Titan Tidal Wave Wipes Out Pacific

Pacific at Titans: Won 9-2 (Thursday), 11-6 (Friday), 25-0 (Saturday)

By Don Hudson

The Cal State Fullerton Titans accomplished what no other team had done so far this season (go figure): they swept the University of the Pacific Tigers in a three-game series that began Big West Conference play.  The Titans outscored the Tigers, 45-8, but the games really weren’t as close as that sounds.

With the wins, the Titans reached the mid-point of their season with a record of 24-4, their best start since the 1996 team won 31 of its first 33 games.  The Titans are tied for first in the early BWC standings with Cal Poly SLO (who swept UC Davis) and UC Riverside (swept UC Irvine).

Game 1: Titans 9, University of the Pacific Tigers 2

Freshman Thomas Eshelman was matched with Pacific’s Michael Benson, who entered action with a record of 2-1 and ERA of 2.17.  Benson was a hard-luck loser in the series opener last year in scenic Stockton, as he allowed just two earned runs in 7-2/3 innings against the Titans.  The Tigers held their own the first half of the game and held a slim 1-0 lead going to the bottom of the fifth inning before the Titans scored a touchdown and took a commanding 7-1 lead.

Thomas Eshelman

Benson is a talented young (sophomore) pitcher and was a good benchmark for Eshelman’s development.  Benson went through the Titans order the first time giving up just one hit, began to get hit more the second time and then got knocked out of the game the third time through the line-up.  Eshelman, on the other hand, was consistent throughout his eight-inning stint, allowing just four hits while equaling his career best with eight strikeouts.  He walked none, but you already knew that.

The Tigers scored the game’s first run in the top of the third on a leadoff triple by Tyger Pederson and a foul-ball sacrifice fly to second-base.  With the injury to third-baseman Matt Chapman, the Titans inserted Jake Jefferies into the line-up at second-base and moved utility-man Keegan Dale to third, with J.D. Davis resuming his normal role as designated hitter.  Jefferies had a long run to catch the ball in foul ground in shallow rightfield and had no chance to stop his momentum away from the plate and throw out the speedy Pederson.

The Titans showed signs of offensive life against Benson in the bottom of the fourth on solid singles by Davis and Michael Lorenzen, but were unable to get on the scoreboard.

But Jefferies got the fifth inning going with a line-drive single to leftfield after fouling off numerous 1-2 pitches.  Even with the Tigers expecting a bunt by Austin Diemer, he dropped the ball beautifully towards third-base and easily beat it out, bringing up Dale, the team’s best bunter.  Even with the Tigers expecting a bunt by Dale, he dropped the ball beautifully towards third-base and easily beat it out.

(Second verse, same as the first.)

With the Tigers’ cage rattled by consecutive bunt hits, Benson faltered and walked Richy Pedroza on four pitches, tying the score at 1-1.  Carlos Lopez quickly untied with a sacrifice fly to centerfield.

With Davis batting, Benson uncorked a wild pitch, removing the double-play situation.  Davis promptly scaled a two-run single up the middle to give the Titans a 4-1 lead.  Wallach followed with a single and advanced to second when the leftfielder misplayed the ball.

With Wallach taking second, it left first-base open with Lorenzen coming up.  Do you walk him and try to get out of the inning with a double-play against the next batter, Anthony Hutting?  Nah – Tigers’ skipped Ed Sprague opted to pitch to him and the first pitch Benson threw him was deposited deep and over the wall in left-centerfield to give the Titans a commanding 7-1 lead.

The Tigers stirred slightly in the top of the sixth.  Pederson again started a rally with a leadoff single and went to second on a sacrifice (curious call, bunting a runner over trailing by six runs against a good-hitting team like Fullerton) and scored on a solid single down the rightfield line.  Was this about the time Eshelman would get lit up?  Leading 7-2, he got a nice break when the next hitter, Erik Lockwood, hit the ball hard back through the box.  The ball looked like it was heading into centerfield for a hit, but it hit the pitching rubber, ricocheted to shortstop Pedroza, who started an inning-ending 6-4-3 double-play.

While Eshelman shut down the Tigers with back-to-back 1-2-3 seventh and eighth innings, the Titans scored solo tallies in each frame against the Pacific bullpen.  Chad Wallach lofted a double deep to right field, went to third on a bunt single by Lorenzen and was driven in on an RBI single by Hutting.  The Titans scored their final run in the eighth on consecutive one-out singles by Pedroza, Lopez and Davis.
Tyler Peitzmeier pitched a scoreless ninth inning in relief of Eshelman.

The Titans notched a season high (albeit soon to be surpassed) of 16 hits, with Davis and Lorenzen pacing the offense with three hits and three RBI each.  Pedroza, Wallach and Diemer had two hits each, with both of Diemer’s coming in the fifth inning rally.

Game 2: Titans 11, Pacific Tigers 6

The anticipated pitching match-up between the Titans’ freshman phenom Justin Garza and Pacific transfer Cory Popham (2-0, 2.18 ERA coming in) never materialized, as Popham left with an injury in the bottom of the first inning after surrendering four unearned runs.

Jake Jefferies goes for the cycle

But the story of this game wasn’t pitching – it was Jefferies hitting for a cycle: a two-run single in the first inning, two-run double in the third, one-run triple in the fifth and topping it off with a line-drive two-run homer in the sixth.  He drove in seven runs and became the first Titan player to have a four-hit game in the 2013 season.  See video of Jefferies’ cycle.

Garza gave up a sharp leadoff single, but then retired the side, including a pair of first-inning strikeouts.  Popham’s defense failed him quickly: with one out, second-baseman Pederson booted a groundball by Lopez and then compounded the problem by throwing the ball wildly.  Lopez was safe on the boot and was awarded an extra base on a second error on the play: Pederson’s throw bounced off the trashcan that just happens to be inside the visitors’ dugout.  After Davis walked and Wallach struck out,
Lorenzen came up with two on and two out.  After a wild pitch opened up first-base, Coach Sprague might have learned something from the series opener and he opted to intentionally walk Lorenzen.

But Hutting drew the first of his three walks and drove in Lopez with the first unearned run.  A balk by Popham made it 2-0 and put two runners in scoring position for Jefferies, who hit a sinking line-drive to rightfield that appeared to have initially been caught on a great diving play by the Pacific outfielder, but the ground caused a fumble and Jefferies had the first leg of his cycle and the Titans had a 4-0 lead.  Sprague came to the mound for the second time of the inning accompanied by the trainer, and Popham left the game because of injury.

The Titans added a run in the second to make it 5-0 on a triple to centerfield by Pedroza and an RBI groundout by Lopez.  The lead was stretched to 7-0 in the third when Jefferies, batting left-handed, hit an opposite-field double to drive in Wallach and Lorenzen, who had both singled to start the inning.

Garza fgaltered slightly in the fourth and gave up one run on a single, wild pitch, deep flyball and another wild pitch.  The Tigers squared it up against Garza in the top of the fifth and scored twice to make it a game again, with the Titans’ lead cut to 7-3.  Garza surrendered a single and back-to-back doubles.  Plate umpire Carl Coles’ strike zone seemed to shrink about 50% from the game’s previous four innings, a fact apparently noted by Titans’ pitching coach Jason Dietrich when Coles came out to break up a meeting on the mound.  Coles had a short wick and ejected Dietrich without any visible argument – which resulted in a classic moment with Dietrich leisurely walking through the infield right in front of the red-faced umpire while toting his backpack.  (If anybody got a picture of Dietrich leaving the game wearing his backpack, please send me a copy.)

