College Baseball BCS (May 1)

By Samuel Chi

This week's College Baseball BCS standings. Three teams are added to the standings while last week's two bottom dwellers - Wake Forest and Oklahoma - dropped out.

For the second consecutive week, Florida State is No. 1 in the standings, followed by Baylor, which earned the lone No. 1 poll ranking (in Collegiate Baseball) that didn't go to the Seminoles. The Bears are followed by four SEC teams: South Carolina, LSU, Florida and Kentucky.

Stanford is now the highest-ranked Pac-12 team, at No. 7, as UCLA dropped out of the top 10 after losing a weekend series to the Cardinal, to No. 13. Cal State Fullerton, idle last weekend, plummeted four spots to No. 15.

The conference breakdown: SEC (6), Pac-12 (6), ACC (5), Big 12 (4), Conference USA (3), WCC (2), Big Ten (1), Big East (1), Big West (1), Big South (1), Southland (1), Southern (1), WAC (1).

(Click to enlarge)

West Coast Midseason RPI Report (April 30)

By FullertonBaseballFan

(Titans' remaining opponents in orange, past opponents in blue)

Big West  Fullerton 13 (-2) - 26-14, 9-3 (0-1 at LMU)  Long Beach 56 (NC) - 21-20, 11-4 (1-0 at USC, 2-1 at Northridge) Cal Poly 66 (+2) - 25-17, 9-6 (0-1 at Fresno, 3-0 vs. Pacific)  Irvine 67 (+6) - 23-17, 8-7 (0-1 at UCLA, 3-0 vs. Riverside)  Northridge 114 (+2) - 18-22, 5-7 (1-0 vs. Bakersfield, 1-2 vs. Long Beach) UCSB 115 (-18 ) - 23-19, 9-6 (0-1 at St. Mary's, 2-1 vs. UC Davis)   Riverside 147 (-16) - 14-23, 4-8 (0-1 at USD, 0-3 at Irvine) UC Davis 199 (+3) - 16-23, 4-8 (1-0 at USF, 1-2 at UCSB) Pacific 239 (-8 ) - 11-31, 1-11 (0-1 at Nevada, 0-3 at Cal Poly)  Pac 11 UCLA 4 (+1) - 28-12, 12-9 (1-0 vs. Irvine, 1-2 vs. Stanford)  Stanford 8 (+5) - 28-11, 10-8 (1-0 vs. BYU, 2-1 at UCLA) Oregon 16 (+6) - 30-13, 14-7 (0-1 vs. Oregon State, 3-0 vs. Cal)  Arizona 19 (NC) - 29-13, 12-6 (3-0 vs. East Tennessee State) ASU 25 (+1) - 26-17, 11-10 - INELIGIBLE (2-1 at WSU)   OSU 29 (-1) - 28-14, 9-9 (1-0 at Oregon, 1-2 at USC)  Washington 49 (-7) - 23-18, 8-10 (1-0 at Portland, 2-1 at Utah) USC 53 (-3) - 22-17, 7-10 (0-1 vs. Long Beach, 2-1 vs. OSU)  WSU 73 (+3) - 22-18, 8-9 (1-0 at Seattle, 1-2 vs. ASU) Cal 74 (-9) - 23-18, 7-11 (0-3 at Oregon) Utah 195 (+2) - 12-30, 5-13 (1-0 vs. Southern Utah, 1-2 vs. Washington) WCC San Diego 26 (+1) - 33-11, 10-5 (1-0 vs. Riverside, 1-2 at Portland) P'dine 28 (+1) - 24-16, 7-5 (DNP)  Gonzaga 30 (-5) - 27-14, 7-8 (1-2 vs. LMU)  LMU 68 (+28 ) - 21-18, 9-6 (1-0 vs. Fullerton, 2-1 at Gonzaga) Portland 86 (+18) - 21-16, 10-8 (0-1 vs. Washington, 2-1 vs. San Diego) St. Mary's 90 (+3) - 21-20, 5-10 (1-0 vs. UCSB, 2-1 at Santa Clara)  USF 127 (-12) - 20-26, 8-7 (0-1 vs. UC Davis, 2-1 vs. BYU)  BYU 128 (-15) - 18-17, 7-5 (0-1 at Stanford,1-2 at USF)  Santa Clara 130 (-25) - 20-20, 3-12 (1-2 vs. St. Mary's)  WAC New Mexico State 21 (NC) - 30-13, 7-2 (at Baylor) Nevada 64 (-3) - 24-18, 7-5 (1-0 vs. Pacific, 2-1 vs. Fresno State) Hawaii 93 (-8 ) - 25-18, 5-4 (1-0 at Grambling, 1-2 at La. Tech) Sac State 96 (+7) - 24-20, 7-5 (2-1 at San Jose State)  La. Tech 124 (+9) - 20-22, 3-9 (1-0 vs. Ark-Little Rock, 2-1 vs. Hawaii) Fresno State 134 (+2) - 18-22, 2-7 (1-0 vs. Cal Poly, 1-2 at Nevada)  San Jose State 175 (-3) - 20-17, 5-4 (vs. Sac State) MWC TCU 41 (NC) - 26-15, 11-4 (0-1 vs. Texas A&M, 3-0 vs. Manhattan) New Mexico 85 (+9) - 26-19, 12-3 (1-1 vs. Texas Tech, 3-0 vs. UNLV)  San Diego State 164 (-25) - 20-25, 9-9 (1-2 at Air Force) UNLV 211 (+6) - 20-24, 5-13 (0-3 at New Mexico)  Air Force 260 (+4) - 11-30, 5-13 (1-1 vs. Northern Colorado (H/A), 2-1 vs. SDSU) Independents/Others Utah Valley 77 (+23) - 30-11, 16-0 (4-0 vs. New Jersey Tech) Bakersfield 162 (-7) - 19-20 (0-1 at Northridge, 1-1 at Nebraska) Seattle 178 (-8 ) - 15-16 (1-0 vs. Washington State)

