Titans Ride Hard to Tame Mustangs

Titans at Cal Poly: Lost 2-1 (Friday), Won 10-5 (Saturday), Won 6-4 (Sunday)

By Don Hudson

SAN LUIS OBISPO - If you were part of the large throng that gathered each game this weekend at Baggett Stadium in San Luis Obispo, you were treated to an excellent display of intense, competitive west coast baseball.  The Cal State Fullerton Titans (34-6, 10-2) dropped the opener to the Cal Poly Mustangs, 2-1, but bounced back to win the next two games to win the series and maintain their Big West Conference lead.

The Titans have solidified their standing near the top of the national leader board, albeit a few strokes behind the leaders.  They are ranked either #3 (Collegiate Baseball, NCBWA and USA TODAY coaches poll) or #4 (Baseball America and Perfect Game) in all the major polls and stand #5 in RPI and #2 in ISR as of Tuesday morning.


Game 1: Cal Poly Mustangs 2, Titans 1

(Photo Gallery)

In a much-discussed matchup of Friday aces of two nationally ranked opponents, the Titans sent freshman Thomas Eshelman to the hill to battle senior Joey Wagman, who entered action ranked ninth nationally in strikeouts.

The Titans scored a quick run in the first inning – and were then shut out the rest of the way by Wagman and closer Reed Reilly, who allowed just one base-runner (a walk to J.D. Davis) in notching his tenth save in two innings of relief.

It initially looked like ‘business as usual’ for the Titans, as Richy Pedroza escaped an 0-2 count and hit a 2-2 pitch for a single leading off the game.  Carlos Lopez hit a groundball on a hit-and-run play that advanced Pedroza into scoring position.  Wagman did not look sharp early, as he walked Davis and unleashed a wild pitch that put two runners in scoring position.  Michael Lorenzen hit a sacrifice fly that drove in Pedroza and gave the Titans a quick 1-0 lead.

Eshelman came out looking sharp, hitting his spots – so what’s new?

Lorenzen called out on high tag

The Titans had Wagman on the ropes in the top of the third, but the savvy senior pitched a great game without his best stuff.  He wasn’t getting his normally-deadly curveball over for strikes early, so he relied on an assortment of fastballs, change-ups and good location.  Lopez led off with a walk but was erased on a double-play.  Lorenzen singled but was called out attempting to steal second when he appeared to be draped atop the base when the high tag was applied.

Lorenzen clearly expressed his disagreement to umpire Joe Maiden, who chose to move toward him to escalate the debate rather than retreating back to the foul line where Blue hangs out between innings.

(Anybody who has umpired knows that when an inning ends on a contentious call, you trot out along the foul line, beyond conversational distance with players, coaches and fellow umpires.  If you go over to talk to your brother ump, everybody knows you’re talking about the call, which is a sign of weakness. Maiden seemed to be baiting an argument, but Lorenzen cooled and went out to his position.)

The Mustangs broke through against Eshelman in the bottom of the fourth inning as outfielder Jordan Ellis led off with a triple and scored on an RBI groundout.  Ellis was outstanding, going 6-for-13 in the series.

Austin Kingsolver led off the fifth inning with his second hit of the game, a single up the middle after taking a called strike and then fouling off six pitches. But the Mustangs defended the hit-and-run effectively – they always stood their ground and got the batter out while the runner advanced, rather than the dispiriting base-hit through a vacated hole.  Wagman then retired the dangerous Lopez and Davis on groundballs to the shortstop.

The Mustangs took the lead with a solo tally in the bottom of the sixth.  With one out, Ellis singled and went to second when the third-spot hitter, Jimmy Allen, sacrificed.  This brought up cleanup hitter, Nick Torres, who leads the team in RBI and already had a hit against Eshelman in the fourth inning.

With first-base open, Eshelman appeared willing to walk Torres with an open base and a struggling freshman, Brian Mundell, on deck.  (Mundell has a ton of power and is tied for the BWC lead in home runs, but he was in the midst of a slump that reached 1-for-31 until he broke out on Saturday.)

A walk seemed strategic and inevitable when Eshelman and his pin-point control fell behind 3-1, but Torres swung and missed the next pitch and the battle was back on.  Torres fouled off two pitches before smashing a single into centerfield to drive in Ellis with the go-ahead and eventual winning run.  It’s easy to second-guess why they didn’t intentionally (or semi-intentionally) walk the opponent’s leading RBI man with an open base, but that’s baseball.

Wagman stifles Titans bats

The rest of it was about pitching.  Wagman left after seven innings, giving up just one run on six hits, with two walks and zero strikeouts.  He showed the fans and scouts another dimension of his game – beating a quality opponent like Fullerton without his best stuff and without a single strikeout.  Closer Reilly looked like the real deal, with a dazzling assortment of fastballs, splitters and sliders.

The Titans fell back into their “six hits on Friday blues.”  Kingsolver was the only Titan with multiple hits.  Eshelman allowed just two runs in 7-2/3 innings of work and drew great respect from the Mustangs.  He got a lot of props afterwards from the Mustangs.  Torres told the local press, “He tends to hit the black every time, the very edge of the plate.  With every pitch he throws, you question whether it’s going to be a ball or a strike because it’s perfectly placed.  He’s unbelievable at doing that.
His command is unreal.”  Very classy commentary!

Ellis had three hits and scored both runs for Cal Poly, with Torres contributing two hits, including the game-winning RBI.


Game 2: Titans 10, Cal Poly Mustangs 5

This game also featured a much-anticipated pitching matchup between the Titans’ freshman Justin Garza and Poly’s sophomore lefthander Matt Imhof (who came in to the game with a 4-1 record and 1.51 ERA.)  Unlike Friday, the expected pitchers’ duel never materialized beyond the first couple scoreless innings.

With one out in the top of the third, Imhof walked Lopez and Davis on consecutive full counts.  With Poly coach Larry Lee emphasizing bunt defense, there were a couple rockets that would usually be handled with the infielders playing at normal depth.  Lorenzen hit a hard grounder that third-baseman Jimmy Allen made a horizontal backhand dive attempt, but the ball deflected off his glove and went for a run-scoring double.

Catcher Chad Wallach followed with a hard-hit two-run single to leftfield to give the Titans a 3-0 lead.  Jake Jefferies reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second and scored on an RBI single by Matt Chapman.

Garza remains unbeaten

Staked to a 4-0 lead, the first pitch Garza threw in the bottom of the third was hit deep, a home run by David Armendariz to make it 4-1.  Imhof threw a lot of pitches in the fourth, walking one and was the beneficiary of an outstanding play by leftfielder Armendariz to rob Lopez of an RBI double.

The wheels began to wobble for Garza in the bottom of the fourth.  He was dominant in striking out the first two hitters, but paid the price for a two-out walk when Poly designated hitter Mundell crushed a 1-2 pitch for a two-run homer that cut the lead to 4-3.  The capacity crowd was going crazy and momentum was clearly shifting to the Mustangs.

After Imhof and Garza swapped scoreless fifth innings, Chapman doubled with one out in the sixth inning to bring up the recently resurgent Greg Velazquez, one of eight Titans batting right-handed (including switch-hitters Pedroza and Jefferies) against the Poly southpaw.  Velazquez got ahead of the count and hit a bomb on a 2-0 pitch to give the Titans some breathing room, 6-3.  It was his second home run of the season and also of the week – he went deep Tuesday at Pepperdine as part of his single-double-homer performance.

Another Velazquez homer

A single by Austin Diemer ended the evening for Imhof. Reliever Michael Holback retired Pedroza and Diemer was caught stealing to end the uprising.

The Mustangs immediately cut into the Titans’ 6-3 lead with a run of their own in the bottom of the sixth.  Lee’s strategy was slightly befuddling – trailing by three runs against a highly ranked opponent with the wind blowing out and the ball flying around the yard, he had his third hitter, Allen, sacrifice bunt after the first two Mustangs got singles against Garza.  The “small ball” approach delivered a run when Torres followed with a sacrifice fly, but it seemed peculiar to eschew going for a big inning with the middle of your order coming up with nobody out, two runners on and down by three runs.  Go figure.

The Titans broke it open with three unearned runs in the seventh inning.  Lopez led off with a sizzling line drive headed towards the leftfield corner that Allen leaped and deflected to keep it a single.  When Davis flied deep to centerfield, Lopez got a good read that the ball was not going out and he tagged up and advanced to second.  After Lorenzen was retired on a wind-blown foulout, Wallach reached on an error to keep the inning alive.  Jefferies capitalized on the error with an RBI single, followed by Chapman’s two-run double.

The Titans added another run in the ninth on a double by Wallach and an RBI triple by Kingsolver.  Reliever Tyler Peitzmeier was touched for an unearned run in the bottom of the ninth to make the final score 10-5.

The Titans had twelve hits and several other outs that were hit very hard, led by Wallach and Chapman with three hits each, including two doubles apiece.  Chapman had three RBI, while Wallach had two.  Garza improved his record to 8-0 while allowing four runs on four hits and four walks, striking out eight in seven innings of work.  Willie Kuhl and Peitzmeier each worked an inning in relief.

Denver Chavez and Ellis had two each of the Mustangs’ seven hits.


Game 3: Titans 6, Cal Poly Mustangs 4

(Photo Gallery)

This was about as riveting a game as you will ever see, played on a warm, sunny day in a perfect bucolic baseball setting.  In only the second rubber game the Titans have faced in a weekend series this season (the other was a home win over Texas A&M), the Titans won a battle that had both teams looking like gallant, battle-scarred combatants by the time it was over.

The pitching match-up seemed to favor the Titans, with Grahamm Wiest facing sophomore Bryan Granger, who had been up and down in his nine previous starts this season.  But Granger looked good the first couple innings, allowing only a two-out walk to Davis.

Chapman homer evens things up

Meanwhile, Wiest surrendered a run in the bottom of the second to give Poly a 1-0 lead.  After Wiest breezed through the first five hitters, catcher Elliot Stewart launched a flyball deep to leftfield.  With the wind blowing out on a warm day, the ball was carrying well and it bounced off the wall, beyond the grasp of a leaping Anthony Hutting.  Centerfielder Lorenzen may have misjudged how far the ball would carry, because he was late in getting over to back up the play and Stewart was safe at third with a stand-up triple on what would ordinarily have been a double, especially with two outs and a catcher running.  The extra base proved costly, as Wiest’s next pitch was in the dirt and Stewart scored on a wild pitch.

But the Titans quickly counter-punched – their 2013 trademark.  Granger fell behind in the count and Chapman blasted a 3-1 pitch for a home run to tie the score.  Granger didn’t recover: Kingsolver followed with a single, Pedroza walked on four pitches and Lopez beat out a bunt in a pretty obvious sacrifice situation.  With nowhere to put Davis, who walked five times in the series, the Titans’ designated hitter ripped a two-run single up the middle to give the Titans a 3-1 lead.  Lorenzen then delivered an RBI single to score Lopez and give the Titans a 4-1 lead, still with nobody out and two runners on base.

Holback came into the game and completely shut down the Titans’ offense – he escaped the inherited jam in the third and then allowed no hits or runs in the next couple innings.  He faced the minimum nine batters, allowing just one (Lorenzen) to reach on HBP but then picked him off.