But the Titans answered with two of their own in the bottom of the fifth.  Lorenzen led off with a walk and appeared to have easily stolen second but was inexplicably called out by umpire Bradley Hungerford. (Brad is a very nice guy and he hustles and works hard on the field – but he blows easy calls on a regular basis.)  Hutting drew a walk and Jefferies rifled a shot into the gap in right-centerfield for an RBI triple, making it 8-3.  Diemer then drove in Jefferies with an RBI single to make it 9-3.  The Tigers escaped additional damage when the Titans left the bases loaded.

Garza left the game after six innings with the Titans enjoying a comfortable six-run lead, having allowed seven hits but also recording seven strikeouts (Klondike!).  Peitzmeier came in for the third straight game (including the 3-2 midweek loss against Loyola Marymount) and pitched a scoreless seventh inning.

Hutting drew a two-out walk in the bottom of the sixth to bring up Jefferies, who already had a single, double and triple.  Jefferies got ahead in the count and crushed a 2-1 fastball deep to rightfield – it got out and bounced off the screen above the rightfield fence in a hurry.  (Without the screen, the ball might have knocked over a tree or two in the Arboretum.)

Freshman pitcher Joe Navilhon came in to pitch the eighth inning with the Titans ahead, 11-3.  The Tigers jumped all over Navilhon as if he was Roy Horn (of Siegfried & Roy fame.) The first batter he faced, Lockwood, hit a deep bomb to leftfield to make it 11-4.

The next batter hit a hard smash past first-base into the rightfield corner.  It was like déjà vu all over again to Hutting’s inside-the-park home run against Oregon, except this time the Titans were on the bad side of the formula.  Rightfielder Greg Velazquez tried to prevent a triple by signaling for a ground-rule double as the ball bounced around the visitors’ bullpen in foul ground, but Blue didn’t buy it and Brett Sullivan circled the bases with an uncontested inside-the-park home run.  The back-to-back home runs made it 11-5.

A double by Pacific catcher Jason Taasaas brought Coach Hook out with a hook – side-arming right-hander Michael Lopez was called in from the bullpen to try to quell the Tigers’ onslaught.

Michael Lopez induced a groundball from the first batter he faced, but a high throw from Jefferies drew Carlos Lopez off the bag (error on Jefferies) and there were runners at the corners with nobody out.

But Michael Lopez got a 4-6-3 double-play to break the Tigers’ momentum, with the Titans’ lead now cut to 11-6.

The Titans left the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth and there was an uneasy feeling, but Michael Lopez got three quick groundball outs to end the game.

Garza (6-0) was the winning pitcher, with great offensive support from Jefferies and his 7-RBI cycle.  Hutting walked three times and scored each time.  Pedroza was the only other Titans with multiple hits (2).  Lopez did a great job in relief, getting seven consecutive groundballs against a team that had been hitting the ball hard all over the field until that time.

Game 3: Titans 25, Pacific Tigers 0

The Titans completed the series sweep in dominating fashion, scoring 25 runs on 25 hits and posting a shutout.  It was the Titans’ most lopsided win since beating Cal Poly SLO, 27-2, in 2004.

Perhaps the less said about this game, the better.

Michael Lorenzen's grand slam

The Titans scored nine runs in the first inning – and it wasn’t even their biggest inning of the game.  With one out, Lopez singled and advanced on a wild pitch before Davis and Wallach walked, leaving no place to put the red-hot Lorenzen, who hit a towering grand-slam to make it 4-0.  Hutting went back-to-back, hitting his fourth home run of the season right after Lorenzen’s fifth.

A solid single by Jefferies made it a quick day for starter Michael Hager, the first of seven pitchers for Pacific on the day.  The most effective may have been shortstop Dustin Torchio, who allowed just one run in the bottom of the eighth.  After a single by Diemer, Pedroza delivered a two-run single and Davis hit a two-run double and the score was 9-0.

Grahamm Wiest was staked to the big lead and he pitched aggressively and effectively.  His biggest challenge may have been running back and forth from the dugout to the bullpen – he went to the bullpen twice during the first-inning rally and twice again during the eleven-run sixth inning.  Wiest (5-1) went seven innings, scattering five hits and striking out four, allowing no walks.

The Titans held a 12-0 lead going into the bottom of the sixth and had already begun emptying their bench and playing station-to-station baseball.  Then things got really ugly for Pacific, as the Titans scored eleven runs on just five hits, aided by five walks, a pair of errors and a third-strike passed ball that could have ended the inning 20 minutes sooner.  The Titans sent 17 batters to the plate, nearly batting around twice.  The hits were a leadoff single by Dale, an RBI triple by Pedroza, a pinch-single by freshman Allan Kennedy, an RBI single by Pedroza and a three-run double by Kennedy.

Yeah, scoreboard totals are correct

Koby Gauna and Willie Kuhl each pitched a scoreless inning in relief of Wiest.

Pedroza had four hits, scored four runs and drove in four on two singles, a double and a triple.  Lorenzen also had four RBI on his grand slam.  Lopez, Lorenzen and Dale each had three hits.  Substitutes Kennedy (single, double and three RBI) and Clay Williamson (two triples) also made significant contributions.

That must have been one long ride back to Stockton.

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

So what did we learn this week?

It’s hard to draw any conclusions playing against teams like Pacific.  The impressive thing is that the Titans are handily beating up the teams they are supposed to beat up – there seems a fiercer ‘killer instinct’ that was lacking the past couple years when the team often played to its level of competition.

As you can imagine, the offensive stats more closely resembled a slow-pitch softball team.  Pedroza had the most hits (8-for-17 with 7 runs scored and 5 RBI), while Lorenzen had highest average amongst starters (.583 on 7-for-12 with 4 runs, 7 RBI, a double and two home runs, including a grand slam.

Jefferies led with 8 RBI (on 7-for-14 with 5 runs and his cycle.)  Stats that would generally make headlines were “ho-hum” in this series: Lopez and Wallach both hit .364 (4-for-11 each), while Davis hit .417 (5-for-12 with 5 RBI).  As a team, the Titans batted .415 (51-for-123) with 45 runs scored and 41 RBI.  Chad Baum doesn’t get hit that hard in batting practice.

Pacific coach Ed Sprague

Don’t try to ‘big league’ us:  the Titans are 7-0 against teams coached by former major league ballplayers.  The Titans swept Nebraska (coached by Darin Erstad) four games and Pacific (Ed Sprague) three games by a combined score of 82-14, averaging nearly twelve runs a game.  The fewest runs scored by the Titans in those seven games were in the 8-7 win in the first game against Nebraska.  If college programs want to hire former pros, perhaps they should consider a pitcher or two.

If you don’t think there was rampant steroid use in major league baseball, consider the 1996 season in which three teams (Baltimore Orioles, Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners) broke the all-time season home run record and seventeen players hit 40+ home runs (the previous high was eight in 1961, when expansion diluted major league pitching staffs.)  Brady Anderson, a speedy 32-year-old 170-pound former UC Irvine Anteater outfielder, hit 50 home runs that season after hitting just 72 in his previous eight major league seasons.  At the time, just a dozen players in MLB history had accomplished that feat, including Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenburg, Johnny Mize, Ralph Kiner, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Cecil Fielder and Albert Belle.  Ted Williams never hit 50 bombs in a season, but Brady Anderson did.

By pure coincidence, Ed Sprague hit 36 home runs for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1996.  He had hit 18 the year before and 14 the year after.  That was also the year admitted juicer Ken Caminiti hit 40 bombs, one behind Todd Hundley’s 41.