Titans Take on Role of Miracle Workers

By Don Hudson

The Titans hosted a baseball clinic on Thursday evening at Goodwin Field for the Miracle League of North Orange County. It was the fourteenth year of the clinic – the annual event that the league members look forward to most.

 It is a very unique event, with both hosts and guests feeling deep gratitude for how the other can lift their spirits. The league is organized by teams, who were rotated between pitching, fielding and hitting activities. Coach Rick Vanderhook, who founded the program at Cal State Fullerton many years ago, greeted the guest players with heartfelt words and hugs, and encouraged them to all have fun while playing safely.

From the smiles, laughter, enthusiasm and energy expended, the guest players clearly met the coach’s objective. And from conversations I had with various Titans players, our guys were gaining just as much as they were giving. It freshens your perspective on just how great it is to be able to do something as simple as playing catch on the outfield grass at beautiful Goodwin Field.

To see many pictures from the event, click here.

Titans Work Extra to Tame Mustangs

By Don Hudson

The Cal State Fullerton Titans (26-13, 9-3) were able to win their ninth consecutive weekend series by taking two-out-of-three at home against the hard-hitting Cal Poly SLO Mustangs (22-16, 6-6).  With the series win, the Titans kept pace and remained tied for first place with the Long Beach State Dirtbags (18-19, 9-3), who also won two games in its series against UC Irvine (20-16, 5-7) despite having a no-hitter tossed against them by the ‘Eaters’ Andrew Thurman on Friday night.

With the series win and their Tuesday win over Pepperdine, the Titans moved up four spots to #8 in the Baseball America rankings.


Game 1:  “Get Him Early…..or Not at All”

Cal Poly SLO Mustangs 000  000  010   -   1   10   2
Cal State Fullerton Titans 011  004  00X   -   6     9   2

Despite being outhit, the Cal State Fullerton Titans were able to do a better job than the Cal Poly Mustangs at delivering hits with runners on base and they rode the strong pitching of Dylan Floro (6-3) to a 6-1 win in the Friday night opener.  Through the first four innings, the Mustangs had six hits and seven runners left-on-base – they had their chances against Floro but let him off the hook early.  As is his general pattern, he gives up a few early hits and if he’s relatively unscathed, he is a machine once he hits his stride.