Wiest protected the 4-1 lead the next few innings, but not without a couple nervous moments and an increasing pitch count that ultimately impacted how deeply into the game he pitched.  There was an incredible encounter in the bottom of the fourth between Wiest and Stewart. After consecutive one-out singles by Allen and Torres, the dangerous slugger Mundell (who had hit his eighth home run of the season on Saturday night) came up as the potential tying run.  Wiest got him to hit into a force-out, but then had to face Stewart, who had already narrowly missed a home run in his first at-bat.

Wiest wins epic battle

The ensuing 12-pitch battle between Wiest and Stewart was epic.  Stewart took the first four pitches: strike-ball-strike-ball.  He then fouled off five consecutive 2-2 pitches before taking a ball to get to a full count.  After fouling off another pitch, Wiest finally got Stewart to chase a ball in the dirt and struck him out, with the ball momentarily getting past Wallach, who recovered and threw him out.  Rather than returning directly to the dugout, Wiest sought out Stewart and gave him props for engaging in such a ferocious battle.  It was a classy gesture by Wiest, which the Poly fans recognized and appreciated.

The lengthy battle with Stewart might have worn down Wiest, who barely escaped damage in the bottom of the fifth.  After surrendering two hits and a walk to load the bases, Wiest walked the plank when Allen hit a ball deep to left-centerfield.  It looked like it was going out for a grand slam that would have given Poly a lead and turned the stadium into bedlam, but the ball unexpectedly died near the warning track and Lorenzen was able to run it down.

Cal Poly cut the Titans’ lead to 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth.  Wiest had a chance to escape when he induced a routine double-play ball, but the relay throw from second-baseman Keegan Dale was high and umpire Phil Benson ruled Lopez had not tagged the runner.  The failure to execute the double-play proved costly when the next batter, Armedariz, doubled into the left-centerfield gap, just beyond the reach of Lorenzen.

Poly’s middle relievers were outstanding: three scoreless innings by Holback and two by Chris Taylor.  In their combined five innings, they allowed just one hit, no walks and had four strikeouts.  The excellent middle relief pitching allowed the Mustangs a chance to get back in the game, which they ultimately accomplished.

Koby Gauna replaced Wiest in the bottom of the seventh and quickly retired the first two hitters before allowing a single to Ellis, who stole second and scored on an RBI single by Allen to make it 4-3.

Now things got really crazy.

Even though trailing, Coach Lee brought in his hard-throwing closer, Reilly, to start the eighth inning.

With one out, Lorenzen came up and took his time settling into the box and Reilly was in no mood to wait for him.  Lorenzen raised his hand and looked back to plate umpire Joe Maiden to request time-out – permission denied. (How ironic – the umpire who Lorenzen questioned Friday night on the stolen base call refused to grant him time-out on Sunday.) Reilly quickly delivered the pitch – a fastball inside and up near Lorenzen’s head.

After Lorenzen grounded out, Coach Vanderhook came out to question Maiden, who would have no part of it.  The umpire certainly has every right to either grant or deny a time-out request, and it is a split-second decision that must protect the safety of both the pitcher and hitter.  Frankly, I didn’t have any problem with either Maiden’s decision or Reilly buzzing Lorenzen high and tight – if our pitcher had done the same thing, we’d be cheering his tenacity and combativeness.

Hook argues call ...
(Photos by Laura Dickson, The Tribune)

But the coach should also have the right to stand up for his player, which Vanderhook tried to do, and the umpiring crew wanted no part of.

But what happened next was ridiculous.  Hooky did not pursue the debate with Maiden, but was obviously furious in the dugout.  First-base umpire Phil Benson, who has demonstrated notorious ‘rabbit ears’ over the years I’ve seen him officiate games, called time and reignited the situation needlessly.  He approached the Titans’ bench and started screaming at Vanderhook.  When Vanderhook took one step from the dugout, Benson threatened ejection; when Hooky took a second step, he got tossed.  A barrage of F-words ensued – I assure you that none of them was “Fullerton.”

Benson is a so-so umpire: probably a “5” on most 1-to-10 scales of collegiate umpires and perhaps a “7” by Big West Conference standards.  But he is also a megalomaniacal asshole of the highest order.  I’m glad he seldom is assigned games in Southern California – we usually see him only at Poly, Pacific or Davis.

... and gets tossed

With the rabid crowd going bonkers after Hooky’s ejection, they had more cause for excitement when Mundell reached on an infield single to lead off the bottom of the eighth.  Pedroza made a great stop deep in the hole, but there was no way he could throw him out.  The local fans were puzzled when Coach Lee did not opt for a pinch-runner for Mundell, even after he was sacrificed into scoring position.

With one out a runner on second, Gauna was replaced by Willie Kuhl, pitching his third game of the series.  Kuhl’s first pitch was lined into rightfield by Armendariz for a base hit, but Mundell was held at third, even though the throw was up the line.

The decision not to deploy a pinch-runner might have backfired when Lorenzen replaced Kuhl and induced a perfect double-play ball to Dale.  But Dale hitched before throwing wildly to shortstop Pedroza covering second.  Pedroza had to leave the bag to catch the errant throw.  The Titans got a big break when Armendariz, who was sliding hard to break up the double-play, over-slid the base and was tagged out by Pedroza.

With the score tied 4-4, the noose tightened when Lorenzen threw a wild pitch that put the potential go-ahead run in scoring position, but leftfielder Diemer bailed him out with a nice grab of a scalded line-drive to end the inning.

Everything was going Poly’s way: the 4-1 lead had been lost; the coach had been kicked out; the Titans had been shut out five straight innings and Poly had their dominant closer on the mound.  What could possibly go wrong?

With one out in the ninth inning, Diemer bounced back from a 1-2 count to full count before slamming a single into leftfield.  Chapman had pulled several balls hard throughout the weekend, so Reilly pitched him away and Chappy drove a single to rightfield, which allowed Diemer to scamper to third.

Kingsolver scores just in time (L.D. Tribune)

With the speedy, skilled-bunting Kingsolver at the plate, the infield was in at the corners to protect against a squeeze play and back in the middle for a possible double-play.  Kingsolver hit a bouncer to second-base that looked like a possible double-play.  But Chapman made an alert play when he hit the brakes to avoid giving the fielder a chance to tag him and throw to first to complete the twin-killing.

Second-baseman Chavez then threw to second for the force and Kingsolver barely beat the relay, safe on a bang-bang play that gave the Titans’ a 5-4 lead. The play by Chapman bought a split-second for Kingsolver, which was probably the difference between inning over or taking the lead.

It looked like the inning was done when Pedroza grounded out, but Maiden ruled catcher’s interference and Pedroza was awarded first base.  Lopez took advantage with a single to rightfield and Kingsolver slid home just barely ahead of the throw to give the Titans an insurance run, 6-4.

Lorenzen faced the top of the order in the bottom of the ninth.  He got Chavez on a line-drive that stayed up long enough for Diemer to grab it, struck out Ellis and retired Allen to end the game when shortstop Pedroza made an excellent do-or-die play, charging and making the short-hop grab look much easier than it was.

The Titans were outhit, 11-9, with Lopez and Chapman getting two each.  Lorenzen got the win.  Wiest allowed seven hits in six innings, striking out six and walking just one.  Allen, Mundell and Armendariz had two hits each for Cal Poly.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So what did we learn up in wine country?

These were very intense battles, played between two teams with a great deal of mutual respect but without fear or intimidation.  Based strictly on our head-to-head weekend series action this year, the Mustangs played the Titans as well as anybody.  With the series loss at home, the Mustangs dropped out of the Baseball America and Perfect Game rankings, but continued to be ranked by Collegiate Baseball (#18) and both USA TODAY coaches and NCBWA (#23).

But the way the NCAA selection process works and its mind-numbing reliance on RPI while ignoring ISR and other rankings and metrics, Cal Poly is not a post-season lock – even though they seem clearly capable of doing damage if they get invited to the dance.

You’ll go nuts if you’ve already started your “RPI watch” every day.  The Titans lost on Friday to the #66 RPI team (prior to the series) – and yet improved from #8 to #7 overnight.  How does that math work?  The number is obviously impacted by the performance of your previous opponents, but it is maddening at best to be extrapolating April data to figure out what the NCAA committee will do Memorial Day weekend.

Speaking of maddening, how do you explain Pacific beating UC Irvine by 14-13 score on Saturday – including turning a game-ending bases-loaded double-play to avoid blowing a seven-run lead in the ninth inning – and then losing 1-0 on Sunday?  I could understand it in the reverse order – especially having witnessed Pacific’s series finale pitching options.  A 1-0 game on Saturday and 14-13 on Sunday would make sense.

Cal State Northridge swept the Rainbows in Hawai’i and has moved into second place with a record of 8-4.  While I don’t see a reasonable path for them into the postseason – Northridge would need to run the table, including a sweep of the Titans – but they could be a spoiler if they finish ahead of either Cal Poly or Irvine in the conference standings.  If either of those teams finishes lower than third place in conference, it could put a serious blemish on their NCAA resume.

Panoramic view of Baggett Stadium

The games were played before 6,483 spectators – the second highest for a three-game series at Baggett Stadium.  The official capacity limit is 1,734, with 745 chairback seats and the remainder bleacher seating and standing room only.  I’m guessing the fire marshal was imbibing in Krukow’s Korner and looked the other way when they put an average 2,161 fannies through the turnstiles each game.

The Poly fans are passionate and love their team – especially the crazy drunks in the beer pavilion named after Mike Krukow, who pitched at Cal Poly many years ago and still holds the team’s career records for ERA (1.94) and is tied with five complete game shutouts in a season.  He had a successful fourteen year major league pitching career before becoming a beloved announcer for the San Francisco Giants.  His standout season was 1986, when he was 20-9 with an ERA of 3.05 for the Giants, finishing third in the National League Cy Young Award balloting.

Trivia question: who was the head coach at Cal Poly SLO when Krukow played there?

It was nice to see productivity from the bottom of the order in a series where the top and middle of the order were relatively quiet.  Chapman had a great series – 5-for-12 (.412) with two doubles, a home run, four RBI and his usual outstanding defense at third-base.  Kingsolver was 4-for-8 (.500) with two RBI, a triple and a couple big runs scored.  Diemer was 2-for-6 (.333), including the big hit to start the series-winning rally in the ninth inning of the last game.  It helped offset a 5-for-30 (.167) output from the top three in the batting order – albeit with Pedroza playing amazing defense at shortstop, Lopez driving in a huge insurance run on Sunday and Davis drawing five walks.

You’ve got to love the Titans 19-2 road record – they are “just” 15-4 at home.  It was a frenetic and difficult environment at Baggett Stadium – the Mustangs have had a great home record throughout Lee’s tenure there.  But the Titans this season have kicked it up a notch whenever the environment has been the most hostile and challenging.

After losing Friday night, the Titans showed up Saturday knowing that a loss that night would have placed them in a tie with Cal Poly for the BWC lead.  I was interested how they would respond to that pressure – they hadn’t lost a weekend road game yet (their only previous road loss was a midweek game at San Diego) – so it was a good test of their resilience.

About an hour before the Saturday game, a parent of a Poly player told me, “Your guys got off the bus today looking like they had won 10-0 last night – you can just see the confidence of a team that knows how to win because they can put a loss behind them and move on.”  His insight proved to be spot-on.

An important personal milestone happened to me last week: the tenth anniversary of the first Titans game I went to.  I am forever grateful to the circumstances that led to my introduction to something that has become such a central part of my life in the last decade.

