back to throw more three scoreless innings on Sun before tiring and allowing two runs. Miller has allowed 2 R (1 ER) on 4 H in 4 1/3 IP in two career appearances against Fullerton.

SR #11 Trent Appleby (RHP – 3-1, 4.39 ERA, 23 apps, 41 IP, 49 H, 12 BB, 24 K, 4 HR, .308 BA, 5 HBP, 2 WP, 8-10 SB. ’09 – 4-1, 3.61 ERA, 24 apps, 57 IP, 57 H, 20 BB, 47 K, 3 HR, .270 BA, 9 HBP, 2 WP, 6-9 SB) is a control specialist whose best pitch is a power sinker. He has been a solid middle reliever for three years and will be the main set-up reliever. He threw 3 2/3 shutout innings last Sun, allowing only one hit. Appleby has allowed 1 R on 7 H in 6 IP in four career appearances against Fullerton.

RHP #34 Andrew Mitchell has made the biggest impact of the FR, allowing only one run in 8 2/3 IP in two appearances, including 6 2/3 shutout innings in his start on Tuesday at Baylor when his fastball was sitting in the 93-94 range. Other FR who have made appearances are RHP #15 Tyler Duffie, who allowed 1 R in 3 IP when he got the save last Friday, and RHP #28 Stefan Crichton, who got the save on Tuesday at Baylor with 2 1/3 hitless innings of relief. Another FR that there are high expectations for is RHP #37 Tony Rizzotti. The only LHP in the bullpen is JC transfer #17 Teddy Nowell.

Outlook

Fullerton is going to have to hit better and do a better job of manufacturing runs to win this series. The Titans averaged only 3.5 runs in their four games last weekend and didn’t score more than five runs in any game. They squandered many scoring opportunities on Sunday when they got 18 hits and only hit .206 in the other three games.

Pitching depth is one of the strongest areas for Fullerton this season and the starting pitchers delivered with a 2.52 ERA. However, the bullpen had some issues and had a 5.25 ERA last weekend, allowing 7 R in 12 IP. The Titans cannot afford to have their relievers let games get away in the late innings, which is what happened in both losses last weekend.

It isn’t often that Fullerton is an underdog in a series but this weekend in Fort Worth is one of those rare occasions. As good as Fullerton’s starting pitching is, TCU has the rotation to match up with the Titans and two of their starters completely shut down the Titans last year. The Horned Frogs have been the better hitting team the past two seasons, which was a big reason why they won both series at Fullerton, and it looks like they have the better offense again this year.

Fullerton is going to have to do something special to win the series this weekend, either getting some lights out pitching performances to outduel the TCU starters and scratch out some runs to take advantage of the few scoring opportunities they are likely to get. If Fullerton is unable to do that then it is likely that TCU will win this series.

Diamond Club Newsletter (February 20, 2011)

2011-02-23T07:38:00.000-08:00

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

Long Beach State Preview

2011-02-16T09:37:00.000-08:00

Titans vs. Long Beach State (~~Friday, 6:30 p.m.,~~ Sunday 1 p.m., Monday, 6:30 p.m., Blair Field; Saturday, 6 p.m., Goodwin Field)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

It’s time for another year of Titan Baseball with the potential for a visit to Omaha in June for the debut of TD Ameritrade Park.

Fullerton is ranked in the top fifteen in every major poll or ranking on the strength of a pitching staff that could be one of the deepest in the history of the program with four experienced starting pitchers and several experienced effective relievers. The pitching staff will have to help carry the team early in the season as the offense gels and works to overcome the losses of five regulars from last season, including first round picks Big West MVP Gary Brown and Big West HR leader Christian Colon, as well as adjusting to hitting with deadened BBCOR bats.

The Titans open the season with a non-conference series against their long-time rivals from Long Beach and will also play a game against North Carolina, who is coming out west to play in USC's tournament. The games on Friday and Sunday will be at Long Beach's Blair Field while Saturday's day game with the Tar Heels and evening game with the Dirtbags will be at Goodwin Field.

Long Beach State Dirtbags

Overall Record – 23-32
Conference Record – 7-17 (last)
Post-Season – none
RPI/ISR – 92/73
Predicted Conference Finish – 5th by the Big West coaches and Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

The wheels have fallen off of the tracks at Long Beach and the Dirtbags missed the post-season the last two years after playing in regionals in fourteen of the previous sixteen seasons and the result was a coaching change with pitching coach Troy Buckley taking over for Mike Weathers. Long Beach went 23-32 overall and 7-17 in Big West games, finishing in last place after being swept in their final three series by Fullerton, Northridge and Irvine and ending the season by losing fourteen of their final seventeen games.