The Mustangs had two hits and stranded two runners in both the first and second innings.  In the bottom of the second, Anthony Hutting’s bat and legs got the Titans on the board first – he singled, stole second, took third on a wild pitch and beat the throw home on a sacrifice fly by Clay Williamson.

The Mustangs threatened again in the third, the first two runners reaching base with nobody out: error (1B Carlos Lopez pulled his foot early) and single.  Floro easily retired the lead runner on an attempted sacrifice, then got the next two batters to leave two stranded runners for the third straight inning.  (After all the Titans’ travails with runners left on base earlier this season, it felt nice to see it happening to the other team for a change.)

College Baseball BCS (April 24)

By Samuel Chi

This week's College Baseball BCS standings. Two teams made it into the standings in addition to last week's 30.

Florida State replaced Florida atop the new standings. The Gators slid to No. 2, followed by Kentucky, red-hot Baylor and LSU. Rice made the biggest jump this week, going from No. 12 to No. 7, while Texas A&M had the most precipitous drop, going down 10 spots to No. 15. The Titans moved up four spots to No. 11.

The conference breakdown: SEC (6), Pac-12 (6), ACC (6), Big 12 (4), Conference USA (3), WCC (2), Big Ten (1), Big East (1), Big West (1), Southland (1), WAC (1).

Click to enlarge

West Coast Midseason RPI Report (April 23)

By FullertonBaseballFan (Titans' remaining opponents in orange, past opponents in blue) Big West  Fullerton 11 (NC) - 26-13, 9-3 (1-0 vs. P'dine, 2-1 Cal Poly) Long Beach 56 (+9) - 18-19, 9-3 (0-1 at LMU, 2-1 vs. Irvine) Cal Poly 68 (+2) - 22-16, 6-6 (0-1 vs. Fresno, 1-2 at Fullerton)  Irvine 73 (-4) - 20-16, 5-7 (1-0 vs. SDSU, 1-2 vs. Long Beach)  UCSB 97 (+23) - 21-17, 7-5 (1-0 at USC, 3-0 at Pacific)  Northridge 116 (NC) - 16-20, 4-5 (0-1 at UCLA)  Riverside 131 (-9) - 14-19, 4-5 (2-0 vs. UNLV, 2-1 vs. UC Davis) UC Davis 202 (-24) - 14-21, 3-6 (0-1 vs. Sac State, 1-2 vs. Riverside) Pacific 231 (-22) - 11-27, 1-8 (0-2 vs. UCSB)    Pac 11 UCLA 5 (-2) - 26-10, 11-7 (1-0 vs. Northridge, 1-2 at OSU)  Stanford 13 (+2) - 25-10, 8-7 (0-1 vs. San Jose, 3-0 vs. ASU) Arizona 19 (NC) - 26-13, 12-6 (0-1 at ASU, 2-1 at Washington) Oregon 22 (-10) - 27-12, 11-7 (1-0 vs. Ark.-Pine Bluff, 1-0 vs. Portland, 1-2 vs. WSU)  ASU 26 (+3) - 24-16, 9-9 - INELIGIBLE (1-0 vs. Arizona, 0-3 at Stanford)   OSU 28 (+14) - 26-12, 8-7 (1-0 at Portland, 2-1 vs. UCLA)  Washington 42 (-3) - 20-17, 6-9 (1-0 vs. Seattle, 1-2 vs. Arizona) USC 50 (-2) - 20-15, 5-9 (1-0 at Bakersfield, 0-1 vs. UCSB)  Cal 65 (+1) - 23-15, 7-8 (1-0 vs. Santa Clara, 3-0 vs. Utah) WSU 76 (+1) - 20-16, 7-7 (0-1 at Gonzaga, 2-1 at Oregon) Utah 197 (-6) - 10-28, 5-13 (1-0 at BYU, 0-3 at Cal)    WCC Gonzaga 25 (-11) - 26-12, 6-6 (1-0 vs. WSU, 0-3 at USF)  San Diego 27 (-2) - 31-9, 9-3 (2-1 vs. St. Mary's) P'dine 29 (-1) - 24-16, 7-5 (0-1 at Fullerton, 2-1 at Santa Clara)  St. Mary's 93 (+21) - 18-19, 3-9 (1-2 at USD)  LMU 96 (+19) - 18-17, 7-5 (1-0 vs. Long Beach, 2-1 vs. Portland) Portland 104 (-29) - 19-14, 8-7 (0-1 vs. OSU, 0-1 vs. Oregon, 1-2 at LMU) Santa Clara 105 (-22) - 19-18, 2-10 (0-1 at Cal, 1-2 vs. P'dine)  BYU 113 (-27) - 17-14, 6-3 (0-1 vs. Utah)  USF 115 (+30) - 18-24, 6-6 (0-2 at Oregon, 3-0 vs. Gonzaga)     WAC New Mexico State 21 (NC) - 30-11, 7-2 (0-1 at Sac State, 3-0 vs. La Tech) Nevada 61 (+6) - 21-17, 5-4 (1-0 vs. USF, 1-2 at Sac State) Hawaii 85 (+4) - 23-16, 4-2 (2-1 at San Jose) Sac State 103 (+34) - 22-19, 5-4 (1-0 at UC Davis, 2-1 vs. Nevada)  La. Tech 135 (-2) - 17-21, 1-8 (0-3 vs. NMSU) Fresno State 136 (+14) - 16-20, 1-5 (1-0 at Cal Poly, 0-1 vs. Bakersfield)  San Jose State 172 (+24) - 19-15, 4-2 (1-0 at Stanford, 1-2 vs. Hawaii)    MWC TCU 41 (+2) - 23-14, 11-4 (1-0 vs. UL Monroe, 2-1 at SDSU) New Mexico 94 (+19) - 22-18, 9-3 (2-0 at Texas Tech, 3-0 vs. Florida Gulf Coast)  San Diego State 139 (+10) - 19-23, 8-7 (0-1 at Irvine, 1-2 vs. TCU) UNLV 217 (-12) - 20-21, 5-10 (0-2 at Riverside, 3-0 vs. Air Force)  Air Force 264 (-5) - 8-28, 3-12 (0-3 at UNLV) Independents/Others Bakersfield 155 (-1) - 18-18 (0-1 vs. USC, 1-0 at Fresno) Utah Valley 100 (+59) - 26-11, 12-0 (4-0 vs. UT Pan American) Seattle 170 (-8) - 15-16 (0-1 at Washington)