Many people have asked how it came about.  As a chronic creature of habit, I ate breakfast nearly every day at The Bagelry in La Verne.  There was a bright young neighborhood kid who worked there in the morning, and he saw me reading the sports section every day and we struck up a sports-centric dialogue.  One day back in 2003, I mentioned to Tom that I was going to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks game (as they were called back then) that evening using my company’s season tickets.  He joked that he would love to see an NHL game, as he had never seen hockey in person.  It stuck in the back of my mind.

Lo and behold, a few weeks later I had the tickets again but couldn’t go to the game because of a last-minute business trip.  Tom was shocked and grateful when I walked in one day and handed him four tickets on the red line for the Ducks’ game that Friday night.

I saw him the next week and asked how he had enjoyed the game.  He was very appreciative of it and wanted to do something in return, which I explained was not necessary.  But he insisted: “I go to a college that has a really great baseball team.  I would like you to be my guest at a game.”  I was thinking to myself, “Dude, I’m a Red Sox fan.  I don’t want to go see no stinkin’ college kids playing baseball.”  But I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so I accepted the invitation.

We were supposed to go to a game at Edison Field (aka The Big “A”) to see the Titans play USC, but it was rained out and I thought I was off the hook.  But alas, young Thomas persisted and we rescheduled to go to a Tuesday night game against UCLA.  I went inside and was struck first by Goodwin Field itself and how devoted the fans were – I expected mostly students and stoners, but saw all these grizzled old farts decked out in “F” gear that clearly had witnessed a lot of baseball action.  It made me curious about what it was that kept fans coming back when they were long-since past their collegiate years.

The second thing that struck me was the caliber of play – far greater than what I had seen growing up watching the now-defunct Providence College baseball team.  And the coaching.  The Titans beat the snot out of the Bruins, 13-2: even though it wasn’t much of a game, the seed had been planted.

I went back to see another game a couple weeks later.  Then another.  Then another.  Then two in a row.  Then the playoffs.  By the end of the 2003 season I was hooked – the rest is history.

The root of “loving Titans baseball” is “loving baseball.”  I quickly recognized that the Titans played baseball the way it was meant to be played: I fell in love with the team that respected the game as much as I did.

Recognize No. 16?

It has been a great journey - my only lament is that I lived out here fifteen years before I discovered Titans baseball.  I know I can’t make up for lost time, but I sure am trying.

Answer to trivia question: when Mike Krukow pitched for the Division II Cal Poly Mustangs, their head coach was an up-and-coming fellow named Augie Garrido.  Augie coached one year for the San Francisco State Gators in 1969 and then coached at Cal Poly from 1970-1972 before shifting to one of their California Collegiate Athletic Association rivals, the Cal State Fullerton Titans.  The rest is history.

The last word this week goes to Big Papi, for his comments during an emotional pregame ceremony last week at Fenway Park – I couldn’t have said it any better.

Now it is on to Hawai’i – with any luck, our flights won’t be delayed or canceled by sequestration-attributed air traffic controller or TSA manpower reductions.  Be there – aloha!

Cal Poly Series Preview

Titans at Cal Poly

Friday 6 p.m.; Saturday 6 p.m.; Sunday 1 p.m.

By FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton has been on a roll throughout this season and carried a seven game winning streak into last week.  The Titans stretched it to eight games with a 6-4 win last Tuesday night against USC and increased it to ten games against UCSB with a 4-3 comeback win on Friday with two runs in the bottom of the ninth and a 10-2 blowout win on Saturday before seeing their winning streak snapped on Sunday in a 2-0 shutout by the Gauchos, the third time this season that Fullerton has had a ten game winning streak broken as they lost their first Big West game of the season in falling to 31-5, 8-1.

Fullerton got off to a sluggish start last Tuesday against USC, who scored runs in the second and third innings off of starter Koby Gauna before establishing control of the game in the bottom of the third with six runs.  Jake Jefferies led off the inning with a single, A.J. Kennedy singled with one out, Austin Diemer was hit by a pitch with two out and J.D. Davis followed by hitting his second grand slam of the season.  Michael Lorenzen went back to back with his conference leading seventh HR of the season to chase Trojans starter Sean Adler, Chad Wallach welcomed reliever Nigel Nootbaar into the game with a double and Matt Chapman singled up the middle to drive in Wallach to finish off the scoring in the inning for the Titans as well as for the game.  Willie Kuhl relieved Gauna in the fourth and left the game after the first two hitters reached base against him in the fifth.  Henry Omana walked the first batter he faced and gave up two long SF’s to cut the lead to 6-4 before getting out of the inning.  Omana, Jose Cardona and Lorenzen combined to shut out the Trojans over the last four innings, with Cardona picking up his first win of the season with two scoreless innings and Lorenzen picking up his conference leading twelfth save.

As is usually the case on Friday nights, it looked like the potential was there for a pitchers duel between Thomas Eshelman and UCSB’s Austin Pettibone and that is exactly what happened.  The Gauchos jumped on Eshelman for a run in the first on two singles and an RBI groundout.  Fullerton got two hits in their half of the inning but stranded those runners and got three more hits in the third but saw one of those runners picked off and another one thrown out trying to go from first to third on a groundout.  Each team only had one hit over the next two innings before Eshelman walked Brandon Trinkwon, one of the most patient hitters in the conference, with one out in the sixth to end his streak without walking a hitter at 63 1/3 innings.  The Titans got two runners on in the sixth on a walk and a HBP before a DP ended the inning.  Anthony Hutting singled with one out in the seventh and it looked like Fullerton was going to be kept off of the scoreboard again when Chapman hit a hard grounder to short that looked like a tailor made DP ball but took a kangaroo hop off of the edge of the infield grass and bounced over the Trinkwon’s head and was misplayed in the OF for the Titans to end up with runners on second and third.  Austin Kingsolver squibbed a ball to 1B that couldn’t be played for a single to drive in Hutting to tie the game and Richy Pedroza beat out a potential DP ball to drive in the go ahead run.  Eshelman pitched another scoreless inning in the eighth and handed the ball off to Lorenzen to finish things off but it wasn’t an automatic save like it has usually been when he comes into the game.  Tyler Kuresa singled with one out for the Gauchos and Luke Swenson tripled into the RF corner to tie the game for Lorenzen’s first blown save in sixteen chances going back to last season.  Jackson Morrow followed with a clutch squeeze bunt with two strikes to give the UCSB the lead.  Diemer led off the bottom of the ninth with a bunt single off of Gauchos reliever Greg Mahle, Chapman and Kingsolver followed with four pitch walks off of UCSB closer Dylan Hecht and Justin Wilson came into the game to face Pedroza.  Wilson’s wild pitch brought home Diemer with the tying run and Pedroza’s SF to CF scored Chapman to win the game and set off a wild celebration on Pedroza’s second game winning ninth inning RBI in the last four games.  Eshelman was outstanding as he has been all season and allowed one run on five hits and one walk and seven strikeouts in eight innings and has a Big West leading 1.09 ERA while Lorenzen picked up his first win of the season after his teammates bailed him out.

Fullerton made sure things wouldn’t be nearly as dramatic on Saturday when they jumped all over UCSB starter Justin Jacome for three runs in the first and another in the second before knocking him out of the game with three more runs in the fourth.  Pedroza led off the bottom of the first with a single, Carlos Lopez doubled him to third, JD Davis’ infield single drove in Pedroza, Lorenzen was hit by a pitch and Wallach and Chapman followed with SF’s to each drive in runs.  The Gauchos scored in the top of the second and the Titans responded in the bottom of the inning when Diemer tripled to CF and Pedroza singled him in.  Fullerton extended the lead in the fourth when Jefferies doubled, Greg Velazgquez singled, they moved up on a groundout, Pedroza’s SF scored Jefferies, Lopez’s singled scored Velazquez and Davis’ triple drove in Lopez.  The Fullerton onslaught continued in the fifth when Wallach hit his first HR of the season, Chapman doubled and Diemer singled him in.  The teams traded HR’s in the later innings with UCSB’s Joe Woodward and Chapman each hitting their first HR’s of the season.  Justin Garza was the beneficiary of the offensive explosion as he improved his record to 7-0 by allowing two runs on five hits in seven innings with no walks and nine strikeouts and has a 2.36 ERA.  Tyler Peitzmeier and David Birosak each threw a scoreless inning to finish things off.

UCSB has had major problems getting anybody out on Sundays but Robby Nesovic turned that around in the final game of the series.  The Gauchos scored in the second when Grahamm Wiest struck out Nesovic but he reached first on a wild pitch.  Kuresa followed by hitting a long fly ball to RF that bounced off the orange stripe and back into the field and it was initially ruled to be a two run HR but was overruled and called a ground rule double.  Swenson’s RBI groundout scored a run but Kuresa was thrown out at home trying to score on a wild pitch to end the rally.  Fullerton got one runner on base in each of the first four innings but a runner caught stealing and two DP’s ended three of the innings.  UCSB scored in the fifth when Kuresa was hit by a pitch, Swenson singled, Morrow’s SAC bunt was misplayed to load the bases with no outs and a DP scored a run.  It looked like the Titans might get on the board in the bottom of the inning when Wallach walked, Keegan Dale singled and Pedroza walked with two outs but Lopez’s long fly ball to CF was caught up against the wall.  Wiest stranded two runners in the sixth and it looked like Fullerton might tie the game with two runners on and two outs when Chapman scorched a ball down the line and UCSB’s 3B Ryan Clark did his best impression of Brooks Robinson in the 1970 World Series and made a diving stop and threw out Chapman to end the inning.  Wiest worked out of trouble and left the bases loaded in the seventh and Nesovic came out of the game with two outs in the bottom of the inning after walking Kingsolver.  Mahle walked Lopez and Davis but got Lorenzen to fly out to LF to leave the bases loaded.  Peitzmeier retired all six batters he faced in the last two innings and Mahle walked a hitter in the ninth but that was the only baserunner in the last two innings as he picked up the save for UCSB to salvage a win in the series and Fullerton was shut out despite getting seven walks and two HBP’s.  Nesovic was the Big West pitcher of the week for throwing 6 2/3 shutout innings.  Wiest was the tough luck loser after allowing two runs on four hits and two walks with six strikeouts in seven innings as he fell to 6-2 with a 2.70 ERA.

After crushing the ball against Pacific and struggling at UC Davis, the Fullerton offense had a more normal weekend and hit .299 in the UCSB series but couldn’t break through on Sunday and stranded eleven base runners.  The Titans continued to stay patient at the plate and had seventeen walks and HBP’s against the Gauchos and converted several of those free bases into runs in the first two games before being unable to come up with the key hit in the final game of the series.  The hitting leaders for the weekend were Davis (5-10, 2 RBI), Lopez (5-12, RBI), Diemer (4-6, 3 R), Pedroza (3-11, 4 RBI) and Chapman (3-10, HR, 2 RBI).  The pitching was outstanding once again with a 2.33 ERA and held UCSB to a .187 AVG and only allowed 17 hits and three walks with 24 strikeouts.