Was 1996 just an anomaly for home runs?  Maybe the balls were juiced, the mounds lowered, the bats corked, the strike zones squeezed, the pitchers’ arms tired, the pitch calls stolen or some other combination of factors that created a display of power back in an era where MLB was battling the NFL, NBA and emergent sports with more appeal to younger generations for retention of its ‘national pastime’ identity.  But it underscores the unfair concept of ‘guilt by association’ and how all statistics from that era are considered somewhat dubious.  When average players put up extraordinary numbers like they did in 1996, there is no way to know which ones were legit and which ones were cheating.

The Titans ended up 16-4 during Mustache March.  That’s a lot of games for a month – I really liked the way the roster was used during the non-conference part of the season and how the roles have solidified moving into conference play.  Of the 35 players on the roster, just two (pitchers Shane Stillwagon and Miles Chambers) have yet to play and presumably will redshirt – I have never been a proponent of carrying 5-6 non-medical redshirts on a roster.  There are fourteen pitchers with four or more appearances – I can’t remember seeing that before.

Thomas Eshelman’s streak of 50.0 innings without issuing a walk has drawn much attention, but I am intrigued by an ancillary statistic: he hasn’t thrown a wild pitch.  This might be obvious, but you can only throw a wild pitch with runners on base, so when you have given up zero walks and hit just one batter, there is great mathematical reduction in your opportunities to throw wild pitches.

The Titans have had 52 batters hit by pitch, while opposing hatters have been plunked just 15 times.  There is also big gap in wild pitches: 17 allowed and 36 received.  There is a similar advantage in passed balls: 4 allowed and 14 received.  Chad Wallach’s defensive improvement has been incredible: he had 11 passed balls in 2012 in limited duty as second or third catcher while learning the position ‘on the job,’ but has yet to have a passed ball halfway through the 2013 season.

Jake Jefferies’ natural cycle (e.g. he got the single, double, triple and home run in order – did you even know they had a term for that?) was great to watch, but what impresses me most is his productivity.  Jefferies has 16 RBI on just 15 hits.  Hutting is even more productive: he has 17 RBI on 15 hits.

Does anybody remember the last time a Titan hit for a cycle prior to Jefferies?  I had never seen it happen here and nobody I spoke with or read cited a previous Titan cycle.  In fact, I seldom recall even being in the situation of thinking that “All so-and-so needs is a _____ to complete his cycle.”  The day after Jefferies did it, Lorenzen (needing triple) and Pedroza (needing home run) came up a couple times each with a cycle in reach.  With the Titans leading by three touchdowns, conversation in the stands shifted to:  “With this lopsided score, which is more likely – a triple by Lorenzen or a home run by Pedroza?”  The consensus was that a triple by Lorenzen would be less likely because of station-to-station base-running in a blowout game, especially if there was a runner on base in front of him.

Lorenzen has taken over the team lead in batting average (.365), runs (25), hits (38), doubles (7), triples (3 – tied with Pedroza), home runs (5), RBI (28), HBP (8) and saves (8).  Not bad – I’m willing to excuse him for also leading the team in striking out and grounding into double-plays (tied).

New UCLA basketball coach

Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like when baseball teams dog pile until they win the College World Series or when basketball teams cut down the nets before winning the NCAA championship game.  Winning your Regionals is thrilling and you obviously can’t make it to the championship game without successfully achieving that milestone, but it is just a step along the journey.  There was even a coach recently who cut down the net after winning the Mountain West Conference championship game – then five days later lost to 14th-seeded Harvard!  What do you do with your MWC championship game net after you tank to Harvard in The Dance?

In a related story, why don’t NCAA hockey teams cut down the nets when they clinch a berth in the Frozen Four?

Congratulations to the seven former Titans who are on Opening D ay major league rosters, including first-timer Khris Davis (Milwaukee Brewers).  Others are Reed Johnson, Mark Kotsay, Kurt Suzuki, Vinnie Pestano, Brett Pill (disabled list) and Justin Turner (disabled list).

That’s all for now and I can’t wait for the game Tuesday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium against the UCLA Bruins, who were undefeated all last season in midweek games and have yet to lose midweek this season.  It has been part of their success platform in recent years – with so many RPI-killers awaiting the Titans on their remaining schedule, a road win over UCLA would be very beneficial.

I hope to see you at JRS and then again next weekend at UC Davis.

Jake Jefferies' Natural Cycle

In the Titans' 11-6 victory over Pacific on Friday night, freshman second baseman Jake Jefferies went for the cycle, with a two-run single, two-run double, RBI-triple and a two-run homer.

(Video Courtesy of BigWest TV)

Pacific Series Preview

Pacific at Titans

Thursday 6 p.m.; Friday 7 p.m.; Saturday 2 p.m.

By FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton has been riding a tidal wave of momentum throughout the start of the 2013 season, winning their first ten games for the first time in the history of the program and winning all five games last week to increase their winning streak to ten games, which is the first time that the Titans have had two ten game winning streaks in a season since 2001.  Fullerton returned home after sweeping Oral Roberts and swept Nebraska in a two game midweek series with 8-7 (11 innings) and 10-4 wins before going over to Blair Field and sweeping Long Beach State 6-0, 8-6 and 2-1 with two of the crazier finishes to games in a series that has been filled with them over the years to improve the Titans record against the Dirtbags to 19-3 over the last five seasons and the 21-3 start for Fullerton is the best one for the program since 1996.

Fullerton played like they had jet lag at the start of the first game against Nebraska and made three errors in the first two innings and the Cornhuskers parlayed those into a four run lead before the Titans responded as they have all season with four runs in the bottom of the third to tie the game.  Back to back singles by Jared Deacon and Keegan Dale got things going and Austin Kingsolver’s single scored two runs to cut the lead in half, walks to J.D. Davis and Tanner Pinkston loaded the bases and Michael Lorenzen’s single scored two runs to tie the game.  Fullerton starter Koby Gauna had a rare off game and allowed a run in the top of the fourth and the Titans responded once again with two runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 6-5 lead when Deacon walked, Austin Diemer singled him to third, Dale’s SF tied the game and Richy Pedroza singled in Diemer gave Fullerton the lead.  Gauna gave up a single to start the fifth and his night was done when Willie Kuhl came into the game.  Kuhl threw a pickoff attempt away and that runner ended up scoring to tie the game.  After two straight three up, three down innings for Nebraska the Titans took the lead in the bottom of the seventh when Kingsolver was hit by a pitch and doubled to third by Davis, Pinkston walked and Lorenzen was hit by a pitch that forced in a run but Fullerton left the bases loaded.  Nebraska tied the game in the top of the eighth with the help of the fifth error of the game by the Titans and almost pulled ahead in the ninth before Tyler Peitzmeier came into the game to stop the rally against the team from his home state.  The game stayed tied until the bottom of the eleventh when Kingsolver was hit by a pitch and stole second, Davis walked, Kingsolver stole third, Lorenzen was intentionally walked and a walk to Deacon forced in the run for a walk off win for Fullerton.  The Titans had fourteen hits in the game but the heroes were the relievers with Kuhl (4 2/3 IP, 1 unearned run, 8 K’s), Peitzmeier (2 IP) and Michael Lopez (1/3 IP) combining to throw seven innings and allowing one unearned run with Lopez picking up the first win of his career after throwing one pitch with the Cornhusker runner he inherited caught stealing.

