Diamond Club: Tuffy's Titans

The April 19 edition is posted below ... please click on each individual page to enlarge for easy reading.

Titans Avoid Pacific Tsunami

By Don Hudson

Despite being outhit again, the Cal State Fullerton Titans managed to salvage the series finale against the University of the Pacific Tigers this afternoon at Goodwin Field, winning by a 4-3 margin on the combined pitching of Kyle Witten and Nick Ramirez.

My mother always told me that if you have nothing nice to say, it is better to say nothing at all. So with that in mind, here are my recaps for all three games of the series.

Game 1: PACIFIC 5, TITANS 4

Nothing to say here, except that Daniel Renken once again pitched well enough to win and was the victim - for the second consecutive game against a perennial Big West Conference cellar swellar - of a ninth inning meltdown by the bullpen.

Game 2: PACIFIC 14, TITANS 10

Nothing to say here.

Game 3: TITANS 4, PACIFIC 3

It looked like another lost day in the Titans recent streak of somnambulance when the Tigers posted two quick markers in the first inning. Starting pitcher Kyle Witten hit leadoff man Nick Longmire with the game's first pitch. Titan nemesis Joey Centanni then hit a perfect double-play ball to 2B Joe Scott, but SS Christian Colon dropped the routine throw and everybody was safe. J.B. Brown then ripped a single and the game was just five pitches old and the Tigers had an unearned run and two runners on with nobody out.

After a groundball out placed runners on the corners, Witten tried the "fake to third, look at first play" - and plate umpire Rorke "The Showboat" Kominek emphatically called it a balk, scoring Centanni with the second run of the game. Coach Serrano came out to compare recipes, but (in my humble opinion) The Showboat seemed to get the call right: Witten's foot appeared to swing far beyond the 45 degree imaginary line.

The Titans scored a quick run in the second inning on a Nick Ramirez leadoff walk and an RBI double into the left-centerfield gap by Khris Davis. But a potential big inning was averted by giving away one out on Jeff Newman's sacrifice bunt and then having Davis run into an easy out at the plate on the "contact play", which generally doesn't work well on one-hoppers back to the pitcher.

After squandering Joey Siddons' leadoff HBP in the third inning by having him thrown out by about ten feet attempting to steal, Witten worked out of a jam in the fourth inning on a nicely executed 3-6-1 double-play after singles by Mike McKeever and Kurt Wideman had placed runners at the corners with one out.

The Titans took their first lead of the game with three runs in the fourth inning. Nick Ramirez drew a one-out walk and was pushed around one base at a time on singles by Davis and Newman. Dustin Garneau's bases loaded single drove in two runs and was followed by Joe Scott's RBI single, making it 4-2 in favor of Fullerton. Scott's hit drove Pacific starting pitcher Mark McCain and brought in Jamie Niley.

After Scott stole second base, Siddons struck out on a wild pitch that bounced right back to catcher Wideman. Garneau was sent homewards, running into the fifteenth or sixteenth silly out of the series. (Oops, sorry Mom.)

Witten labored along in the ninety degree heat, striking out the first two hitters in the sixth inning. But McKeever and Brian Martin followed with solid singles and Kurt Wideman walked on four pitches, with Witten seeming to wince in pain on the last couple. Coach Serrano notified The Showboat that he was making an injury substitution and Nick Ramirez was summoned with the bases loaded and given extra time to warm up. When play resumed, Nick came up big and got Mike Walker to ground out to second-base.

Ramirez got into and out of trouble in the seventh inning, but he stranded runners at second and third when he got the dangerous J.B. Brown to fly out to CF Fellhauer.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Titans fastidiously stuck by their offensive strategy and prevented adding an insurance run. Siddons led off with a single (and was curiously not pinch-run for by Gary Brown). Leading 4-2 and with an excellent bunter at the plate (Colon), you bunt the runner over late in the game and give Felly and Clark a chance to drive him in and take a three-run lead....right? Colon was allowed to hit away and was narrowly doubled up at first base. Fellhauer then smoked a single that the first-baseman dove for and deflected away, which would have easily scored the runner from second had there been a successful sacrifice.