Fullerton got this week started by bouncing back from the loss to UCSB by traveling up to Malibu and beating Pepperdine 8-4 on Tuesday afternoon.  The Titans only had seven hits on the afternoon and three of them were by Greg Velazquez, who had a single, double and his first HR of the season and drove in three runs and Fullerton took advantage of the wildness of the Waves pitchers (6 BB’s, 2 HBP’s) and some poor defense (3 E’s) to get out to a 6-1 lead and put things away by scoring two runs in the seventh on a wild pitch and a passed ball.  Bryan Conant picked up his first win as a Titan with two scoreless innings as one of seven pitchers who saw action on the day and Koby Gauna picked up his second save with 2 2/3 scoreless innings.  Fullerton will look to carry the momentum from their win on Tuesday and get a new winning streak started but that won’t be easy with a trip up to the central coast waiting for them this weekend as they take on the Cal Poly Mustangs, who have gotten off to one of their better starts since moving up to D1 in the mid 1990’s.  When these two teams played last year, this was a hard fought series and the Titans had to come from behind in the final game with a run in the bottom of the ninth before winning in extra innings.  At the time, it just seemed like another series that Fullerton needed to stay in front of the Big West with Cal Poly sitting at .500 at the halfway point of the conference schedule but the final game of the series ended up deciding the conference race because the Mustangs made a strong charge in the second half of the Big West schedule to end up finishing one game behind the Titans.


Cal Poly Mustangs (25-9, 6-3 – tied for 2nd)

• 2012 Overall Record – 21-14
• 2012 Conference Record – 5-4 (tied for 3rd)
• Post-Season – None
• 2013 RPI/ISR – 66/24.  2012 RPI/ISR – 67/27.  Cal Poly’s RPI went down by 24 spots after splitting their last two home games with Hawaii and Santa Clara. 
• Pre-season ranking – none.  Current ranking – 16th by Collegiate Baseball, 22nd by NCBWA and USA Today/Coaches, 23rd by Perfect Game and Baseball America
• Predicted conference finish – 3rd by Perfect Game, 4th by the Big West coaches, Baseball America and Easton College Baseball.

2012 Summary and 2013 Preview

Cal Poly qualified for a regional for the first time as a D1 program in 2009 after near misses in 2005 and 2007 but wasn’t able to build off of the momentum of their regional appearance, getting off to a brutal start in 2010 when they won only ten of their first 37 games and only played .500 ball in 2011 after starting out 0-6 by ending up 28-27, although they were solid in conference games and finished in third at 15-9.  Unlike in 2011, when the Mustangs got off to such a slow start that their season was almost over before it started, they got off to a blazing start in 2012 with sweeps of Oklahoma State and LMU and were sitting at 7-1 after the first two weekends.  Cal Poly’s inconsistency returned after that and they only went 15-16 against the meat of their schedule, mixing in highs like a sweep of Irvine (the first time they were swept in a conference series since 2006) with lows like losing series at Minnesota and at home to Long Beach to start the Big West schedule.  The Mustangs showed what kind of team they could be when they nearly won the series at Fullerton, taking a lead into the bottom of the ninth before the Titans tied the game and won it in extra innings.  Cal Poly got red hot after that series and went 14-3 to end the season, although two of those losses were one run losses in a series loss at UC Davis.  The Mustangs swept four conference series but lost four Big West series and five conference games by one run due primarily to issues in their bullpen and that ultimately is what cost them a conference title and qualifying for a regional after they finished one game behind Fullerton at 16-8 in the Big West standings and 36-20 overall.

Cal Poly had issues on offense in 2011 adjusting to the new BBCOR bats because their offensive philosophy has been built on banging the ball around the ballpark.  The Mustangs only hit in the .250’s in non-conference games before starting to hit better when the weather warmed up and they hit in the .270’s during the conference part of the schedule.  Cal Poly’s offense was drastically improved in 2012 and they led the Big West in most offensive categories – scoring, AVG, OBP, SLG and HR while scoring at least six runs in 27 of their games.  The Mustangs were even better in conference games than they were earlier in the season and hit .313 and averaged almost seven runs per game while hitting almost an HR per game with 21 HR’s.  Cal Poly had pretty good patience at the plate as a team but they were taking big swings to generate that power and were second in the Big West in strikeouts.  The Mustangs had good team speed and were second in the conference in SB’s.  With the firepower that Cal Poly had, they didn’t feel the need to bunt much and were next to last in the conference in SAC’s.

Cal Poly had their best team ERA in 2011 since moving up to D1 in 1995 and their pitchers were the reason why they were able to finish in third in the Big West.  The Mustangs were 26-8 when they held their opponents to four runs or less but their lack of productivity on offense was shown when they only went 1-18 when their pitchers allowed five runs or more in a game.  Cal Poly’s team ERA was even better last season and they held teams to three runs or less nineteen times behind a dominant 1-2 punch at the front of their rotation that went 19-4 with a 2.82 ERA.  The Mustangs had issues with depth on their pitching staff and the other starters and the bullpen combined to go 17-16 with a 3.93 ERA and that ultimately was their undoing that prevented them from extending their season into June.

Cal Poly thought they had a chance to get off to a fast start this season with an experienced team that only lost two position players and one starting pitcher and that is exactly what they did in winning their first four series at USF, at home against Seattle, at Washington and Kansas State on their way to starting 13-1.  The Mustangs haven’t been playing as consistently lately and have only gone 12-8 over their last twenty games, losing their series at home to Notre Dame, winning a non-conference series with UCSB and sweeping UC Davis at home to start the Big West schedule before splitting their last six conference games, losing their series at UCSB and winning the first two games at home against Hawaii before dropping the final game of the series.

Cal Poly lost their two best offensive players from 2012 and has had a drop-off in production, averaging a run less per game with slight drops in AVG, OBP and SLG.  The Mustangs have been a bit of an all or nothing offense because they don’t run much except for their leadoff hitter and usually don’t bunt much except for a couple of players at the bottom of the lineup, relying on their power to generate runs and they lead the Big West in HR’s, SLG and 2B’s.  Cal Poly is still prone to striking out quite a bit but they aren’t as patient as they were in 2012, averaging almost a walk less per game with several of the hitters in the middle of the lineup having poor BB/K ratios.

Cal Poly has been getting dominant starting pitching once again on Fridays and Saturdays, with those two starters going 15-3 with a 2.24 ERA, and things have improved on Sundays and they aren’t blowing leads late in games.  The Mustangs had solid strikeout rates in 2012 but they changed pitching coaches after the season with less of an emphasis on pitching to contact, instead going for strikeouts and the result has been that they are averaging a strikeout per inning, which leads the conference and is #6 nationally.  The one area that Cal Poly has a weakness in is with their bullpen depth because they only have confidence in two relievers to come into games in tight situations and they have combined to throw more innings than any of their starters.


Offense

• Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 110 (increases offense by 10%).  Baggett Stadium has a bit of a spacious ballpark (335 in the corners, 385 to the alleys, 405 to CF) with lots of foul territory and the wind tends to blow straight out.
• Batting Average – .288 (3rd in the Big West, 75th nationally).  .297 in 2012 (1/36).
• Scoring – 173 (4/142), 5.2 runs per game.  346 (1/53), 6.2 runs per game in 2011.
• Home Runs – 21 (1/48).  36 in 2012 (1/64). 
• Slugging Percentage – .420 (1/43).  .434 in 2012 (1/28).
• On Base Percentage – .355 (5/154).  .372 in 2012 (1/77)
• Walks – 90 (7/265), 2.7 per game.  195 in 2012 (4/165), 3.5 per game.
• HBP’s – 36 (7/140).  57 in 2012 (7/131).
• Strikeouts – 203 (5/xx), 6.2 per game.  360 in 2012 (2/xx), 6.4 per game.
• Stolen Bases – 33-47 (6/160).  55-81 in 2012 (2/137). 
• Sac Bunts – 31 (4/78).  38 in 2012 (8/179).

Infield

Cal Poly only lost one infielder from 2012 but it was a major loss in 1st team All-Big West SS Mike Miller, with a FR moving into the lineup to replace him.

C – JR #8 Chris Hoo (RH – .228/.297/.333, 1-14-0.  ’12 – .259/.342/.365, 2-23-0; ’11 – .203/.261/.250, 0-1-0 in 64 AB’s) split time behind the plate as a FR and was the full-time starter in 2012, earning 1st team All-Big West honors due to his outstanding defense.  He was only hitting .184 going into Fullerton series last season but hit the well the rest of the way and ended up hitting in the .270’s with 2 HR’s and 12 RBI in conference games.   Except for a hot start to the season when he went 6-11 with an HR and 8 RBI at USF, Hoo has struggled once again at the plate and has been platooning but has been starting at least twice a weekend in conference play while usually hitting 8th.  He went 4-12 with a key RBI single in the ninth inning in the third game of the series in 2012 at Fullerton and is 5-19 in his career against the Titans.

C – SR #5 Elliot Stewart (RH – .232/.349/.435, 3-9-1.  ’12 – Medical Redshirt.  ’11 – .252/.302/.391, 2-17-1) split time with Hoo in 2011 but missed last season after having TJ surgery on this throwing elbow.  He has been starting about once a week and has more power in his bat than Hoo does but isn’t quite as good behind the plate.

1B – FR #12 Mark Mathias (RH – .219 in 32 AB’s) only had six AB’s in the first 26 games of the season but has started the last seven games at 1B while hitting 7th.  He does a decent job of making contact and is a solid defensive player who started twice at SS earlier in the season.

1B/LF – JR #24 Tim Wise (RH – .190/.288/.270, 0-8-1. ’12 – .308/.394/.423, 3-28-11. ’11 –
.286/.305/.482, 2-11-0 in 56 AB’s) showed some power potential as a FR but his playing time was limited due to injuries.  He had over 100 plate appearances without an extra base hit to start 2012 and was only hitting .260 going into the Fullerton series but got red hot and had fourteen extra base hits over the last six weeks of the season and hit .356 in conference games on his way to earning 1st team All-Big West honors.  Wise did a good job of getting on base and was in the top ten in the conference in runs and has good speed for a big player and was also in the top ten in the Big West in SB’s.  He has been battling injuries all season and hasn’t gotten untracked, striking out about 25% of the time, and only had three AB’s in eight games before starting in a couple of games last weekend and will probably be a reserve this weekend.  Wise went 5-13 with two SB’s last season at Fullerton.

Other reserves who have seen playing time at 1B have been Soph #14 Jordan Brower (LH – .194 in 31 AB’s.  ’12 – .167 in 30 AB’s) and Soph #44 Tommy Pluschkell (RH – .273 in 22 AB’s.  ’12 –.264/.350/.297, 0-8-1), who got off to a very hot start when he was inserted into the lineup halfway through 2012 but cooled off and hasn’t been able to recapture that magic.

2B – SR #1 Denver Chavez (Both – .400/.468/.504, 0-14-11.  ’12 – .288/.429/.388, 1-10-8.   ’11 – .277/.379/.345, 1-13-2.  ’10 – .233 in 73 AB’s) was a reserve for most of 2010 until late in the season and was a reserve in the first few weeks on 2011 before getting regular playing time and had a very good 16/14 BB/K ratio and set the school record with a Big West leading 17 SAC bunts.  Chavez once again found himself on the bench at the beginning of 2012 but moved into the lineup halfway through the season and stayed there the rest of the way and hit .317 in conference games with a solid 12-12 BB/K ratio.  He has been in the lineup since opening day this season and has taken advantage of his playing time and been Cal Poly’s best player while hitting leadoff and setting the table for the lineup.  Chavez leads the Big West in runs and hits and is second in AVG and OBP and is also in the top ten in the conference in SLG, total bases and 2B’s and is in the top thirty nationally in AVG and hits.  He has maintained his plate discipline and has an excellent 12-9 BB/K ratio.  Chavez has also been running well and is third in the Big West in SB’s and has only been caught stealing once.  He went 3-6 at Fullerton last season and is 6-14 in his career against the Titans, with one of his two career HR’s coming against Fullerton.