Nebraska came out determined to get their first win against Fullerton after losing three times to the Titans and scored runs in the first and third innings but once again Fullerton responded in the bottom of the third to tie the game.  Clay Williamson singled and Dale walked, Williamson stole third and Dale moved up when the throw bounced off of Matt Chapman’s helmet, Chapman’s SF scored a run, Dale went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a ground out by Davis.  Nebraska scored a run in the fourth and another in the fifth on a HR by Chad Christensen to take a 4-2 lead before the Titans responded once again, this time with their biggest inning of the season with an eight run rally to put the game away.  Chad Wallach and Deimer were hit by pitches to start the inning, Williamson’s bunt single loaded the bases, Chapman’s two run single tied the game, Carlos Lopez’s RBI single gave Fullerton the lead, Lopez and Chapman executed a double steal and were both driven in on a single by Davis, Jake Jefferies followed with an RBI double, Wallach crushed a ball to deep right center that gave him time to get to third for an RBI triple and he scored on a wild pitch to finish up the scoring in the inning and the game.  It was a staff day for the Titans with six pitchers taking the mound and Kyle Murray picked up his first career win with two scoreless innings and Jose Cardona and Joe Navilhon wrapped things up with scoreless innings.  The leading hitters in the two game series were Davis (5-8, 3 RBI, 3 BB), Lorenzen (4-8, 3 RBI, 3 BB/HBP), Chapman (2-5, 3 RBI), Kingsolver (2-4, 2 RBI, 2 SB) and Dale (2-3, RBI, 3 BB).

The match-up with Thomas Eshelman and Shane Carle on Friday figured to be a pitchers duel and lived up to that billing through seven innings.  Lorenzen got the scoring started in the second by crushing a HR to LF and Fullerton added to the lead in the third when Diemer singled, Pedroza bunted him over and Lopez singled in Diemer.  Those runs would be all that Eshelman would need on a night where he was lights out and allowed only one hit in seven innings, a single in the fifth by Eric Hutting, the younger brother of Anthony Hutting, with no walks and no strikeouts as he increased his streak without allowing a walk to 42 innings.  Fullerton increased the lead to 3-0 in the seventh when Wallach walked, Dale bunted him to second, Wallach went to third on a wild pitch and scored on an error by Long Beach’s SS to end Carle’s night.  The Titans blew things open in the eighth against the Dirtbags bullpen with three runs when Lorenzen doubled, Kingsolver reached on an infield single, Wallach was hit by a pitch, Dale walked to force in a run and Diemer’s singled scored two runs.  Davis finished things off with two scoreless innings, allowing only an infield single, and Eshelman improved his record to 5-1 and lowered his ERA to 1.07 while throwing only 56 pitches in his seven innings of work.

Saturday’s game was a tale of two games.  The first part was all about Ino Patron and SP Jake Stassi for Long Beach and the second part was all about the Dirtbags bullpen.  Long Beach got to Justin Garza by manufacturing a run in the first and stretched their lead to 3-0 when Patron hit a long triple to score two runs.  Fullerton got a run back in the fourth when Pedroza and Lopez singled and Pedroza scored on a DP by Davis that thwarted the rally.  The Dirtbags scored two more runs in the fifth on a bases loaded double by Patron that finished Garza’s day in the first poor start by the freshman.  Kuhl came into the game and struck out both batters to end the inning and strand two runners in scoring position and kept Long Beach off the scoreboard in the sixth and seventh.  It looked like the Dirtbags 5-1 lead was going to be more than enough with Stassi able to weave in and out of trouble and holding the Titans to one run on seven hits in seven innings before Long Beach went to the bullpen to start the eighth.  What followed was one of the wilder innings in the history of this storied series.  Davis singled and Lorenzen was hit by a pitch to get things started, Wallach reached on an infield single to load the bases and Jefferies walked to force in a run and the Dirtbags went to their closer Jon Maciel, who allowed a pinch-hit single by Hutting to cut the lead to 5-3 and after a strikeout for the second out, pinch-hitter Deacon was hit by a pitch to force in a run.  Pedroza hit a full count chopper up the middle with the runners going and the SS tried to get the force out at 2B but pinch-runner Kingsolver was safe, Jefferies scored to tie the game and Hutting scored all the way from second, beating the throw home for the go ahead run, Pedroza tried to advance to second and Kingsolver was thrown out at home on the play.  Peitzmeier and Gauna combined for a scoreless bottom of the eighth and Fullerton added two insurance runs against Maciel in the ninth when Lopez and Davis singled, a wild pitch moved the runners up, Lorenzen’s SF scored one run and Wallach’s single scored another.  The Dirtbags scored an unearned run against Gauna in the ninth before Lorenzen finished things off by striking out Patron to end the game for his seventh save and Kuhl picked up the win with his three scoreless innings of relief with four strikeouts.

Sunday baseball usually means that the hitters have a chance to get healthy and pad their stats but that wasn’t the case this time with Grahamm Wiest and David Hill both throwing very well in this one.  Both teams squandered opportunities in the first three innings before Fullerton got on the board in the fourth when Lorenzen was hit by a pitch, Williamson walked and Deacon singled in Lorenzen.  The Titans increased the lead in the fifth when Dale walked and Pedroza doubled him in but he ended up being stranded at third and Long Beach cut the lead in half when Patron doubled in a run.  Fullerton stranded two runners in scoring position in the sixth against Hill and threatened to score against the bullpen in the eighth when Hutting led off with a double but a blown squeeze play ended the rally.  It looked like Wiest was going to make the one run lead stand up when he retired ten straight batters going into the ninth before allowing a leadoff single and Lorenzen was summoned in from CF to finish off the game.  He allowed a single to the first batter he faced and a SAC bunt moved the runners up with one out.  It looked like Eric Hutting’s fly to medium deep CF was going to be a SF to tie the game when Michael Hill, the older brother of the Long Beach SP, beat the throw to the plate.  Fullerton appealed to the umpires that Hill had left 3B early and they agreed, turning a game tying SF into a game ending DP with the Titans winning in one of the more bizarre ways that you will ever see a team win a game.  Wiest improved his record to 4-1 with his outstanding outing, going 8+ innings, allowing one run on seven hits with no walks and a career high nine strikeouts and Lorenzen picked up his eighth save with the help of the ruling from the umpiring crew.

Fullerton didn’t have too many offensive standouts against Long Beach and it was a balanced effort with many players contributing with key hits, walks and HBP’s.  Lorenzen led the way by going 4-10 with an HR, 2 RBI and 4 R followed by Lopez (4-14), Pedroza (3-11, 2 RBI, 2 BB’s), Deacon (3-4, 2 RBI), Diemer (3-6, 2 RBI) and Wallach (2-7, RBI, 3 R).  Thanks to the fifteen hit comeback effort on Saturday, the Titans hit .267 on the weekend but only had six hits in the other two games for a similar output to what they had in hitting in the .235 - .240 range the previous four weekends.  Fullerton continued to stay patient at the plate and drew ten walks and were hit by pitches seven times to help keep the offense going.

Fullerton started this week with a midweek game against LMU and for the second time this season saw a ten game winning streak snapped as the Lions put together a three run rally in the seventh inning to pull off the 3-2 upset as the Titans squandered many opportunities during the game.  There isn’t much time for Fullerton to dwell on Tuesday’s loss with the weekend calendar pushed up a day due to the Easter holiday and the start of Big West play coming this weekend with the Pacific Tigers visiting Goodwin Field for the final time.  This will be the swan song for Pacific because Pacific, the only private school in the Big West, will be moving on to the West Coast Conference after the season where they will be joining a conference comprised solely of private universities.


Pacific Tigers (7-12)

• 2012 Overall Record – 16-40
• 2012 Conference Record – 6-18 (9th)
• 2012 Post-Season – None
• 2013 RPI/ISR – 169/154.  2012 RPI/ISR – 230/187
• Pre-season ranking/Current ranking – None
• Predicted conference finish – 9th by Perfect Game, 10th by the Big West coaches, Baseball America and Easton College Baseball. 