The strategy looked even more curious the following inning when McKeever crushed a lead-off home-run, cutting the lead to 4-3. After a strikeout and a single, another curious play happened: there was a high chopper towards Scott at second-base. The runner from first was already well past him when the ball came down and the only play was to first base for the second out. But Scott went up for the ball and like a hoopster trying to avoid a travel, he tried to alley-oop the ball to Colon, who had no play. Flashbacks of the Friday and Saturday meltdowns swept through the horrified crowd, who were further sickened when a dinky chopper between the mound and third base loaded the bases with just one out. After the bullpen collapses of the two previous nights, Ramirez was allowed to continue and he justified the coaches' confidence when he induced a short fly to Felly which could not advance the runners and then retired SS Ben Gorang on another easy fly to centerfield.

With no sign of the earlier bullpen culprits, Nick Ramirez took the mound in the bottom of the ninth to face the 2/3/4 hitters in the Pacific lineup. After two quick outs, McKeever gave us one final scare when he launched one deep to right-centerfield. There was a collective sigh of relief when Felly put his glove up, shielded his eyes from the bright sunshine and made the catch to preserve the 4-3 victory.

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So what did we learn this weekend?

First of all, we learned that there are no longer teams in the Big West Conference where you can just lace up your spikes and count on a win. Give credit to the Pacific Tigers for playing an awesome series: they collected 22 runs on 43 hits in the three games, and played errorlessly in two of the games.

We learned that there is a reason Tigers catcher Kurt Wideman has thrown out more than half of would-be base-stealers (19 out of 36 thrown out). He and Dustin Garneau both put on a catcher's throwing clinic this weekend. With an opponent coming in with a team ERA hovering around the 6.00 mark, I just don't get why we took away so many at-bats on failed steal attempts, ran "contact plays" on balls hit to the third-baseman and pitcher and had hot hitters bunt in hitting situations and slumping players swing away in bunting situations. In the games Friday and today, the Titans got completely shut down by a bullpen that usually gets lit up.

Let's hope the injury to Witten is minor and he does not lose any more time. This has been an injury-riddled season for him from the start; he could be a key component to unraveling the mystery of what to do about the bullpen if he can remain healthy. It's probably time to give Michael Morrison a midweek start to help him sort through his recent rough outings as the closer. I thought the Titans pitching was at its best during the road trip when Noe Ramirez was a weekend reliever and a midweek starter. He is a weapon no matter how he is used - I'd rather see him in at the end of the game than any of the other righties at the moment and Nick seems ready to handle the portside part of a closer tandem.

There is an old baseball axiom that you're never as good as you look when you're winning and you're never as bad as you look when you're losing. That surely seems applicable to this year's Titans. I'm sure the team and the coaches are just as frustrated as idiots like me sitting up in the bleachers. But the talent on this team is the same as it was when they were the talk of the nation and being fitted for bronze statues during Mustache March. It's easy to support a team when they are winning games and reminding people of the 1995 juggernaut. Now is the time to really dig in and help them through this funk. Let's start with a good showing Tuesday night against San Diego and Wednesday afternoon against Pepperdine before heading up to Sacramento to play UC Davis.

Pacific Series Preview

By FullertonBaseballFan

The Cal State Fullerton baseball program went through one of the toughest situations in its history last weekend during the series at Cal State Northridge, playing the first game in that series hours after former teammate Jon Wilhite was critically injured in a car accident that killed the other three people in the car that he was a passenger in.

The Titans struggled with their emotions but were able to come back from losing the first game of the series, a game that took 15 innings and two days to play due to the lack of lights at Northridge, to win the next two games to break out of a slump in which Fullerton had lost 5 of the previous 6 games. The Titans also played well in winning 9-2 Tuesday at USC and enter the series with the Pacific Tigers this weekend at Goodwin Field on a three game winning streak.