SS – #6 FR Peter Van Gansen (LH – .300/.393/.350, 0-7-0) came into Cal Poly as a good prospect out of HS and had some big shoes to fill with Mike Miller moving on and he has done a good job both at the plate and in the field.  He has had excellent plate discipline for a FR with a 14/15 BB/K ratio.  Van Gansen is one of the better bunters on the team and leads the Big West with seven SAC’s.  He doesn’t have much power with four extra-base hits (3 doubles, 1 triple) and usually bats 9th.

3B – JR #15 Jimmy Allen (RH – .290/.340/.384, 1-25-4.  ’12 – .345/.372/.507, 3-44-9.  ’11 – .261/.307/.395, 1-15-2) is a good athlete who was drafted in the 39th round out of HS and ended up being the regular LF as a FR and was moved to 3B in 2012.  He got off to a slow start as a FR before hitting better down the stretch and hit .324 in Big West games.  Allen got off to a hot start in 2012 and stayed hot throughout the season and finished among the Big West leaders in H, 2B, 3B, RBI, TB and SLG and hit .388 in conference games on his way to earning 1st team All-Big West honors.  He also has good speed and finished 10th in the conference in SB’s.  Allen has good bat speed but he can tend to chase pitches and has struck out about 25% of the time and was among the conference leaders with 38 strikeouts in 2012 and has had bad plate discipline this season with a 4/22 BB/K ratio.  He has been having a decent year while hitting third but hasn’t had a breakout season like many people expected him to have.  Allen went 5-13 at Fullerton in 2012 and is 7-21 in his career against the Titans.

Outfield

Cal Poly only lost one outfielder from 2012 but the loss was a major one with Big West player of the year Mitch Haniger being drafted in the supplemental first round and moving on.

LF – Soph #26 Jordan Ellis (LH – .339/.373/.492, 0-11-1.  ’12 – .200 in 15 AB’s) barely played in 2012 and only had five AB’s in the first fifteen games but once he got his chance to contribute he hasn’t come out of the lineup.  He hit .438 in his first nine games after getting into the lineup but has been slumping lately and only went 2-20 over the next six games before going 3-4 on Tuesday.  Ellis went 9-20 in the first two conference series but only went 1-11 last weekend against Hawaii.  He will usually hit second.  FR #2 John Schuknecht (RH – .243/.356/.459, 2-6-0) was playing regularly earlier in the season but lost his job to Ellis and hasn’t started in the last ten games.

CF – JR #13 David Armendariz (RH – .264/.313/.355, 1-12-7.  ’12 – .312/.366/.450, 4-36-13.  ’11 – .161/.175/.290, 1-4-0 in 62 AB’s) was given the chance to play early as a FR but struggled to get going before being replaced by Allen and didn’t play once conference play rolled around.  He got off to a bit of a slow start in 2012 compared to most of his teammates and was only hitting .258 with five RBI after eighteen games but got hot the rest of the way and hit .351 with three HR’s and 23 RBI in conference games.  Armendariz has a good power/speed combo and ended up in the top ten in the conference in HR’s and SB’s as well as in TB and SLG on his way to getting 2nd team All-Big West honors.  He will usually hit sixth and is still running and is second on the team in SB’s but hasn’t been hitting for nearly as much power with part of his problems the result of a poor 5/20 BB/K ratio.  Armendariz only went 4-23 in the first two conference series and sat out the first two games against Hawaii before returning to the lineup and going 2-4.  He had a good series at Fullerton in 2012, going 5-14 with two doubles.

RF – Soph #10 Nick Torres (RH – .328/340/.552, 6-29-4.  ’12 – .275/.360/.429, 5-28-0) got off to a hot start as a FR and was hitting .315 with 2 HR’s and 18 RBI’s over the first 24 games but cooled off considerably once Big West games started and only hit .215 in conference games.  He got off to a hot start once again this season and had an 18 game hitting streak earlier in the year but has cooled off lately and is only hitting .219 in conference games.  Torres is the cleanup hitter, has been one of the leading power hitters in the Big West and is among the conference leaders in HR, RBI, SLG, total bases, hits and 2B’s.  He has issues with plate discipline and led the team in strikeouts as a FR and has a poor 2/17 BB/K ratio this season.  Torres only went 1-10 at Fullerton but in his all or nothing style, the one hit was a big one because it was a three run HR.

DH – FR # 16 Brian Mundell (RH – .287/.352/.528, 7-23-2) is a big man who came into Cal Poly as a pretty well regarded recruit due to his power potential.  He has delivered on that promise and is tied for the lead in the Big West in HR’s and fifth in SLG and is already second in school history for the most HR’s by a FR.  Mundell got off to a hot start and hit all of his HR’s in a ten game stretch in March but has been struggling lately and is only hitting .212 in conference games.  He is a big man with a big swing and is third in the conference with 27 strikeouts.  Mundell will be batting fifth.


Defense

Fielding % – .973 (6/49) with 34 errors.  2012 – .978 (1/15) with 60 errors.  Cal Poly’s defense improved in 2012 after being below average for several years but they have regressed some this season with some of their issues being masked by a high strikeout rate by the pitching staff.  Hoo is one of the best catchers in the Big West.  1B has been a revolving door with Mathias settling things down over the last two weeks.  Chavez and Van Gansen make all of the plays on balls that they get to but have average range.  Allen was much better at 3B in 2012 and has been below average.  All of the OF’s are average to below average for their positions.

Stolen Base Attempts – 23-45 (4/xx).  2012 – 35-64 (2/xx).  Runners were 40-70 against Hoo in his first two seasons and are only 8-16 this year.   If Stewart gets a start this weekend, runners are 15-24 against him.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 24 (2/xx).  2012 – 39 (3/xx).  Cal Poly’s catchers have done a very good job the last couple of seasons of not letting runners take extra bases and their pitchers have confidence in them to keep the ball in front of them on pitches in the dirt.


Pitching

• ERA – 3.12 (3/43).  3.48 in 2012 (4/55).
• AVG – .267 (3/125).  .270 in 2012 (6/107).
• HR – 6 (2/xx).  15 HR in 2012 (3/xx).
• Walks – 102 (5/54), 3.1 BB/9 IP.  155 (3/27), 2.8 BB/9 IP in 2012.
• HBP – 25 (4/xx).  30 in 2012 (2/xx).
• OBP – .339 (5/xx).  .335 in 2012 (4/xx).
• SLG – .342 (3/xx).  .341 in 2012 (6/xx).
• WHIP – 1.35 (5/92). 1.33 in 2012 (5/60).
• Strikeouts – 298 (1/6), 9.0 K/9 IP.  369 (3/132), 6.7 K/9 IP in 2012.

Starters

Cal Poly had two starters who earned All-Big West honors in 2012 and lost one of them, LHP Kyle Anderson, and the Sunday SP spot was plagued by inconsistency.  The Mustangs have been getting solid starts in almost every game this season with one of the middle relievers and the midweek starter taking their turn in the weekend rotation.

SR #30 Joey Wagman (RHP – 7-2, 2.95 ERA, 9 GS, 2 CG, 61 IP, 54 H, 17 BB, 72 K, .234 AVG, 0 HR, 4 HBP, 3 WP, 1-4 SB.  ’12 – 9-3, 2.33 ERA, 15 GS, 1 CG, 108 IP, 94 H, 21 BB, 79 K, .234 AVG, 2 HR, 5 HBP, 6 WP, 3-9 SB.  ’11 – 4-3, 3.62 ERA, 1 save, 17 apps, 7 GS, 65 IP, 54 H, 17 BB, 52 K, .228 AVG, 3 HR, 7 HBP, 5 WP, 3-6 SB.  ’10 – 1-2, 7.09 ERA, 12 apps, 5 starts, 33 IP, 45 H, 24 BB, 25 K, .328 AVG, 2 HR, 6 HBP, 7 WP, 3-5 SB) was a swingman in 2011 between midweek starter and middle reliever and he made a couple of weekend starts in Big West games.  He was moved into the Friday SP last season and thrived, finishing third in the conference in wins and ERA, second in IP and fifth in K’s and allowed two earned runs or less in ten of his starts and allowed only two earned runs in his last three starts and was 1st team All-Big West.  Wagman has gotten off to a strong start again this season and leads the conference in strikeouts and is #9 nationally despite not being a hard thrower with a fastball that sits in the 86-87 range along with an excellent changeup that he throws to freeze hitters, a curveball and a slider.  He is second in the conference and #8 nationally in wins, third in IP and eighth in AVG.  Wagman is especially tough to beat at home, where he is 5-0 in five starts with a 1.95 ERA with 45 strikeouts in 37 innings.  He usually has excellent control with two walks or less in seven of his nine starts, which allows him to pitch deep into games.  Wagman has had at least seven strikeouts in seven of his starts.  He is also very tough to run on and has only allowed 10-24 SB’s in his career.  Wagman allowed 5 R (3 ER) in 4 IP in two career relief appearances against Fullerton in 2010-2011 and lost his start at Fullerton in 2012 when he allowed 5 R (4 ER) on 7 H in 5 IP so he will be extra motivated against the Titans in the last time that he will face them.

Soph #48 Matt Imhof (LHP – 4-1, 1.51 ERA, 9 GS, 60 IP, 56 H, 17 BB, 57 K, .256 AVG, 2 HR, 12 HBP, 3 WP, 4-9 SB.  ’12 – 1-0, 3.04 ERA, 1 save, 17 apps, 4 GS, 47 IP, 37 H, 22 BB, 31 K, .222 AVG, 3 HR, 7 HBP, 1 WP, 7-9 SB) made some weekend starts as a FR when Cal Poly had four game weekends but ended up pitching out of the bullpen the rest of the time.  He was tough to hit but had some occasional command issues but he has straightened them out while working relief and has the most upside at the next level of the three starters.  Imhof has been doing a good job of spotting his fastball that sits in the 88-90 range and has a very good breaking slider that he uses as his swing and miss pitch and he is second in the Big West in strikeouts and he has struck out 11 hitters twice, including last weekend against Hawaii.  He has allowed either one or no earned runs in six of his starts, hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in any of his starts and is second in the conference in ERA and has been especially tough at home, where he is 2-0 with a 0.30 ERA in four starts.  Imhof works inside to keep hitters off of the plate and leads the Big West with 12 HBP’s despite having solid control and not walking more than three batters in any of his starts.  He is doing a better job of holding runners this year, has an excellent move to first and leads the conference with five pickoffs.  Imhof threw very well in his relief appearance at Fullerton in 2012, holding the Titans to one run in 4 1/3 innings to keep Cal Poly in the Sunday game before Fullerton came back late to win the game and the series.