2012 Summary and 2013 Preview

Pacific hit their high water mark under Ed Sprague in 2010 when a veteran squad went 31-23 overall and finished fourth in the Big West at 12-12 after going into a slump late in the season and losing seven of their final nine games and it has been all downhill since then with the Tigers going 19-37, 9-15 in 2011 and 16-40, 6-18 in 2012.  Pacific lost nineteen of their final twenty-three games in 2011 and it didn’t get much better with a 4-16 start last season with 1/4 of their wins for the year coming in a four game sweep of Brown and they were 13-40 before sweeping Northridge to end the season.  The Tigers were swept six times in 2012 but haven’t been swept yet this season.  However, they also haven’t finished up winning a weekend series after losing a series to San Jose State, splitting four games at home against solid Gonzaga and UNLV teams, losing two out of three against a very good tournament field at ASU (ASU, Gonzaga, Arkansas), losing two out of three at TCU with the series deciding game going to the Horned Frogs in extra innings and losing two out of three at Creighton.

Pacific had a good offense in 2009-2010 and knew they wouldn’t hit as well with the BBCOR bats and their offense has regressed significantly, going from .277 in 2011 to .269 last season to .253 this season and the Tigers have been averaging just over four runs a game the last three seasons.  Pacific has been held to four runs or less in eleven of their sixteen weekend games and averaged 3.5 runs in those games.  The Tigers will go up to the plate hacking and were in the bottom thirty nationally in walks per game in 2012 and haven’t been much more patient this season averaging around three walks per game.  Pacific doesn’t attempt to help their OBP by getting hit by pitches and have only been hit eight times.  The Tigers do a decent job of making contact and have improved their strikeout rate from last season.  Pacific tried to run quite a bit in 2012 but were lousy at it and were successful less than half of the time and are running much less this season and about as well with only a 50% success rate.  The Tigers don’t bunt that much, usually ranking in the middle of the pack in the conference, preferring to let their hitters swing away unless it’s a close game.

Pacific broke in a new rotation in 2012 with none of their starters back from an underachieving staff in 2011 and brought the staff ERA down by close to a run from 6.32 to 5.50.  The Tigers have been pitching even better this season with team ERA coming down again by close to a run to 4.79 led by two starters with ERA’s in the low two’s.  Pacific had issues with a lack of depth behind their two best starters in 2012 and that has also been the case this season with only a couple of reliable options in the bullpen.  The Tigers have held teams to three runs or less in half of their sixteen weekend games and their starters have given them a chance to be much more competitive than they were in 2012.  Pacific’s pitching staff is mostly a ground ball staff and they have allowed only two HR’s to lead the conference for the fewest HR’s given up.  Despite not having few hard throwers on their pitching staff, the Tigers haven’t had good control and are allowing almost five free base runners per game and have a poor 68/77 BB/K ratio and are in the bottom twenty nationally in strikeouts per game.


Offense

• Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 104 (increases offense by 4%).  Dimensions of 317 to LF with a 20 ft high wall, 380 to left center, 395 to CF, 365 to right center and 325 to RF make this one of the smaller fields in the Big West.
• Batting Average – .253 (7th in the Big West/209th nationally).  .269 in 2012 (6/192).
• Scoring – 81 (8/218), 4.3 runs per game.  236 (6/218), 4.2 runs per game in 2012.
• Home Runs – 5 (6/180).  14 in 2012 (5/239). 
• Slugging Percentage – .329 (7/210).  .357 in 2012 (5/210).
• On Base Percentage – .319 (9/255).  .337 in 2012 (9/256).
• Walks – 57 (10/256), 2.7 per game.  152 in 2012 (9/271), 2.7 per game.
• HBP’s – 8 (10/284).  43 in 2012 (9/220).
• Strikeouts – 107 (8/xx), 5.6 per game.  337 in 2012 (3/xx), 6.0 per game.
• Stolen Bases – 9-18 (9/273).  34-72 in 2012 (8/255). 
• Sac Bunts – 17 (6/112).  43 in 2012 (7/136).

Infield

Pacific has a good amount of experience returning in the infield with starters back at C, 1B and 2B and they have moved their 3B over to SS to replace the only starter they lost from last season.

C – JR #15 Jason Taasaas (RH – .300/.382/.400, 1-8-0.  ’12 – .255/.346/.303, 1-12-0.  ’11 – .205/.337/.289, 2-13-2 in 83 AB’s) shared time as a FR but struggled both at and behind the plate.  He started out hitting .329 over the first 31 games in 2012 but slumped during the Big West schedule and only hit .125 in the last twelve games he played before injuring his arm in the first game against Fullerton and was lost for the season.  Taasaas has a solid approach at the plate and had an 11/15 BB/K ratio in 2012 and is at 8/12 this season.  He has been one of the more consistent hitters on the team, has some pop in his bat and usually hits 6th or 7th.  Taasaas is a workhorse and has caught every game except for one.  He is 0-9 in his career against Fullerton.

1B – Soph #21 Erik Lockwood (RH – .333/.434/.397, 0-9-0.  ’12 – .352/.411/.442, 1-26-2) had the unenviable task of taking over for four year starter Martin as a FR but he has stepped into those shoes rather nicely and was 3rd in the Big West in AVG and finished in the top ten in the conference in OBP and SLG as one of the best FR in the Big West.  He does a good job of hitting the ball gap to gap and is usually the cleanup hitter.  Lockwood started out red hot by hitting .409 in the first 14 games and is in the top ten in the conference in OBP but cooled off and went 3-19 in his last five games.  His plate discipline was below average in 2012 with a 12/26 BB/K ratio but is better this season with a 9/14 ratio.  Lockwood was also injured in the first game against Fullerton in 2012 and went 0-1 in the series.

C/DH – JR #13 Riley Drongesen (RH – ’12 – .321/.407/.415, 0-17-1.  8 AB’s in 2011) would be the backup for Taasaas and Lockwood and be the DH but he is injured and hasn’t played this season.  He was a very productive player in 2012 but also battled injuries and was only able to play in 30 games.

2B/LF – SR #9 Tyger Pederson (LH – .193/.314/.298, 1-11-1.  ’12 – .279/.386/.324, 0-17-1.  ’11 – .285/.354/.306, 0-13-2) is a streaky hitter who is prone to going into prolonged slumps followed by stretches where he gets red hot.  He was hitting .373 going into the series at Fullerton in 2011 while starting at 2B but only hit .208 during the bulk of the conference schedule.  Pederson got off to a slow start in 2012 when he only went 7-31 in the first twenty games, fattened up against Brown when he went 9-16 and hit .227 the rest of the season.  He hit .333 in the first seven games but since then has only hit .128.  Pederson has split time between 2B (9 starts) and LF (4 starts) while usually batting 5th and is second on the team in RBI.  He is patient at the plate and has a good 11/13 BB/K ratio.  Pederson is 2-17 in his career against Fullerton.

SS – SR #10 Dustin Torchio (Both – .276/.313/.395, 1-14-1.  ’12 – .296/.369/.352, 0-22-2.  ’11 – .369/.419/.451, 1-17-5.  ’10 – .222 in 27 AB’s) was a reserve as a FR before moving into the lineup in 2011 at 3B and got off to a solid start, hitting in the .320’s going into the Fullerton series and he tattooed the ball against the Titans and went 7-12 in the series and took off from there the rest of the season, hitting a scalding .437 in conference games on his way to the Big West batting title and being selected first team All-Big West.  Torchio got off to a solid start in 2012 and was hitting in the .330’s going into the conference season but only hit .189 in ten Big West games, was injured against Cal Poly the week before the Fullerton series and missed the last month of the season.  He moved over to SS this season and only hit .225 in the first ten games but has done better lately, hitting .333 over the last nine games while usually hitting 3rd. Torchio is not a big guy and does a good job of spraying the ball around the field with very good plate discipline (16/18 BB/K ratio in 2011, 14/15 in 2012 and 4/7 this season).  He is also a very good bunter and was second in the conference with 15 SAC bunts in 2011.