Pacific was unanimously picked by the Big West coaches to finish in last place after going 14-41 in 2008 and finishing in last place in the conference at 5-19, but the Tigers are 13-18 and have gotten off to a good start at 5-4 in conference games, sweeping UC Davis and losing two of three games at UCSB and at home to Cal Poly last weekend. Pacific has been competitive at home, going 9-7 and sweeping Houston in addition to the sweep of UC Davis. The Tigers have been mediocre on the road, losing all three series they have played (Baylor 1-2, San Jose 0-3, UCSB 1-2) and splitting four games in San Diego State’s tournament but those results are an improvement over last season when Pacific went 5-20 on the road.

OUTLOOK

Fullerton has traditionally beaten Pacific soundly every season, winning 19 straight games and 29 of the last 30 against the Tigers. Pacific has been more competitive this season because of the drastic improvements with their position players this season both at the plate and in the field. One of the keys to this weekend will be how well the Fullerton pitching staff can hold down the Tigers offense because Pacific is 0-13 when they have scored four runs or less and 13-5 when they have scored 5+ runs, with four of those losses coming against UCSB and Cal Poly.

The other key to this weekend will be how well the Fullerton offense can continue to score runs after scoring 24 runs in the last three games. Pacific has struggled with their pitching most of the season in allowing 6+ runs in 20 of 31 games. If Fullerton can keep being productive at the plate and the Fullerton pitching staff can control the Pacific offense, the Titans should win this series and it would not be much of a surprise if Fullerton was able to sweep this series.

Fight On ... for Cal State Fullerton

GAME 32: CAL STATE FULLERTON 9, USC 2

By Don Hudson

The Cal State Fullerton Titans handed the USC Trojans a 9-2 defeat last night at Dedeaux Field, extending their winning streak to three games.

The Titans jumped out to an early lead on the strength of first inning singles by Jeff Newman and Josh Fellhauer, followed by a two-RBI double by cleanup man Jared Clark and an RBI single by Khris Davis gave Fullerton a 3-0 lead.

USC made it look like it would be a high-scoring midweek slugfest when it took just two batters to put two runs on the board against starter Kevin Rath. Joe De Pinto led off with a double and scored on Mike O'Neill's home run to rightfield: his first of the season. When Rath fell behind to the next hitter, a brigade of pitchers and catchers made their way to the Titans bullpen. Rath settled down and gave up no more hits in his three inning stint, walking two.

USC starter Kevin Couture also settled down and posted a couple goose eggs until Nick Ramirez banged his seventh home run of the season over the wall in centerfield.

Kyle Witten took the hill and pitched three innings of one-hit shutout ball, hitting one batter and walking one. He escaped harm in the bottom of the sixth inning when the Trojans had runners at the corners with two outs. After two quick outs and the Titans holding a 5-2 lead, Anthony Vasquez doubled and went to third on a wild pitch, followed by a walk to Ricky Oropesa. With Witten seemingly on the ropes and the tying run at the plate, the Trojans ran into a silly out. Witten did the "fake to third, look at first" play, with Vasquez easily retreating to third. But when Witten stared over at Oropesa at first and did not look back at the runner inching his way off third, Vasquez made a dash to try to steal home. With the help of his bench and infield, Witten realized the situation and threw home to catcher Billy Marcoe, who easily applied the tag to end the inning.

The Titans conducted a baserunning clinic in the seventh inning and broke the game open with three runs. Christian Colon drove a single up the middle and stole second base. After Jeff Newman walked, Josh Fellhauer continued his hot hitting with an RBI single into rightfield, advancing Newman to third. When Felly broke for second, the Trojans threw through and Newman broke for home: perfectly executed double steal! With the USC defense dazed and throwing the ball around, Felly stole third base and scored easily when the catcher's throw sailed into leftfield.

Nick Ramirez pitched two shutout innings, allowing two hits but striking out three. After the Titans added a final run in the ninth inning on Christian Colon's walk and Clark's second double of the game, closer Michael Morrison came in to get some work. He had another rocky outing, allowing a double and two walks, but managed to wiggle out of the bases loaded jam without any runs allowed.