Soph #23 Ryan Granger (RHP – 5-3, 4.47 ERA, 9 GS, 44 IP, 50 H, 15 BB, 22 K, .299 AVG, 2 HR, 4 HBP, 4 WP, 5-10 SB.  ’12 – 1-1, 3.60 ERA, 8 GS, 30 IP, 34 H, 10 BB, 19 K, .293 AVG, 1 HR, 4 HBP, 2 WP, 2-4 SB) was the midweek starter in 2012 and ended up in the weekend rotation for his final two starts and threw six shutout innings at Riverside in the final game of the season.  He threw well in winning his first three starts, allowing 5 R (3 ER) in 19 IP against USF, Seattle and Washington, before scuffling and allowing five runs in each of his next two starts against Kansas State and Notre Dame.  He bounced back in his next three starts to pick up two wins against UCSB, allowing 3 R in 11 1/3 IP, and a no decision in 5 IP (2 R) against UC Davis but didn’t have it last weekend when he allowed 4 R on 7 H in 1 2/3 IP against Hawaii.  Granger isn’t a hard thrower with a fastball that sits in the upper 80’s and his best pitch is his slider and he has only struck out more than three hitters in one of his starts.

The midweek starters are FR #37 Casey Bloomquist (RH – 1-0, 6.94 ERA, 3 apps, 2 GS, 12 IP, 14 H, 4 BB, 13 K, .304 AVG) and SR #42 Kyle Brueggemann (RHP – 1-0, 6.35 ERA, 4 GS, 17 IP, 22 H, 5 BB, 16 K, .314 AVG.  ’12 – 4-4, 5.49 ERA, 13 GS, 57 IP, 76 H, 16 BB, 44 K, .315 BA, 2 HR, 5 HBP, 3 WP, 4-8 SB), who was the Sunday starter in 2012.  Bloomquist has thrown well in his last two starts against Bakersfield and Santa Clara, allowing two runs in each start and giving the Cal Poly coaching staff something to think about if they decide to take Granger out of the weekend rotation after his abbreviated start last Sunday.  Brueggemann has a good arm but was too inconsistent in 2012 due to not having much more than a solid fastball so when he was off he had no other pitches to fall back on.  He only made it into the 4th in his start at Fullerton in 2012 before being removed.

Relievers

The relief pitching was a strong area for Cal Poly in 2011 but that wasn’t the case for most of 2012 despite having a couple of pitchers with mid 90’s fastballs because the bullpen was responsible for losing ten games in the late innings that the Mustangs either were tied or had the lead in and the bullpen was probably the main reason that Cal Poly wasn’t in a regional last season.  The situation improved once the two flamethrowers were taken out of the set-up and closer roles and a couple of FR were moved into those spots with the Mustangs winning nine of their last ten games and going 14-3 down the stretch.  Cal Poly doesn’t have much depth in their bullpen and is relying primarily on two pitchers late in games.

Soph #41 Reed Reilly (RHP – 2-1, 1.83 ERA, 9 saves, 21 apps, 39 IP, 35 H, 11 BB, 50 K, .245 AVG, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 3 WP, 3-5 SB.  ’12 – 5-2, 2.80 ERA, 1 save, 25 apps, 55 IP, 57 H, 13 BB, 45 K, .288 AVG, 3 HR, 5 HBP, 3 WP, 5-10 SB.  ’11 – Redshirt) was the most reliable option in middle relief as a FR and moved into the closer’s role midway through the conference season as the other closer options faltered and he pitched very well down the stretch with a 1.61 ERA in twelve Big West games.  He was a workhorse who finished fifth in the conference in appearances and was 2nd team All Big-West.  Reilly has been even better this season and has allowed an earned run in only four of his conference leading 21 appearances and is second in the Big West with nine saves.  He is durable and able to pitch several innings without much of a problem and has pitched more than an inning in eleven of his appearances and has gone at least three innings six times.  Reilly throws in the low 90’s and has been getting great movement on his splitter and slider that he uses as his swing and miss pitches and he is 10th nationally averaging 11.4 K’s per 9 IP and has struck out at least two hitters twelve times.  He had an outstanding outing at Fullerton in 2012 when he picked up Cal Poly’s only win in the series with four scoreless innings in which he allowed only one hit.

JR #36 Michael Holback (RHP – 2-1, 3.86 ERA, 1 save, 13 apps, 28 IP, 30 H, 11 BB, 35 K, .275 AVG, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 3 WP, 2-4 SB.  ’12 – 0-2, 2.60 ERA, 1 save, 19 apps, 28 IP, 22 H, 13 BB, 25 K, .224 AVG, 1 HR, 1 HBP, 5 WP, 2-4 SB) is the middle reliever most likely to come into a game before Reilly is brought in and also throws in the low 90’s with a slider that he uses as his swing and miss pitch and has been getting hitters to do that quite a bit, averaging 11.3 K’s per 9 IP.  Holback hasn’t been quite as consistent as he was in 2012 and after getting off to a good start when he allowed only two runs in 17 IP, he was hit hard in his next three outings and allowed ten runs in four innings.  He bounced back last weekend against Hawaii and kept Cal Poly in the game on Sunday with five scoreless innings, allowing only two hits with six strikeouts.

Others

JR #32 Chase Johnson (RHP – 0-0, 4.35 ERA, 7 apps, 10 IP, 12 H, 5 BB, 13 K, .308 AVG.  ’12 – 3-4, 3.34 ERA, 8 saves, 25 apps, 35 IP, 29 H, 13 BB, 31 K, .244 AVG, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 2 WP, 3-4 SB.  ’11 – 2-5, 3.67 ERA, 18 apps, 8 GS, 49 IP, 49 H, 21 BB, 34 K, .269 AVG, 1 HR, 6 HBP, 2 WP, 2-5 SB) was a 26th round pick out of HS because of his live arm and has a fastball that sits in the mid 90’s range and a slider that he uses as his strikeout pitch.  He had issues with his control as a FR and those continued last season when he started out as the closer, finishing third in the Big West in saves, but lost his job during the conference season.  He hasn’t regained his confidence nor have the coaches regained their confidence in him and he has been limited to mostly pitching in long relief and non-pressure situations.

Soph #27 Taylor Chris (LHP – 0-0, 5.40 ERA, 1 save, 10 apps, 10 IP, 7 H, 9 BB, 8 K, .219 AVG) is the only LHP in the bullpen and might come into the game for a batter or two this weekend but the coaching staff usually doesn’t rely on him to come into the game in high pressure situations, preferring to have him pitch in midweek games and long relief.

Soph #35 Danny Zandona (RHP – 2-1, 2.08 ERA, 6 apps, 13 IP, 12 H, 5 BB, 11 K, .250 AVG.  ’12 – 0-1, 4.85 ERA, 1 save, 7 apps, 1 GS, 13 IP, 13 H, 3 BB, 8 K, .250 AVG) is the other long reliever on the pitching staff and usually doesn’t come into the game in a high pressure situation, although he has usually  thrown well when called upon and struck out four of the five Santa Clara batters he faced on Tuesday.


Outlook

Fullerton has been one of the more consistent teams on the west coast, which you have to be in order to put together three separate ten game winning streaks in the same season.  The Titans might occasionally have trouble scoring in a game but they will battle and stay patient with their approach at the plate and with the outstanding starting pitching they have been receiving that has been enough to win all nine series they have played with sweeps in six of them.  That approach has also lent itself well to playing on the road, where Fullerton has the best record in the country away from home at 17-1.

Cal Poly traditionally plays very well at home and has their issues on the road and this year is no exception.  The Mustangs have gone 98-57 in SLO since 2008 but are only 64-83 away from home over the last six seasons.  Fullerton has also had their issues playing at Baggett Stadium in recent times with Cal Poly winning two of the last three series the teams have played on the central coast.

Both teams have the potential to be explosive on offense because they lead the conference in HR’s and SLG percentage.  Fullerton prefers to grind pitchers down by working counts and getting the key hit while Cal Poly prefers to be aggressive early in counts and jump on mistakes.  The team whose approach works best will go a long way towards determining who wins this series.

Runs figure to be tough to come by in the first two games with the way the starting pitchers for both teams are throwing and the four starters have combined to go 25-4.  Cal Poly has an element that Fullerton doesn’t have with a closer that they don’t mind going to for 2-3 innings but the Titans have a much deeper bullpen.  If Fullerton is able to get into Cal Poly’s bullpen early in the series they will have an advantage.  The Titans also have an advantage in the pitching matchup on Sunday.

This is the biggest series that Cal Poly has played in several years where they knew what was at stake in the series (nobody knew last season that the Big West title would be decided in that series) going back to 2009, the only time in their last three visits to SLO that Fullerton won a series up there.  It will be interesting to see how the Mustangs handle the pressure of playing in a big series.  Fullerton is used to playing on the road and used to playing in tough environments and tough situations.  This figures to be a closely fought series like the one at Goodwin Field was last season but Fullerton looks like they are a slightly better team and will find a way to narrowly escape SLO with a series win.

Titans' Roll Ends After Another Perfect Ten

UCSB at Titans: Won 4-3 (Friday), Won 10-2 (Saturday), Lost 2-0 (Sunday)

Titans at Pepperdine: Won 8-4 (Tuesday)

By Don Hudson

(Author’s apology: forgive the tardiness of this posting, as I was preoccupied Monday with tax return preparation and the horrible news coming from Boston.  As a native New Englander, my heart goes out for all those affected by this senseless act of violence, but there is no heartier and more resilient group of people better capable of getting up and going on.)

The Cal State Fullerton Titans maintained their #4 Baseball America ranking with a 3-1 record last week, including winning two-of-three from the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos after previously winning a home midweek game against the USC Trojans.  The Titans won the first two games of the series against UCSB but were handed their first Big West Conference defeat on Sunday, which also ended the team’s third ten-game winning streak of the season.

The Titans quickly bounced back with a win on Tuesday at picturesque Eddy D. Field, defeating the Pepperdine Waves, 8-4.

We’ll recap the UCSB series first and then touch upon the game Tuesday in Malibu.


Game 1: Titans 4, UCSB Gauchos 3

This was one of those weird, wild games you’ll remember for a long time – it was nerve-wracking, riveting, frustrating, exhilarating and thoroughly entertaining.  The Titans made not one but two comebacks in the late innings and won on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Richy Pedroza in the bottom of the ninth in a game that included some strange things you rarely – if ever – see at a baseball game.  It was the type of game where the believers were looking skyward to thank an angel wearing number 56 for looking over us, while the non-believers were reconsidering their position.

Eshelman comes so close ...

The game was a beautiful pitching duel featuring the Titans’ freshman Thomas Eshelman against the Gauchos’ Austin Pettibone, both right-handers.  There was added interest with Eshelman entering the game with 58 innings pitched without allowing a walk, with Wes Roemer’s team record of 65-1/3 innings in sight.

The first thing you rarely see – Eshelman allowed a run in the first inning, albeit on a pair of softly served singles by UCSB’s Cameron Newell and Brandon Trinkwon, followed by an RBI groundout.

Pettibone pitched effectively and kept the Titans off the board, although he had to shut the door with runners on base.  Pettibone escaped harm in the first inning after consecutive two-out hits by J.D. Davis and Michael Lorenzen.  He was aided in the third inning by a relapse of the Titans’ recent sloppy base-running, which left Fullerton scoreless despite three hits in the frame.  Austin Kingsolver led off with an infield single, but was picked off.  Pedroza singled and went to second on an infield hit by Carlos Lopez.  Second-baseman Woody Woodward demonstrated great range in fielding the ball, which may have surprised the Titans, as Pedroza attempted to get to third and was easily gunned down.

With the Gauchos clinging to a narrow 1-0 lead after five innings and Eshelman inching closer to Roemer’s record, he retired the leadoff man in the top of the sixth to bring up Trinkwon, who is an excellent hitter.  Eshelman fell behind, worked back to a full count and then threw ball four high and outside – something Titans fans had never seen before.  While sorry to see the streak ended, I think there was a collective sigh of relief.  I was glad of two things: he walked a very good hitter, rather than give in to extend a personal record, and the pitch was not borderline.  The worst thing would have been to walk a weak hitter in a blowout on a borderline pitch – this was a “no doubt about it” walk.