3B/2B – Soph #4 Curtis Gomez (RH – .217 in 23 AB’s.  ’12 – .261/.307/.379, 1-15-0.  ’11 – .224/.258/.345, 1-10-1 in 58 AB’s) was a backup infielder and only started thirteen games in 2011 but was a regular last season because of his defense.  He was hitting .320 going into conference play in 2012 but only hit .231 in Big West games.  Gomez is an aggressive hitter with a poor 8/26 BB/K ratio over the last two seasons.  He was injured earlier in the season but has started the last five games and split time between 2B and 3B while usually hitting in the lower part of the order.  Gomez went 2-11 against Fullerton in 2012.

3B – FR #23 JJ Wagner (RH – .208/.255/.271, 0-1-0) started fourteen games at 3B while Gomez was out of the lineup but didn’t start against Creighton once Gomez came back.  He is the best bunter on the team and is second in the conference with six SAC bunts.  Wagner will hit either 2nd or 9th when he is in the lineup.

Outfield

Pacific lost three seniors who started most of the time in the OF and at DH so they are relying on part-time starters and breaking in new players at most of the OF positions.

LF – FR #19 Gio Brusa (Both – .180/.222/.240, 0-6-2) is one of the most heralded recruits to arrive at Pacific in a long time because he is a switch-hitter with good size and power potential who was supposed to be drafted in the first ten rounds out of HS.  His potential has gone untapped thus far and he has struggled getting used to facing D1 pitching but he will continue to see regular playing time to help his development and has started 14 times (13 in LF, 1 at DH).

CF – Soph #3 Tyler Sullivan (LH – .313/.370/.373, 0-3-2.  ’12 – .218/.328/.236, 0-8-2) is one of the faster players on the team and any extra base hits he gets will come from his legs because he has only five of them (four 2B’s and a 3B) over the last two seasons.  He got off to a slow start as a FR, hit a little better during the conference schedule and has been pretty consistent this season while splitting time between the leadoff and ninth spots in the order.  Sullivan had a decent 16/25 BB/K ratio in 2012 but hasn’t been as patient this season and has a 5/14 BB/K ratio and he is tied for the team lead in strikeouts despite not being a power hitter.  He went 1-8 against Fullerton in 2012.

RF – Soph #5 Taylor Murphy (LH – .231/.293/.308, 1-6-0.  ’12 – .232/.308/.290, 0-14-1) was a part-time starter in LF in 2012 before playing the last month of the season at 3B when Torchio was out of the lineup.  He started out ok in non-conference games but was overmatched in Big West games and only hit .180.  A major reason for Murphy’s struggles as a FR were his inability to make contact because he struck out 25% of the time but he has done much better with his plate discipline this season with a 5/6 BB/K ratio.  He has started 13 times in RF while splitting time between the 5th and 7th spots in the lineup.  Murphy went 2-6 against Fullerton in 2012 and both of his hits were doubles.

LF/RF – SR #24 Jacob Goulder (RH – .219/.286/.313, 1-5-1.  ’12 – .152 in 33 AB’s) has been the fourth OF and split time between LF (4 starts) and RF (6 starts).  With Fullerton starting all RHP’s his playing time could be limited.

DH – FR #8 Brett Sullivan (RH – .257/.321/.329, 0-6-2) has been the DH most of the time and like his brother Tyler, he also has good speed and will usually be the leadoff hitter when he is in the lineup.  He got hot in Pacific’s last four games when he went 5-11 with four RBI.


Defense

Fielding % – .969 (7/98) with 23 errors.  2012 – .963 (9/185) with 78 errors.  Pacific’s defense was poor in 2012 and much of that had to do with the rash of injuries that hit the team during the season, resulting in players moving around and playing out of position.  They rely more on their infield defense than most teams do because their starters are ground ball pitchers who pitch to contact.  Lockwood is solid at 1B, Pederson is average at 2B, Torchio has done a good job at SS but they have had issues at 3B with Gomez and Wagner combining for six errors.  The middle infielders have done a good job of turning DP’s and Pacific ranks in the top 30 nationally in DP’s per game.  Sullivan has good range in CF and the corner OF’s are average.

Stolen Base Attempts – 19-28 (4/xx).  2012 – 61-80 (8/xx).  Taasaas has had issues holding down the running game the last two seasons (43-56 in 2012, 19-25 this season) and allowed the most steals in the Big West last season.  Look for Fullerton to try to get the running game going this weekend.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 11 (1/xx).  2012 – 59 (7/xx).  Taasaas struggled with blocking pitches in 2012 but has been much better this season and Pacific has allowed the fewest WP’s/PB’s in the conference.  Their pitchers try to get hitters to pound the ball into the ground so they tend to throw many balls in the dirt, which makes Taasaas’ low number of WP’s/PB’s even more impressive.


Pitching

• ERA – 4.79 (9/201).  5.50 in 2012 (9/253).
• AVG – .305 (9/249).  .304 in 2011 (8/250).
• HR – 2 (1/xx).  24 in 2012 (7/xx).
• Walks – 68 (7/143), 3.7 BB/9 IP.  187 (8/122) in 2012, 3.5 BB/9 IP.
• HBP – 21 (4/xx).  71 in 2012 (2/xx).
• OBP – .389 (9/xx).  .387 in 2012 (9/xx).
• SLG – .382 (8/xx).  .421 in 2011 (9/xx).
• WHIP – 1.61 (9/xx).  1.59 in 2012 (9/219).
• Strikeouts – 77 (10/293), 4.2 K/9 IP.  256 in 2012 (8/283), 4.8 K/9 IP.

Starters

Pacific returned their two best starters from 2012 and brought in a JC transfer who has thrown well so the rotation for the Tigers has been pretty good.  Pacific is an extreme ground ball and pitch to contact staff without power arms.

Soph #35 Michael Hager (RHP – 0-2, 5.64 ERA, 6 apps, 3 GS, 22 IP, 27 H, 8 BB, 11 K, .318 AVG, 1 HR, 5 HBP, 0 WP, 1-2 SB.  ’12 – 6-5, 4.36 ERA, 18 apps, 12 GS, 89 IP, 111 H, 13 BB, 35 K, .318 AVG, 3 HR, 8 HBP, 6 WP, 5-11 SB) is a strike throwing control specialist and was in the top 40 nationally in BB/9 IP ratio as a FR.  He started out in the bullpen in 2012 in the first few weeks before being moved into the rotation and ended up earning six of Pacific’s sixteen wins and he had a decent 4.36 ERA in Big West games (3.38 ERA against conference teams except for Fullerton).  Hager once again started this season in the bullpen but was moved into the rotation after an excellent relief appearance at ASU when he allowed only one run to the Sun Devils in five innings.  He had a solid start at TCU (6 2/3 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K) but didn’t pitch as well against Creighton (4 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 2 K) and Fresno State (4 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 1 K).  Hager is a ground ball, pitch to contact pitcher who gives up a big number of hits but few HR’s.  He had a terrible start against Fullerton in 2012 and allowed 7 R on 11 H in 3 IP.