Titans Ride Out Late Waves

By Don Hudson

Pepperdine Waves 010 001 040 - 6 11 3

Cal State Fullerton 000 010 43X - 8 11 1

Dude, this was one strange game.

The official time of game was 2:59 – which is pretty normal. But we were in the seventh inning by 7:30 (game started at 6 o’clock), and I was thinking I might make it home in time to catch a “Law and Order” rerun on Channel 56. That’s when things got out of control: the last two innings took nearly as long to play as the first six-and-a-half, as a 2-1 pitching duel turned into an offensive brawl and a pitching and defense meltdown, as the Titans twice overcame one-run deficits and beat the Pepperdine Waves, 8-6.

By the time we stood up for that time-honored tradition, the fans had been treated to a fast-paced, well-pitched game by Koby Gauna of the Titans and Pepperdine’s crafty lefty, Matt Maurer. To that point, they had each allowed one earned run on five hits, the difference in the game being an unearned run allowed by the Titans. After “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” we saw 11 runs, 11 hits, 3 errors, 3 blown saves, walks, hit-batsmen, wild pitches, passed balls, missed cutoff men and throws to the wrong base – the incongruence of the two juxtaposed hour-and-a-half game segments was shocking.

Pepperdine got on the board first in the second inning with an unearned run. Tony Cooper led off with a bouncer up the middle that Titans’ shortstop Matt Chapman ranged far to his left and made a nice stop, but he had to make an off-balance throw to first, which sailed into the dugout (hit and an error). He went to third on a single up the middle – didn’t dare run on Michael Lorenzen, especially with no outs – and scored on a sacrifice fly. Gauna picked a runner off first to end the inning.