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What did we learn last night?

The Titans had great fan support, starting with the sold-out Diamond Club bus group and a large walk-up crowd. The state of baseball support at USC is pretty sad: the most storied baseball program in history is now a shadow of its former greatness. There had to be at least twenty times as many Trojan fans watching the Trojans football practice on the adjacent field than watching one of today's premier baseball powerhouse programs (e.g. Fullerton) against the greatest program of yesteryear. (Talk about what have you done for me lately!)

If there is one way to frame the current state of the two programs, consider the baserunning in the bottom of the sixth and top of the seventh. Trailing by three runs and having the tying run at the plate and the pitcher on the ropes, the Trojans ran themselves out of the inning with the botched attempt to steal home. The following inning, the Titans stole three bases, including a perfectly executed double steal of home and second. Methinks coaching has a lot to do with this.

Clark and Fellhauer each had two hits and were keys to the two three-run rallies: Felly drove in two runs with his two hits and scored twice. Clark's two doubles produced four more RBI for his rapidly growing total.

Notwithstanding the two Trojans runs before any outs were recorded, Titans pitchers tossed a "shutout" over the next 27 outs. Rath and Witten were both effective (again, notwithstanding Rath's rocky beginning), but they were "wildly" good: Rath threw 21 strikes and 24 balls, while Witten was better at 22/17. We saw some very encouraging signs from Witten, who can be a dominant force on this pitching staff in the stretch run.

Nick Ramirez continues to pitch well while Michael "Houdini" Morrison continues to toy with my blood pressure. Like he did in the games against University of Rhode Island and UC Irvine, Mikey Mo loaded the bases and then worked his way out. He threw 10 strikes and 11 balls but escaped unscathed. The closer situation obviously needs to be better if the Titans' "First to Practice, Last to Play" mantra is going to become reality.

Diamond Club: Tuffy's Titans

The April 12 edition is posted below ... please click on each individual page to enlarge for easy reading.

The Near-Perfect Pill

GAME 31: TITANS 8, CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE 0

By Don Hudson

Freshman pitcher Tyler Pill threw a one-hit complete game shutout Saturday afternoon at Matador Field as the Cal State Fullerton Titans took the rubber game of their Big West Conference series, defeating host Cal State Northridge, 8-0. The offense was led by Josh Fellhauer (5-for-5) and Khris Davis (three-run homer and 5 RBI.)

It was evident right away that Pill was going to be tough to hit when he struck out the first three Matadors he faced on balls in the dirt that catcher Bill Marcoe had to block. (In fact, the only base runner the Matadors managed in the first six inning was second batter T.S. Reed, who struck out in the first but reached on a wild pitch.) An early Matador threat was avoided after Reed stole second base and was stranded when cleanup hitter Dominic D'Anna hit a screamer that was fielded nicely by first-baseman Jared Clark.

Unlike last season's 17-15 rubber game between the Titans and Matadors at Goodwin Field, this game was a tight pitchers duel for five innings. After Reed reached on the wild pitch strikeout, Pill retired the next seventeen Matador hitters consecutively. Meanwhile, Justen Gorski, making his first start of the season, scattered four hits through the first five innings of shutout baseball. The Titans biggest threat during the early innings was the fourth, when Jeff Newman led off with a single and Josh Fellhauer turned an attempted sacrifice bunt into a base hit. After Clark sacrificed both runners ahead, Gorski settled down and struck out Nick Ramirez and retired Khris Davis to end the threat.

The Titans finally broke through against Gorski in the sixth inning. After Christian Colon's hustling double started the inning, Jeff Newman sacrificed him to third base. Josh Fellhauer broke the scoreless tie with a solid base hit into rightfield. After Felly stole second base, the Matadors worked around Clark and walked him to set up a potential double-play. After Ramirez struck out, Khris Davis lined a pitch that looked at first like one of those "oh, darn, he it hard but right at the centerfielder," but it kept on carrying and gave the Titans a 4-0 lead when it landed on the other side of the outfield wall for a three-run homer.