The Titans had Pettibone on the ropes in the bottom of the sixth when the pitcher walked Davis and hit Lorenzen with a pitch, but his wildness was momentary when he induced Chad Wallach, whose brother was behind the backstop watching the game with the legendary Tommy Lasorda, to hit into an inning-ending double-play.

What happened the next couple innings was really crazy.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Anthony Hutting slammed his second line-drive single of the game into right-field.  Matt Chapman came to the plate, scuffling in a recent hitting slump.  Chappy hit a hard groundball towards shortstop - an almost certain double-play.  But something you rarely see at Goodwin Field happened – the ball hit the lip of the infield and jumped way over the head of the helpless Trinkwon.  Austin Diemer, pinch-running for Hutting, easily reached third-base and Chapman advanced to second when the left-fielder misplayed the ball.

With the speedy and adept bat-handling Kingsolver coming up with the tying run at third and one out, the UCSB infield played in and was on high alert for a possible squeeze play.  With two strikes on him, Kingsolver got a piece of several pitches and just barely fouled them off to stay alive.  Even with a two-strike count, the infield played in.

Cracked Wiffle Ball

Kingsolver then hit a ball like I’d never seen before – he took a full cut and lifted a soft, spinning looper that found a safe haven on the grass between the mound and first-base.  It wasn’t high enough to call it a “pop-up” and too soft to call it a “line drive.  If it was billiards, it would have been a miscue; if golf, you’d request a Mulligan.  The closest thing I’ve ever seen to it is when you hit a cracked Wiffle Ball ® that thuds to the ground and doesn’t roll.

Diemer scored on Kingsolver’s perfectly placed single and Chapman went to third, the potential go-ahead run.  Pettibone might have escaped with no additional damage when he got Pedroza to hit a grounder to second-base for what appeared a likely double-play, the first-baseman was unable to catch the relay throw, allowing Pedroza to reach base and Chapman to score, giving the Titans a stunning 2-1 lead.

Now staked with a one-run lead, Eshelman was tough in the eighth inning, setting down the first two hitters before allowing a single to Woodward.  But he retired his nemesis, Trinkwon, and looked likely to post his eighth win of the year.

That’s around the time something else happened that I had never seen before: the Gauchos’ closer, Dylan Hecht, went down to the ground in the bullpen area like a sack of potatoes dropped off the tailgate at the farmer’s market.  He was prone for what appeared a few minutes before the dugout realized they had an issue and the trainer raced down to aid him.  I understand he was hit in the head by a throw from a bullpen catcher.

The Titans finally chased Pettibone in the bottom of the eighth.  Lorenzen singled and went to second on a fielder’s choice, prompting UCSB coach Andrew Checketts to summon lefty reliever Greg Mahle to face left-handed-hitting Keegan Dale, a late-game defensive replacement.  Lorenzen advanced to third on a passed ball, but Mahle worked out of the jam with a strikeout.

Lorenzen quickly shifted gears from base-runner to closer, moving to the mound to protect the 2-1 lead.  The first batter he faced hit the ball hard, but a line-drive to leftfield stayed up and was caught by Diemer.  Tyler Kuresa turned on a fastball and lined a sharp single into rightfield.  Luke Swenson then ripped a game-tying triple to rightfield.  Tied 2-2, Lorenzen quickly got ahead of hitter Jackson Morrow with two strikes, but then Morrow rewarded Coach Checketts’ gutsy confidence when they perfectly executed a suicide squeeze on a 96 mph 0-2 pitch.

The crowd was shocked, but the dugout was calm and confident.

Clinging to a slim 3-2 lead and two right-handed batters coming up for the Titans, Checketts eschewed the use of his closer and stayed with Mahle.  Diemer led off with a beautiful bunt single, which prompted Checketts to bring in the perhaps-still-dazed Hecht.

Do you have Chapman bunt the runner to second?  Do you have Diemer attempt a steal and then bunt him to third?  It was moot, as Hecht couldn’t find the plate – literally, perhaps – and Chapman walked on four pitches way out of the strike zone.

Kingsolver went up trying to bunt both runners into scoring position, but Hecht still couldn’t find the strike zone and ran the count to 3-0 before he was removed and replaced by Jared Wilson, who walked Kingsolver to load the bases.

With Pedroza batting, the infield played in: even with the speedy Diemer on third, it’s tough to squeeze when there is a force-out at home and the infield is in.  But Wilson uncorked a wild pitch that tied the game and sent Chapman to third-base as the potential winning run with nobody out.

Pedroza, who had the huge two-run single the previous weekend to win the Saturday game at UC Davis, delivered with a deep flyball that allowed Chapman to easily score the winning run.  The Titans rushed from the dugout and bullpen and swarmed Pedroza – it was a celebration worthy of such a crazy and thrilling walk-off win.

Eshelman had another strong outing, pitching eight innings and allowing just five singles and one walk with his seven (Klondike) strikeouts.  Lorenzen suffered his first blown save after 16 consecutive converted going back to 2012, but was the winning pitcher.  The Titans had twelve hits, led by Lopez, Lorenzen, Hutting and Kingsolver with two each.


Game 2: Titans 10, UCSB Gauchos 2

After Friday’s tense victory, the Titans extended their winning streak to ten games Saturday night with a much more relaxed, uneventful win over the Gauchos on the strength of a sixteen-hit attack that included hits by every starter.  It was the third time this season the Titans had posted ten straight wins.

Garza dominant

Justin Garza, the beneficiary of the offensive outburst and the game’s winning pitcher, got a couple breaks right away – the Gauchos’ “hangover,” as Coach Checketts later described it, included some carryover bad luck from the night before.  Newell led off by smoking a line-drive headed toward the gap in left-centerfield, but Lorenzen came out of nowhere and made a spectacular diving grab to rob him of an extra-base hit.  A subsequent line-drive that appeared to hit turf just inside the foul line was ruled foul.  It was a deflating 1-2-3 inning for the Gauchos, and the Titans wasted no time stepping on their esophagus.

Pedroza led off with a single and moved to third on a double by Lopez that placed pitcher Justin Jacome in quick jeopardy.  Davis hit a high-hopper up the middle that was backhanded by Woodward to prevent it going through for two runs, but it was an infield single that drove in Pedroza to make it 1-0.  After Lorenzen was hit by pitch to load the bases, Wallach and Chapman delivered sacrifice flies to make it 3-0.  Chapman crushed the ball and was robbed on a great grab by UCSB right-fielder Swenson.

The Gauchos didn’t roll over, opening the second inning with a double and single before Garza induced a run-scoring double-play ball that made it 3-1.  But the Titans quickly counter-punched with a run of its own in the bottom of the second on a triple by Diemer and RBI single by Pedroza.

The Titans finally knocked Jacome out of the game when Jake Jefferies doubled and Greg Velazquez singled to open the fourth inning.  Jefferies remained at second, uncertain whether or not the ball hit by Velazquez would fall in.

After a pair of failed bunt attempts, Diemer nicely hit the ball to the right side of the infield, advancing both runners.  A sacrifice fly by Pedroza drove in Jefferies, followed by an RBI single by Lopez and RBI triple by Davis.

While the Gauchos made good contact against Garza, he did what you want from a pitcher with a five-run lead: he threw strikes and helped himself defensively.  He and Lopez combined on a couple athletic 3-1 plays and Garza also helped himself in the fifth inning by snaring a hard-hit line-drive up the middle and turning it into a double-play.  While Garza was 25-1 in his pitching career with the Bonita Bearcats, he was also a skilled shortstop when not pitching.  He has the hands and reflexes of an infielder – and it must have been a treat to watch him throw from deep in the shortstop hole with that hose.

Wallach led off the bottom of the fifth with his first home run of the season.  The Titans extended their lead to 9-1 when Chapman followed with a double and scored on an RBI single by Diemer.

Woodward hit a home run into the left-field screen in the sixth to make it 9-2, but Chapman responded in the bottom of the eighth with his first home run of the season to make it 10-2.

Tyler Peitzmeier pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning for the Titans.  Dave Birosak made his second appearance of the season and faced three right-handed pinch-hitters in the ninth inning.  He allowed a leadoff hit, but finished it off with a flyball and a double-play.

Garza (7-0, 2.36) was the winning pitcher, recording nine strikeouts in seven innings while walking none and giving up five hits.  Lopez and Diemer led with three hits each, while Pedroza, Davis and Chapman had two apiece.


Game 3: UCSB Gauchos 2,  Titans 0

This game was hard to predict.  With the momentum of a ten-game winning streak, a huge comeback win on Friday and a blowout win on Saturday, the Titans might have come out overconfident against a Gauchos team that had “TBD” pitching on Sunday.  The Gauchos had been struggling to find a “Sunday starter”, having lost its last four series finales.

Coach Checketts went with freshman right-hander Robby Nesovic, a hard thrower with a record of 0-1 and ERA of 7.30.  Between the call for a suicide squeeze on an 0-2 count Friday night against Lorenzen and the decision to start Nesovic in the finale, you can’t help but be struck by how much better the Gauchos’ program has become since “Brontosaurus Bob” Brontsema was relieved of coaching duties following the 2011 season.

After the Titans’ Grahamm Wiest and Nesovic swapped zeros in the first inning, the Gauchos broke through on a controversial call.  Nesovic struck out leading off the inning, but reached base by wild pitch when the ball got past Wallach.

Kuresa then hit a ball deep towards the fence in right-centerfield.  The ball appeared to bounce off the orange stripe at the top of the fence, which would make it a live ball in play.  But first-base umpire Dan Ignosci emphatically waved his finger in a circular motion, indicating it was a home run.  The batter went into his home run trot when seeing the signal, but Nesovic continued running the bases and was thrown out at the plate – home umpire Johnny Pineda gave a great windmill “You’re out!” signal when Wallach tagged Nesovic.

Coach Vanderhook argued that the ball had stayed in the park – it pretty clearly had – and convinced Ignosci to confer with his crewmates.  After a lengthy conference, you knew there would be a reversal when they went over to talk to Checketts.

They actually made a “common sense” ruling: Ignosci had erred in indicating it was a home run, but you couldn’t call the runner out on the bases after an umpire had already indicated it was okay to trot.  They treated the home run indication similar to the inadvertent whistle in football – they put runners on second and third with nobody out.  I’m not sure it was treated exactly by the rules, but I was impressed by the common sense nature of the outcome.

Instead of trailing 2-0 – as had already been put up on the scoreboard – it felt like the Titans were playing with house money when Wiest got out of the inning with just one of the runners scoring.

Wiest had a brief control spasm in the fifth inning and allowed a second run.  After hitting the first batter and allowing a single, Wiest drew Lopez off the bag on a throw to first on a sacrifice bunt.  A double-play scored the run but minimized the damage.

The Titans continued to threaten, mostly on walks (seven in the game) and HBP (two).  There were several frustrating situations, such as the fifth inning when they left the bases loaded, but most of the opportunities came with two out and the Titans just couldn’t deliver those clutch two-out RBI hits that has been their trademark this season.

Give credit also to the Gauchos defense: they made a couple of outstanding plays, especially in the infield.  Second-baseman Woodward robbed Kingsolver of a base-hit with a diving stop to his left, while third-baseman Ryan Clark made the game-deciding play in the bottom of the sixth.