The Dirtbags expected to contend for a spot in a regional with an experienced team that had seven starting position players and two weekend starting pitchers returning but they got off to a slow start, played well for a month when they won four straight series (including Pacific's only series loss in the first ten weeks of the season) before they collapsed down the stretch.

Long Beach is pretty much starting over with their roster with seventeen FR and five JC transfers coming into the program. They do have four position players back who were starters in 2010 along with two of their weekend starting pitchers and some of their relievers. Buckley returned to the program last season after a two year absence and the pitching was improved with the ERA coming down half a run to 4.67 and opponents hit 20 points less at .283 but the bullpen was inconsistent and the Dirtbags only had three saves the entire season and went 4-9 in one run games. Long Beach didn't have much margin for error most of the time because the offense wasn't as productive as it should have been with so many returning starters and the Dirtbags were one of the least productive teams at the place in the Big West.

Offense

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 75 (decreases offense by 25%).
Batting Average – .301 (8th in the Big West, 164th in the NCAA)
Runs Per Game – 5.8 (8/246)
Home Runs – 26 (8/270)
Stolen Bases – 57 (5/179)
Slugging Percentage – .423 (7/217)
Walks – 161 (8/268)
HBP’s – 52 (8/185)
Sac Bunts – 56 (3/23)

Lineup

C – SR #3 Kellen Hoime (RH – .234/.305/.297, 1-14-7; ’09 stats – .252/.338/.291, 0-19-5) split time in 2009 before starting 16 of the last 18 games and was the regular C last season. He is in the lineup for his defense, usually hit 9th and had 7 SAC’s. Hoime struck out about 30% of the time. He went 1-8 last year against Fullerton and is 1-13 in his career against the Titans.

1B - FR #27 Jeff Yamaguchi (RH) is projected to be one of the better newcomers in the Big West and provide some much needed power to the lineup after being the Moore League MVP and 1st team all CIF in D1.

2B - Soph #10 Matt Duffy (RH - .244/.261/.291; 0-7-2 in 86 AB's in 2010) was a part-time player most of his FR season before starting ten straight games down the stretch. He is a good bunter and had six SAC's. Duffy went 3-13 against Fullerton last season.

SS - JR #2 Kirk Singer (RH – .315/.395/.493, 5-21-5; ’09 stats – .317 in 41 AB’s) didn’t play much in 2009 and was in a utility role early last season until his hot bat forced Long Beach to make a switch and Singer was inserted into the lineup at 2B and later at SS when the starter there was injured late in the year. He ended up 2nd on the team in HR’s and SLG and will hit in the middle of the lineup. Singer is projected to be drafted in the first ten rounds of the draft and should be the latest in a long line of Long Beach SS's to be drafted pretty high. He went 2-10 against Fullerton last season.

3B - JC transfer #8 Mike Marjama (RH) is a big guy from a good JC program (Sac City) who will be looking to provide some power at the plate.

CF - JR #12 Brennan Metzger (RH – .308/.409/.453, 2-22-9; ’09 stats – .258/.389/.337, 1-9-11) has good speed and will be the leadoff hitter after being in the same role last season. He is a scrappy player who will do whatever he can to get on base (led the Big West with 20 HBP’s) and will run when he gets on base. He went 1-9 last year against Fullerton.

LF/RF/DH - Long Beach will be going with either new and/or inexperienced players in each of these positions. It looks like FR #40 Mike McNeil (LH) will be starting in LF and brings some much needed speed and one of the few LH bats to the lineup. Soph #9 Juan Avila (RH) hit .231 in 52 AB's with 0 HR and 3 RBI as a FR. FR #4 Ino Patron (LH) has a good swing and projects to be the DH.

Defense

Fielding % - .965 (7/104) – 74 errors. Experienced in the four positions up the middle. Duffy and Singer were too inconsistent with 24 errors in 57 combined starts and both have the potential to be better. Singer has one of the best infield arms in the Big West. Metzger has good range in CF. Inexperienced players in the corner OF positions and in the corner IF positions, which will be a key area to watch with Fullerton's pressure game and wet conditions expected.

Stolen Base Attempts – 44-68. Runners were 32-46 against Hoime last season and 30-47 in 2009.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 48. Hoime does a solid job of blocking pitches.

Pitching

ERA – 4.67 (3/45)
BA – .283 (3/xx)
HR – 34 (2/xx)
H’s/9 IP – 9.9 (xx/61)
BB’s/9 IP – 2.9 (4/18)
K’s/9 IP – 5.9 (5/235)

Starters

Long Beach returns their two of their SP's from last year, losing inconsistent 2nd round draft pick Jake Thompson, and has hopes that a JC transfer can hold down the third spot in the weekend rotation.