The Titans were not done yet. Gary Brown hit the first of his two doubles in the game and scored on a two-out RBI single by Billy Marcoe off reliever Davin Tate.

The Titans threatened again in the seventh, when Fellhauer and Clark both singled - and the speedy Clark pilfered his tenth sack of the year. But Tate escaped harm with strikeouts of Ramirez and Davis.

After the time-honored tradition in the middle of the seventh inning, interest started to stir about how far Pill would go before surrendering a hit. Bowing to baseball tradition and superstition, nobody within earshot used those words "no hitter", but I'm sure it was on everyone's mind as the game got into the late innings.

The classic Jack Norworth lyrics "For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, at the old ballgame" had barely been uttered when CSUN shortstop T.S. Reed lined a no-doubt-about-it base hit to centerfield. Pill received a nice ovation from the fans in both rooting sections. Not distracted by the no-hitter being broken up, Pill and his defense erased the runner when Ryan Pineda hit a ball sharply into the shortstop hole that was turned nicley into a Colon-to Scott-to Clark double-play.

Trailing 5-0 entering the ninth inning, CSUN coach Steve Rousey opted to bring in his closer (Brian Slover), who had thrown 3 2/3 innings of shutout ball in the Thursday marathin game. Coming back on just one day's rest after the extended outing, his 'stuff' was not nearly as good on Saturday. Jeff Newman led off with a HBP and went to third on Fellhauer's fifth single of the day. Clark then drove in Newman with a double. After a groundout by pinch-hitter Joey Siddons with the infield in did not allow the runners to advance, Khris Davis drove in his fourth and fifth runs of the day with a base hit up the middle, making the score 8-0.

The only question then was whether Pill would come out to pitch the ninth inning and nail down the complete game and the shutout. He issued his only walk of the day to Jeff Pruitt leading off the ninth, but he finished strong by retiring the next three hitters to end the game.

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So what did we learn yesterday?

First off, this young pitching staff is pretty good. Northridge is a good hitting team - particularly at home - yet Titan pitchers posted zeros in 28 of the 33 innings played in this series.

After the Oral Roberts series, we observed that Pill was giving up a fair number of hits but avoiding damage by his knack of 'scattering' them. But with this win yesterday - making him 6-0 - Pill has now allowed just two hits in his last fifteen innings pitched (going back to last week against UCI.) How is that for scattering hits?

The offense is showing signs of breaking out of its mid-season malaise. Khris Davis went 6-for-13 against Northridge, including three doubles, a home run and five RBI. Josh Fellhauer went 9-for-17 and had two RBI and a stolen base. Gary Brown also had a good series both offensively and defensively, going 5-for-15 with three doubles and three stolen bases - all on one trip around the bases in the series opener.

Finally, let's make it a good showing Tuesday night at Dedeaux Field against the USC Trojans. The Diamond Club bus trip is sold out and I understand a large number of Titans fans are driving to the game. Let's join forces at the game and give a strong showing of support to help these guys move forward with the rejuvenation which we saw in the last two games in Northridge.

Heavy-hearted Titans Split: Part 2

GAME 30: TITANS 7, CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE 5

By Don Hudson

After losing the resumption of Thursday's suspended (darkness) game in fifteen innings, the Cal State Fullerton Titans bounced back on Friday afternoon to beat the Cal State Northridge Matadors, 7-5, behind a balanced offensive attack that included hits from each player in the line-up. Noe Ramirez (4-1) pitched 7 1/3 innings and got the win.

After Josh Fellhauer reached base in the first inning on a two-out infield single, Jared Clark gave the Titans an early 2-0 lead with a home run to left field against losing pitcher Billy Ott.

After Noe Ramirez threw an easy first inning, the Titans lengthened their lead to 4-0 in the second inning. Khris Davis and Gary Brown started the inning with singles and advanced into scoring position on Joe Scott's sacrifice bunt. Dustin Garneau drove in Davis with a sacrifice fly to rightfield; Brown also scored on the play when the throw back into the infield went awry.