Davis led off the inning with a single and Wallach was hit by pitch with two outs.  Chapman then smoked a ball down the third-base line, heading towards the leftfield corner for a game-tying double.  But Ryan made an incredible backhand diving play and made a strong throw to retire Chapman and help Nesovic out of the inning.

Checketts told the Santa Barbara newspaper, “They were going to score one on that, maybe two. (The ball) was going to rattle around in the (left-field) corner and they probably were going to score two and it would have been a tie ballgame.

"I had a pretty good vantage point (from the first base dugout) looking down the line, and he came out of nowhere. He really looked like Superman because that ball looked like it was by him. He almost had to dive backwards."

Frustration returned in the bottom of the seventh as the Titans once again left the bases loaded.  Mahle came in to relieve Nesovic with two outs and one runner on.  Things looked promising when Lopez and Davis walked to bring Lorenzen to the plate with the bases loaded – classic case of “right man, right spot.”  But Mahle settled down and got Lorenzen to pop out to end the threat.

Lefty relievers Mahle and Tyler Peitzmeier swapped zeros the final two innings and the Titans were shut out, 2-0.

It was a strange game when a pitching staff walks seven games and throws a shutout against a good team on the road, but Gauchos pitchers held the Titans to just four hits: two by Davis and one each by Wallach and Dale.

It was a tough loss for Wiest (now 6-2, 2.70), who allowed just two runs and four hits in seven innings.  Peitzmeier continued with his dominating performances, retiring all six batters he faced.


Tuesday Game:  Titans  8,  Pepperdine Waves  4

MALIBU - In a designated staff game that featured twelve pitchers (seven Titans and five Waves), the Titans were outhit (10-7) but came out with the big hits and key defensive plays when they were needed most and they broke their losing streak at one game. (Whew!  I’m glad that’s over!)

Kennedy tags out runner at plate

The Waves squandered a golden opportunity to take an early lead when their first four batters reached base against Davis on two hits and two walks but came up empty-handed.  Leadoff man Hutton Moyer drove the first pitch he saw up the middle for a base hit, but Davis picked him off for the first out.  After two consecutive walks, cleanup hitter Sam Meyer lined a sharp single to centerfield, where Lorenzen was playing shallow and fielded it on one hop.  The third-base coach waved the runner in and Lorenzen threw a strike to catcher A.J. Kennedy, who applied the tag.

The Titans made the Waves pay with three runs in the second, two of them unearned.  Davis walked, Jefferies singled and Velazquez followed with an RBI double.  Diemer reached on an error, with Jefferies scoring.  Kennedy delivered the third run with an RBI groundout.

Freshman lefthander Bryan Conant pitched flawlessly in the second and third innings.  He retired all six batters he faced in earning the win, striking out three.

Velazquez continued his breakout day, leading off the fourth inning with his first home run of the year to extend the lead to 4-0.

Pepperdine’s Bryan Langlois matched the home run with one of his own in the bottom of the inning off Jose Cardona to cut the lead to 4-1.

The Titans got into the Pepperdine bullpen in the top of the fifth.  Chapman hit a one-out triple deep to centerfield and scored on a sacrifice fly by Lorenzen.  Davis was then hit by pitch, went to second when Jefferies reached on error and scored on an RBI single by Velazquez.

Leading 6-1, Titans’ reliever Willie Kuhl committed the cardinal sin: he walked the leadoff man on four pitches.  After striking out the next hitter, the Waves got back within striking distance when they touched up Kuhl for a double, an RBI single and a hit batsman that brought the tying run to the plate.

Moyer smashed the ball down the third-base line, where Chapman made a diving backhand play to knock it down and prevent a bases-clearing double.  Chapman recovered quickly, tagged third for the force-out and fired across to Lopez, who “deked” Moyer into jogging by acting as though the ball had gone into the outfield and there would be no play at first.  The fans were pretty upset with Moyer for not running harder and they let him know about it.

Kuhl took the 6-2 lead to the bottom of the sixth and was replaced by Birosak after walking the leadoff batter for the second straight inning.  Chris Amezquita, who had walked, scored from first when Aaron Brown’s routine single was misplayed by Velazquez in rightfield.  Brown scored on a sacrifice fly off reliever Michael Lopez to cut the lead to 6-4.

But if you’ve been following the Titans this season, who know what happened next: they came right back with two runs of their own.  Davis and Jefferies singled to begin the seventh inning, which brought up Velazquez, just a triple short of a cycle.  But this is a team game and the situation called for a bunt, which pinch-hitter Kingsolver successfully delivered.

The two runners Kingsolver bunted along both scored: Davis on a wild pitch and Dale (pinch-running for Jefferies) on a passed ball.  (Pepperdine coach Steve Rodriguez was demonstrably unhappy with his catcher, Kolten Yamaguchi, who leads the Waves in batting.  After the wild pitch, passed ball and a pitch that hurt the umpire when the catcher missed it, Rodriguez yanked his catcher with a 3-0 count on the batter.)

Conant earns first win

The Waves continued to battle, getting a double and single to bring Koby Gauna in from the Fullerton bullpen with one out in the seventh inning.  Gauna was nails – as he has been every game he pitches out of the bullpen – and struck out the first batter he faced and escaped harm with a groundout.
Gauna finished it out in style, retiring all eight batters he faced to earn his second save of 2013.  (It was a save situation because the tying run was on deck when he entered the game.)

While Conant and Gauna were the mound stars, Velazquez was the offensive standout with three hits, a double, home run and three RBI.  Jefferies was the only other Titan with multiple hits (two).

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So what have we learned recently?

We learned how spoiled we are by the Titans’ consistent success.  After the loss on Sunday to UCSB, a couple distraught Titans fans were licking their wounds with laments that “Every time we win ten games in a row this season, we always lose the next game.”  When I heard that, my response sounded like Kyle Broflovski’s mother:  “WHAT! WHAT! WHAT?”

To most teams, a ten-game winning streak is something you’ll be celebrating far into the future – it will be the big topic at your post-season banquet.  Hell, I’m still celebrating the ten-game winning streak the Red Sox had in July 1967 that got them back into the pennant race during their “Impossible Dream” season.

Two ten-game streaks in the same season?  Highly unlikely.  But three?  Poor pitiful us – our team could never deliver that elusive eleventh win during their hot streaks.

Sidebar with my old Conimicut School friend Ralph: this week’s news from Boston, along with thoughts of the ’67 season, made me think of the Ken Coleman narrative on the “Impossible Dream” album.

See how well you know your “Don” trivia: can you name my all-time favorite ballplayer, who is referenced in that narrative.  (Answer next week.)

I really hope the placement of the visitors’ bullpen in foul territory in the right-field corner is temporary.  We’ve already seen more inside-the-park home runs hit down into that bullpen than I recall seeing at Goodwin Field the previous ten years.  There had to be at least a dozen balls escape past the Gauchos’ bullpen catchers over the weekend, some resulting in last-moment time-out calls in the game and others in just simple annoyances.

Congratulations to Coach Rick Vanderhook, who signed a contract extension through the 2018 season.  It is well deserved.  After a challenging year in 2012 assuming head coaching duties for the first time and dealing with the inherent difficulties of a coaching staff transition, Vanderhook has his team very focused and in a great place.  Every button he has pushed this season has worked almost flawlessly, and his staff works extremely well together.  I wrote recently that “the Titans might get behind but they don’t get down” – there is a direct correlation between leadership and how this team has become a prolific “counter-puncher.”

Congratulations also to Eshelman and Lorenzen for being named to the College Baseball Hall of Fame 2013 Pitcher of the Year Watch List.

Kudos and best wishes also to Matt Brown, named recently as Director of Photography for the Los Angeles Angels.  His work is amazing – Matt’s photos and videos have greatly enhanced the experience of being a fan of the Titans and numerous local teams.  He is extraordinarily creative and has a very insightful and imaginative insight into the people and situations that make sports so compelling.  It was great to see him yesterday at the Pepperdine game in Malibu – I’m glad as a fan that he will continue to bring us great images of the Titans’ game as often as his busy schedule permits.

The “bright spot” of Eshelman allowing a walk last Friday: he is now eligible for inclusion in the “strikeouts to walks” ratio rankings.  The baseball purist in me found it puzzling that “47 strikeouts to 5 walks” (which is also quite impressive) somehow was ranked, while “39 strikeouts to 0 walks” was absent from the rankings.

But the engineer in me would have found it opprobrious had they expressed something as a “ratio” with a zero denominator.  Through the beauty of mathematics, a ratio of “1 strikeout to 0 walks” is the same as “100 strikeouts to 0 walks” – both equal infinity and are therefore illogical concepts.
I have a lot of issues.

As happens so often in baseball, Chapman’s “lucky hop” in the UCSB opener may have been just what he needed to get out of his funk.  Since the hit that bounced off the lip of the infield, he has had mostly quality at-bats and worked his way up to third in the batting order against Pepperdine after hitting eighth on Friday.

The paltry four-hit team output on Sunday depressed the batting averages, but there were nevertheless a few standout performances against UCSB, led by Diemer’s 4-for-6 (.667), Davis’ 5-for-10 (.500) and Lopez’ 5-for-12 (.412).

Velazquez clubs first homer

With Saturday’s home runs by Wallach and Chapman and Tuesday’s by Velazquez, the team now has ten different players that have connected for a round-tripper.  Last season, just five players (Davis, Lorenzen, Chapman, Hutting and Lopez) combined for 10 home runs in 57 games, while this year’s team has 22 bombs through 37 games.  From here to the finish line, it would be nice to see a few of the players currently with one home run get up to three or four – but with continued balance up and down the line-up.  We don’t need a lot of power productivity in the leadoff and bottom-of-the-order slots in the batting order, but I would expect to see a couple more bombs each from the middle-of-the-order hitters along the 2013 journey.  If half the players with one home run currently end up with four or five, the Titans could make a lot of noise in June.

Ever since the defensive meltdown in the second half of the game at UCLA, the Titans’ defense has been steady and occasionally outstanding.  The defense was the biggest difference in the UC Davis series and again yesterday against Pepperdine.  Pedroza has been all over the field – he has made some great catches on shallow flyballs and his arm strength from deep in the hole or behind second-base has been impressive.

You can hardly get upset when Lorenzen blows a save after converting sixteen in a row – but for his own health and well-being, there has to be some concern about bringing him in when circumstances don’t allow him adequate time to warm up completely in the bullpen.  In the game Friday, he was on base when the Gauchos made a pitching change, so his only opportunity to warm up was throwing briefly in front of the dugout while the opposing reliever made his eight warm-up pitches.  Lorenzen’s velocity was great – he was in the 95-97 range – but the Gauchos squared him up pretty well.

This weekend’s series at Cal Poly SLO is HUGE for both teams.  One-third of the way through Big West Conference action, it is imperative for Fullerton to win their remaining series if they want to remain in contention as a national seed.  A series win by Cal Poly will keep them in contention for the conference title and would greatly enhance their resume to receive an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament if they don’t win the BWC.

Titans Steal Win From Gauchos

Titans scored twice in the bottom of the ninth after giving up two runs in the top of the ninth. The tying run came in on a wild pitch and then Richy Pedroza drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly to deep center for a 4-3 victory over UC Santa Barbara.

(Video Courtesy BigWest TV)