Fri SP – Soph #24 Andrew Gagnon (RHP – 5-7, 3.28 ERA, 15 starts, 93 IP, 87 H, 27 BB, 65 K, .238 BA, 6 HR, 12 HBP, 5 WP, 12-17 SB) was drafted in the 10th round out of HS and didn’t pitch up to that level as a FR (’09 stats – 3-7, 6.32 ERA, 13 starts, 73 IP, 96 H, 23 BB, 44 K, .327 BA, 5 HR, 11 HBP, 9 WP, 8-12 SB). He had a great deal of improvement last season and was 5th in the conf in ERA, 4th in AVG and was 2nd team all Big West. Gagnon is projected to be 1st team all conf this season and picked in the first few rounds of the draft. He has a low 90’s fastball and good control but he will pitch inside. Gagnon did a much better job of missing bats last season, lowering the opponents AVG by 85 points. He had a 2.43 ERA in his first five Big West starts before tiring down the stretch and ending up with a 3.40 ERA in conf games. Gagnon has allowed 11 R (7 ER) on 8 H and 6 BB in 4 2/3 IP in his two starts against Fullerton in his career.

Sat SP – JC transfer #22 Branden Pinder (RHP – 4-7, 4.85 ERA, 17 apps, 15 starts, 85 IP, 106 H, 22 BB, 45 K, .320 BA, 9 HR, 18 HBP, 2 WP, 8-13 SB) went into the last three weeks of the season with a 4.15 ERA before tiring down the stretch. His fastball sits in the mid 80’s and he relies on good control and spotting his fastball to get hitters out. Pinder pitches inside and he was second in the Big West with 18 HBP’s. He had a very good stretch in the middle of the season where he had five straight starts when he allowed 2 R or less but wore down and allowed 5+ R in six of his last seven starts. He allowed 11 R (10 ER) on 21 H and 5 BB in 13 IP in his two starts against Fullerton last season.

Sun SP – JC transfer #36 Shawn Stuart (RHP) was drafted in the 44th round after being 1st team all conference at Merced. He has a solid arm and had a 2.79 ERA with 79 K in 96 IP. The midweek SP is expected to be JC transfer #16 Matt Johnson (RHP).

Relievers

Long Beach's bullpen was a liability last season and the two pitchers who were used most at the end of games have moved on, leaving several returning middle relievers and newcomers to get outs late in games.

The four returning pitchers in the bullpen are Soph #20 Nate Underwood (RHP – 2-1, 4.11 ERA, 13 apps, 4 midweek starts, 35 IP, 31 H, 7 BB, 7 K, .254 BA, 2 HR, 3 HBP, 4 WP), Soph #33 Eddie Magallon (RHP – 1-2, 4.79 ERA, 1 save, 14 apps, 5 starts, 47 IP, 54 H, 9 BB, 29 K, .293 BA, 7 HR, 7 HBP, 1 WP), SR #30 Troy Watson (RHP – 0-2, 8.83 ERA, 12 apps, 17 IP) and situational LHP #49 FR Ryan Donohue (0-1, 5.40 ERA, 12 apps, 5 IP). The newcomers expected to have the biggest impact in the bullpen are potential closer FR RHP #29 Austin Boyle and FR LHP #15 Ryan Strufing.

Outlook

Fullerton has had some issues getting off to good starts in Dave Serrano's first three seasons as the head coach. The Titans started out the season 9-8 in 2008, they lost the opening series at home to TCU in 2009 and they started out 4-7 last season and lost each of the first three series, which ended up costing them a national seed. It would be an understatement to say that the Fullerton coaching staff is making it a point of emphasis to get off to a good start against a challenging schedule, with the non-conference portion rated the second most difficult in the country according to Boyd's World.

The Titans should receive a strong challenge from a North Carolina team that is looking to bounce back from a disappointing season by their standards. Fullerton has beaten Long Beach like a drum the past two seasons, winning all seven games by a cumulative score of 60-14 with only two of the games decided by less than six runs. The new Long Beach coaching staff will be very motivated to turn this series into a rivalry again. It will be a disappointment if Fullerton splits the four games this weekend and the Titans should be able to win three games if they play up to their capabilities.