Noe Ramirez and Ott matched zeros on the scoreboard the next three innings. After five innings, Noe was breezing along with a three-hit shutout.

The Titans seemed to put the game out of reach in the top of the sixth inning as sharp lightning bolts crackled in the distance. Nick Ramirez started the inning with a base hit up the middle and advanced to third when Khris Davis laced a double to centerfield - his third double of the two games. One out later, Joe Scott doubled in both runners to make it 6-0 and Dustin Garneau added the extra point with an RBI single, making it 7-0.

The Matadors finally got to Noe Ramirez in their half of the sixth inning, starting with two small ball hits (a chopper by John Parham far to Brown's left that he fielded cleanly but threw late after his trademark piroutte move and a bunt surprise bunt single by Richard Cates), a clean single to leftfield by Ryan Pineda and a grand slam by Dominic D'Anna. Still with no outs, Ramirez hit the next batter and surrendered a single to Jason Dabbs. But in a sign of confidence for their freshman hurler and his ability to bounce back from adversity, Noe was allowed to continue and allowed just one of those runners to score, making it 7-5 and turning what had just moments earlier seem like an easy game into a nailbiter.

With one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, Jason Dabbs got his third hit of the game, followed by a solid single to rightfield by Jeff Pruitt. With a pitch count of 120 and the go-ahead run at the plate, and two right-handed hitters coming up (one scheduled and the second a pinch-hitter), Coach Serrano bypassed his available right-handed relievers and brought in freshman left-hander Nick Ramirez. Nick did a great job and retired the next two hitters easily on a foul pop-up and a lazy flyball to centerfield.

The Titans threatened to add insurance runs in the ninth inning when they loaded the bases on one-out singles by Jeff Newman and Josh Fellhauer. With Felly advancing to second on the late throw to try to get Newman at third base, Jared Clark was intentionally walked to set up the double-play situation. Nick Ramirez obliged the Matadors, hitting into a 4-6-3 twin killing to stymie the rally.

With the 2/3/4 hitters coming up for Northridge and the closer ready in the bullpen, Nick Ramirez was allowed to start the inning - and he finished it off in impressive fashion. He fell behind Parham 3-0 in the count before getting him to chase a high 3-1 pitch and fly out to Felly. (Sorry, Susan, it would have been ball four - just ask Tim.) Ramirez recorded his first collegiate save when he retired the dangerous Cates and Pineda.

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So what did we learn today?

You've got to love a bomb and a bunt. After blasting a long home run in the first inning, Jared Clark surprised the Matadors with a bunt in the seventh inning. What wheels: he legged it out and then stole second base, making him 9-9 this year in the pilfery category.

The bats showed some signs of life this game: Christian Colon, Josh Fellhauer, Jared Clark, Nick Ramirez and Khris Davis each tallied two hits, with each other starter (Newman, Brown, Scott and Garneau) getting one each.

Do you remember last year's Sunday slugfest at Goodwin Field, when the Titans beat the Matadors by a 17-15 score, despite three home runs and nine RBI by CSUN's freshman catcher Chris Hannick? So far, Coach Rousey has not put him into a game this series despite him being healthy and available (according to local Matador followers). I would have to guess he will make an appearance sometime today.

The situation in the bullpen should be interesting as we head down the stretch toward the Regionals. Earlier in the year, the righties (Mertins, Ackland and Morrison) were getting all the key innings and the lefties were pictured on milk cartons. Recently, the lefties (Kevin Rath and Nick Ramirez) have come on strong and could continue to get the ball in pivotal late game situations.

Lastly, the unexpectedly large Good Friday crowd of 175 ate the Matador Field concession stand out of hot dogs in between the suspended game and the scheduled game. Kudos to the concessionaire for taking swift corrective action and running home to grab some extra dogs (45 regular and 30 spicy) out of the freezer to feed the hungry crowd.