JC transfer #29 Cory Popham (RHP – 2-0, 2.18 ERA, 5 GS, 1 CG, 1 SHO, 33 IP, 33 H, 11 BB, 14 K, .268 AVG, 0 HR, 3 HBP, 1 WP, 4-5 SB) has given Pacific a solid third starter, which is a spot in the rotation that was basically a disaster area in 2012.  After allowing 4 R in 4 2/3 IP in his first start against San Jose State, he has had four straight good starts against UNLV (a complete game shutout that earned him Big West pitcher of the week honors), Gonzaga (7 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 0 K), TCU (7 1/3 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 2 K) and Creighton (5 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 4 K).  Popham has been the toughest of Pacific’s starters to hit.

Soph #22 Michael Benson (RHP – 2-1, 2.17 ERA, 5 GS, 37 IP, 37 H, 11 BB, 8 K, .280 AVG, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 2 WP, 3-6 SB.  ’12 – 3-9, 3.34 ERA, 13 GS, 2 CG, 1 SHO, 84 IP, 99 H, 28 BB, 46 K, .279 AVG, 3 HR, 13 HBP, 3 WP, 11-19 SB) was the Friday SP as a FR and had an ERA just under 5.00 in his first four starts before pitching much better as the season went on and he had a 3.51 ERA in Big West games.  He was a hard luck pitcher as the Fri SP for such a bad team and went 1-5 in conference games despite that ERA and led the Big West in losses.  Benson is in the top ten in the Big West in ERA and threw well in his first four starts against San Jose State (6 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K), Gonzaga (7 2/3 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 0 K), Arkansas (8 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 3 K) and TCU (8 2/3 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 2 K) before not throwing as well at Creighton (7 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 2 K).  He is an extreme ground ball and pitch to contact pitcher who has only allowed three HR’s in eighteen career starts.  Benson hasn’t had good control in his last two starts with four walks in each start and if his control is off he will have trouble against a patient Fullerton team.  He did a solid job against Fullerton in 2012 before his defense let him down and went 7 2/3 innings against the Titans and allowed 5 R (2 ER) on 10 H and 3 BB with 4 K.

Relievers

Pacific didn’t have much pitching depth in 2012 and it was often an adventure when they had anybody besides Benson or Hager on the mound with only one other pitcher having an ERA below 5.00.  Five of those pitchers were SR’s so it is a mostly new group in the bullpen and a couple of them have thrown well but there are quite a few ugly ERA’s with six relievers having ERA’s over seven.

JR #17 Kyle Crawford (LHP – 1-0, 1.08 ERA, 8 apps, 17 IP, 16 H, 4 BB, 6 K, .254 AVG, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 1 WP, 1-3 SB.  ’12 – 2-7, 6.23 ERA, 15 apps, 12 GS, 1 CG, 69 IP, 85 H, 25 BB, 32 K, .297 AVG, 3 HR, 10 HBP, 4 WP, 9-13 SB.  ’11 – 1-2, 10.00 ERA, 15 apps, 3 GS, 18 IP, 29 H, 6 BB, 6 K, .392 AVG, 2 HR, 2 HBP, 1 WP, 2-3 SB) was the third starter in 2012 and rarely gave Pacific a chance to win when he started but things have much better this season and he has thrown very well as the best option for the Tigers out of the bullpen.  If a game is close he is likely to be the first reliever to come into the game and because he has a background as a starter he doesn’t have a problem going 2-3 innings.

JC transfer #16 Kevin Hammann (RHP – 2-1, 1.80 ERA, 1 save, 7 apps, 5 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 3 K, .167 AVG, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 1 WP, 1-1 SB) and FR #32 Nick Viola (RHP – 0-0, 3.52 ERA, 6 apps, 8 IP, 2 H, 4 BB, 6 K, .083 AVG, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 1 WP, 1-1 SB) would be the only other relievers that Pacific would be likely to trust in a close game and Viola has one of the better arms on the staff.

Others

JR #20 John Haberman (LHP – 0-3, 9.77 ERA, 5 apps, 3 GS, 16 IP, 29 H, 7 BB, 12 K, .397 AVG, 0 HR, 3 HBP, 1 WP, 1-2 SB.  ’12 – Started three games, missed the rest of the season with an injury) started the season in the rotation but only threw well in one of his three starts and was replaced by Hager.

SR #37 Travis Lumby (LHP – 0-1, 10.50 ERA, 9 apps, 6 IP, 9 H, 4 BB, 4 K, .333 AVG, 1 HR, 0 HBP, 0 WP, 0-0 SB.  ’12 – 1-4, 7.12 ERA, 16 apps, 6 GS, 30 IP, 33 H, 23 BB, 20 K, .275 AVG, 3 HR, 3 HBP, 5 WP, 5-7 SB)

Soph #36 Bryce Lombardi (RHP – 0-1, 7.11 ERA, 6 apps, 6 IP, 10 H, 2 BB, 2 K, .357 AVG, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 0 WP, 4-4 SB.  ’12 – 0-1, 8.22 ERA, 14 apps, 2 GS, 23 IP, 29 H, 12 BB, 10 K, .322 AVG, 1 HR, 5 HBP, 5 WP, 7-7 SB)


Outlook

Fullerton has been playing with a great sense of urgency this weekend and has rarely given away games, not losing a game they led in until Tuesday night against LMU.  The Titans have been finding ways to win games and have been putting down the hammer when they have had the chance with four sweeps in the first six weekends.

Fullerton has traditionally beaten Pacific like a drum with the Titans holding an 80-12 all-time advantage in the series.  However, things were much tighter from 2009-2011 when Fullerton only won five of the nine games and Pacific won a series against the Titans for the first time ever in 2009.  Fullerton re-established their dominance in the series last season by sweeping the Tigers in Stockton by a cumulative score of 36-6.

Fullerton is still having issues putting together hits on weekends and things don’t figure to be helped with Matt Chapman unavailable for the next few weeks due to a sprained ankle.  As long as the Titans stick with their patient approach at the plate, they should be able to continue to put rallies together this weekend against a pitching staff that relies on pitching to contact and having their fielders do the work.

Fullerton has consistently pitched well all season with only a few hiccups along the way.  Pacific is a team that doesn’t have much patience at the plate and the Titans once again lead the nation in fewest walks allowed per game so the Tigers are going to have to earn their runs this weekend, something they have had trouble doing this season.

Pacific has been playing more competitively this season than they did the past couple of years and has the starting pitching that will keep them in games but this is a series that Fullerton should win as long as they stick with what has been working this season.  The Tigers haven’t been swept this season but the goal for the Titans will be to accomplish what nobody else has been able to do and that is to sweep Pacific.

Titans Wipe Out Tigers in Clean Sweep

By Don Hudson

Cal State Fullerton Titans        241  010  002   -    10   17   1
University of the Pacific Tigers 000  000  000   -      0     3   4


The Cal State Fullerton Titans finished the job yesterday, scoring early and often and rode the complete game, three-hit pitching of Grahamm Wiest to defeat the University of the Pacific Tigers and complete the sweep.  It was the tenth consecutive weekend series win for the Titans and put them in sole possession of first place in the Big West Conference, one game ahead of the Long Beach State Dirtbags.  Wiest was brilliant in mowing through the Tigers’ line-up, throwing just 85 pitches and facing 29 batters, just two over the minimum.

By the time Wiest threw his first pitch, his teammates had already staked him to a 2-0 lead.  Ivory Thomas singled with one out and scored on a double by Carlos Lopez.  A two-out RBI single brought in Lopez, just ahead of the throw from UOP rightfielder Allen Riley.