North Carolina Preview

2011-02-16T09:29:00.001-08:00

Titans vs. North Carolina (Saturday, Noon, Goodwin Field)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

North Carolina Tar Heels

Overall Record – 38-22
Conference Record – 14-16 (8th place - tied; 5th place in the Coastal Division)
Post-Season – 2-2 in the Oklahoma regional (wins vs. California and Oral Roberts; 0-2 against Oklahoma)
RPI/ISR – 23/36
Predicted Conference Finish – 4th in the Coastal Division, 6th overall in the ACC by the conference coaches and Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

North Carolina went into 2010 with high expectations despite suffering some major personnel losses, including number two overall draft pick Dustin Ackley, after going to Omaha the previous four seasons. The Tar Heels got off to a fast start at 11-2 during a mediocre non-conference schedule played entirely at home before losing their first three ACC series to Duke, Florida State and Georgia Tech. North Carolina went 11-14 during the middle of the season before righting the ship with a series win at CWS participant Clemson to start a 10-1 run.

The Tar Heels were cooled off in a series sweep at national seed Virginia, which basically eliminated them from the ACC tournament, and finished the regular season with a sweep vs. Virginia Tech that put them in position to receive an at-large bid despite missing the ACC tournament. North Carolina played well at the Oklahoma regional, winning games against California and Oral Roberts and losing two close games to the Sooners, who won a super regional at Virginia to advance to Omaha.

North Carolina was an inconsistent team both offensively and on the mound as they attempted to reload after four straight seasons when their season ended in Omaha. The Tar Heels went 22-4 against a soft non-conf schedule but hit only .286 in ACC games and scored five runs or less 23 times. North Carolina had a team ERA of 5.27 in ACC games (3.14 in non-conf games), blew seven leads in the eighth or ninth innings and went 9-13 in games decided by either one or two runs.

The Tar Heels look like they could be poised to have a better season with four hitters returning who hit over .300 along with two of their starting pitchers and all of their relievers in addition to a recruiting class that was ranked thirteenth by Baseball America. North Carolina has been ranked in the 20's in most of the pre-season polls and rankings.

Offense

Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 110 (increases offense by 10%).
Batting Average – .308 (5th in the ACC, 115th in the NCAA)
Runs Per Game – 7.8 (8/68)
Home Runs – 45 (10/161)
Stolen Bases – 91 (6/56)
Slugging Percentage – .453 (9/145)
Walks – 301 (5/11)
HBP’s – 74 (3/63)
Sac Bunts – 35 (5/103)

Lineup

C - JR #5 Jacob Stallings (RH - 2010 stats - .307 BA/.417 OBP/.457 SLG; 2 HR, 24 RBI, 3 SB. .246 in 57 AB's in 2009) started most of the time behind the plate because he was the best defensive C and figures to catch most of their games. He will probably hit 5th or 6th.

1B - FR #19 Tom Zengel (LH) has displayed some good power in fall ball and looks like he could earn a spot in the lineup and will probably hit 6th or 7th. FR #18 Colin Moran (LH) could also hit his way into getting some playing time.

2B - Soph #1 Tommy Coyle (LH - 282/388/351; 1-25-14 in 2010) moved right into the lineup as a FR after several infielders moved on from the 2009 team. Coyle has good speed and will probably be hitting 2nd.

SS - JR #6 Levi Michael (Both - 2010 - 346/480/575, 8-54-20; 290/377/527, 19-57-5 in 2009) came to school a year early and bypassed his SR year of HS. He is projected to be drafted in the first two rounds, is a pre-season third team All-American and a candidate for ACC player of the year honors. Michael has moved his way around the diamond, going from 2B as a FR to 3B as a soph to SS this season. He was 4th in the ACC in R, 5th in SLG and 8th in SB last year and had an outstanding 44/26 BB/K ratio. He will probably be hitting 3rd.

3B - SR #34 Jesse Wierzbicki (RH - .307/.410/.495, 8-52-6) played at DH, 1B and C last season but it looks like he will be moving to 3B to try to get more power into the lineup. He was second on the team in HR's last season and a solid run producer. Wierzbicki will probably hit cleanup.

CF - SR #3 Ben Bunting (LH - 313/391/402, 2-25-9; 336/423/431, 2-37-5 in '09) is in his third year as a regular and will be moving over from LF, replacing Brian Goodwin (projected to be drafted in the first two rounds) after he left school for academic reasons. Bunting has good speed and will likely be the leadoff hitter.

LF/RF/DH - These spots are unsettled and could end up being platoon situations. The leading candidates for playing time are JR #16 Seth Baldwin (LH - .344-3-17-5 in 90 AB's) who has very good speed, Soph #2 Chaz Frank (LH - .286 in 63 AB's), Soph #23 Brett Knief (RH - .294 in 34 AB's) and FR #12 Jeff Bouton (RH) and most of these players will be hitting towards the bottom of the lineup. FR #7 Matt Roberts (RH) will figure into the mix for AB's at DH a few weeks into the season after he recovers from a broken hand. He has solid power and could end up hitting in the middle of the order later in the season.

Defense

Fielding % - .970 (5/55) – 68 errors. Solid up the middle with Michael and Coyle. Questions on the corners with Wierzbicki and Zengel. Good speed in the OF, especially Bunting and Baldwin.

Stolen Base Attempts – 46-65. Had the second fewest attempts against them in the ACC. Pitchers hold runners close. Runners were 27-41 against Stallings.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 47. Stallings does a solid job of blocking pitches.

Pitching

ERA – 4.19 (4/25)
BA – .258 (3/xx)
HR – 50 (3/xx)
H’s/9 IP – 8.83 (xx/17)
BB’s/9 IP – 4.19 (8/173)
K’s/9 IP – 8.0 (2/9)

Starters

North Carolina lost first round pick Matt Harvey but returns pitchers who started 40 of their 60 games in 2010.

SR #17 Patrick Johnson (RHP - 6-3, 3.71 ERA, 14 GS, 78 IP, 86 H, 30 BB, 67 K, .286 BA, 10 HR, 6 HBP, 0 WP, 12-18 SB) was a weekend SP last season after being a midweek SP in 2009 (2-2, 3.49 ERA, 23 app, 7 GS, 57 IP, 46 H, 37 BB, 77 K, .222 BA, 10 HR). He threw well in ACC games with a 4-2 record and a 3.91 ERA. Johnson had minor surgery during the off-season and has a fastball in the low 90's with solid secondary pitches and has been throwing well during his recovery.

Soph #37 Chris Munnelly (RHP - 3-2, 5.40 ERA, 23 apps, 8 GS, 67 IP, 68 H, 26 BB, 60 K, .264 BA, 11 HR, 7 HBP, 5 WP, 13-16 SB) was a middle reliever most of his FR year before being moved into the rotation after North Carolina lost their first three ACC series. He was much more effective in relief and struggled in his six ACC starts, ending up with a 6.98 ERA in conf games. Munnelly has a good arm and projects to be one of the first ten ACC players picked in the 2012 draft.

Soph #28 Michael Morin (RHP - 5-3, 5.45 ERA, 24 apps, 1 GS, 3 saves, 40 IP, 47 H, 14 BB, 43 K, .294 BA, 4 HR, 7 HBP, 3 WP, 1-3 SB) pitched almost exclusively out of the bullpen last year. Morin is 6'4" and a hard thrower who was often used as the closer. He has good upside and projects to be one of the first ten ACC players picked in the 2012 draft.

FR LHP #41 Kent Emmanuel was drafted in the 19th round after being projected to go much higher in the draft and sliding due to his commitment to go to school. Emmanuel is 6'4" with a fastball in the upper 80's and a solid changeup and has good upside.

Relievers

North Carolina had major problems with their bullpen last season that resulted in many blown leads and close losses. The Tar Heels are hoping with almost every reliever returning and an influx of FR talent that their bullpen will be improved.

SR #14 Greg Holt (RHP - 3-4, 5.11 ERA, 26 apps, 2 GS, 3 saves, 44 IP, 36 H, 22 BB, 40 K, .231 BA, 4 HR, 3 HBP, 3 WP, 3-4 SB) split time with Morin as the closer last year and will probably start the season as the closer.

JR #31 Jimmy Messer (RHP - 2-1, 3.66 ERA, 18 apps, 5 GS, 1 save, 32 IP, 33 H, 21 BB, 22 K, .275 BA, 2 HR, 1 HBP, 2 WP, 3-3 SB) is projected to be the second Tar Heel drafted in June and will be one of the main options in the late innings. He throws hard but had control issues last season.

JR #20 Garrett Davis (RHP - 3-3, 4.59 ERA, 15 apps, 7 GS, 1 save, 33 IP, 25 H, 24 BB, 35 K, .210 BA, 2 HR, 3 HBP, 2 WP, 0-0 SB) was mostly a midweek SP last season and is similar to Messer - hard thrower, control issues.

Soph #4 Zach Bernard (LHP - 0-0, 2.45 ERA, 24 apps, 18 IP, 21 H, 11 BB, 18 K) and Soph #11 R.C. Orlan (LHP - 0-0, 4.38 ERA, 16 apps, 12 IP, 12 H, 9 BB, 14 K) were the lefty specialists last season.

Two incoming FR who figure to battle for innings are RHP's #25 Jake Cole (24th round pick) and #36 Andrew Smith (40th round pick), who both figured to go higher in the draft but slid due to their commitments to going to school.