Catcher Jared Deacon gave his team a “pick me up” in the bottom of the inning when he thwarted an attempted stolen base.  After getting their butts handed to them the night before, UOP Coach Ed Sprague seemed to be signaling a more aggressive posture on Sunday when he ran his leadoff man, who had reached on an error, despite trailing by a couple runs.  Deacon’s throw seemed to exhaust the Tigers’ early hopes.

All hope was lost when the Titans scored four runs in the second against starter Mike Hager.  Matt Orloff, starting at second-base after knocking out two hits off the bench on Saturday, led off with a single and went to second on a perfectly executed hit-and-run single by Deacon through the vacated shortstop hole.  A sacrifice by Richy Pedroza and a HBP to Thomas loaded the bases, before Lopez lifted a deep flyball towards rightfield.  The runners weren’t sure if it would be caught, but it carried and bounced off the wall, just missing his second grand slam in two days.  Orloff and Deacon scored on the play, with Thomas and Lopez subsequently scoring on another clutch two-out hit by Hutting.
The Titans made it 7-0 when they converted the extra point in the third inning, all with two out.

Deacon and Pedroza singled before Thomas delivered an RBI-single.

The lone bright spot for the Tigers was the outstanding relief work of lefthander Kyle Crawford, who entered the game in the top of the fourth and allowed no earned runs in six innings, although he was victimized by three unearned runs.  You had to feel badly for UOP third-baseman Taylor Murphy, an outfielder playing out of position due to the rash of injuries: he made four errors in the game.

There is no mercy rule in Division I baseball, but I’ll spare the rest of the details.  The Titans scored an unearned run in the fifth and two more in the ninth inning.  While Wiest was clearly the game’s top star, the offense spread the lifting around.  They posted 17 hits, with 3 by Pedroza and two each by Lopez, Thomas, Hutting, Orloff and Deacon.

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

So what did we learn this weekend?

'Black Jack' Titans Take Down the House

By Don Hudson

Cal State Fullerton Titans      312  301  236  -   21   21   0
University of the Pacific Tigers 200  100  001  -     4     7    4

The Titans’ 5-2 win in the series opener had all the physical play of a football game; the middle game on Saturday had scoring more typically associated with football.  With the Titans’ (29-14, 11-3) 21-4 clobbering of University of the Pacific, the Titans clinched their tenth consecutive weekend series win and moved into sole possession of the Big West Conference lead, a half game ahead of Long Beach State.  (The Dirtbags are playing outside the conference this weekend against Jason Gill’s Loyola Marymount University Lions.)

Our Game 1 recap reported two UOP players left the game with injuries, subsequently determined to be a concussion (first-baseman Erik Lockwood) and broken arm (catcher Jason Taasaas).  Tigers skipper Ed Sprague had no options but to use a patch-work line-up that included a freshman walk-on third-string catcher (Dallas Correa), a first-baseman (Daniel Johnston) playing just his second game at the position and third-baseman (Curtis Gomez) playing the position for just the fourth time.

The Titans kicked a field goal in the top of the first.  After Richy Pedroza led off with a double and Ivory Thomas reached on an error and advanced on a wild pitch, Carlos Lopez delivered a two-run single.  Lopez stole second and scored the third run of the inning on a single by Anthony Hutting, following a walk to Matt Chapman.

Pacific came back with a safety in the bottom of the first on a double and two-run homer by switch-hitter Allen Riley against winning pitcher Kenny Mathews.

The Titans scored in the second on a leadoff single by Anthony Trajano up the middle, a sacrifice by Casey Watkins and an RBI single by Thomas.  They added two more runs to make it 6-2 in the top of the third on a double and stolen base by Michael Lorenzen, a walk to Hutting and a two-run double to right-centerfield by J.D. Davis.

The Titans kicked another field goal in the fourth inning, with most of the damage coming with two outs.  Thomas had walked and nearly stole second about ten times, each time returning to first after Lorenzen fouled off pitches.  Thomas eventually came around to score on a single by Lorenzen and a wild pitch.  Chapman’s single drove in Lorenzen.  A base hit by Hutting drove in Chapman and the rout was on.

The last good thing that happened for Pacific was a solo home run by Daniel Johnston in the bottom of the fourth inning.

I’ll spare you the details of how the remaining runs scored and stick to the highlights.  The Titans replaced six of the nine offensive starters mid-game and played station-to-station baseball, but the runs continued to amass against the inept pitching and defense of UOP.

Titans Emerge from Collision with Tigers

By Don Hudson

Cal State Fullerton Titans         010  001  030  -   5   11   0
University of the Pacific Tigers 000  020  000  -   2     5    3

For the many Titans fans that pine for the return of football to campus, you would have loved last night’s game.

In a game that included three bone-jarring collisions, the Cal State Fullerton Titans rode the complete game pitching of Dylan Floro (7-3, 2.25) to a 5-2 win over the University of the Pacific Tigers in the series opener at Klein Family Field in Stockton, CA.  Floro allowed just five hits and posted seven strikeouts, to the delight of a throng of friends and family members who came out to support him.  Floro hails from nearby Merced, CA.

Facing hard-luck losing pitcher Michael Benson, the Titans got on the scoreboard first with a solo tally in the second inning.  Anthony Hutting led off with a double to left-centerfield and scored on base hit up the middle by Matt Chapman.  It was a nice piece of hitting by Chapman, who battled back after falling behind in the count.

Floro walked a batter in the second, but he was aided by an inning-ending double-play on a soft liner to second-baseman Richy Pedroza on a hit-and-run play.

The Titans had Benson on the hook in the third when Pedroza led off with a single and went to second when Ivory Thomas placed a groundball through the vacated shortstop hole on a perfectly executed hit-and-run play.  Carlos Lopez lifted a deep flyball that went approximately 400 feet – caught just in front of the 405 foot sign in centerfield.  Pedroza tagged and went to third – had the relay been slow or even slightly misplayed, I think Coach Vanderhook would have kept him wheeling towards home.  But it brought up cleanup hitter Michael Lorenzen with one out and runners at the corners – he hit the first pitch for a 6-4-3 double-play.

The Tigers did not get their first hit against Floro until the fourth inning – a questionable hit at that.  Leadoff man Tyler Sullivan bunted in front of the plate.  Floro’s throw seemed to be easily ahead of the runner, but it was a little wide and pulled Lopez off the bag.  After a strikeout, stolen base and walk put two runners aboard with one out, Lopez came to rescue of Floro with a nice backhand grab of a line-drive and a throw to second to double off the lead runner and end the inning.

Pacific Series Preview

Titans at Pacific (Klein Family Field)

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

By FullertonBaseballFan

Before Fullerton took last weekend off, the Titans played a critical Big West series at Goodwin Field with Cal Poly and won a hard fought series by winning the opener 6-1, losing the second game 8-6 and rallying to win the third and deciding game in extra innings 5-4 to remain tied for first in the conference standings at 9-3.  The Mustangs are a young and talented team and have been playing inconsistently since sweeping their first two weekend series and they lost two of their first three conference series, with a sweep of Irvine in between the series losses, and they gave Fullerton all they could handle.

Fullerton jumped on Cal Poly starter Joey Wagman early in the first game by scoring runs in the second and third innings.  Anthony Hutting singled to lead off the second, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a SF by Clay Williamson.  Jared Deacon got on base on an error to lead off the third, went to second on a single by Richy Pedroza and scored on an RBI single by Michael Lorenzen.  The Titans broke things open with four runs in the sixth when Carlos Lopez and Lorenzen led off the inning with singles, Hutting drove in Lopez with a double and Lorenzen scored and Hutting advanced to third on error by the RF to knock Wagman out of the game.  Hutting scored on a wild pitch for the third run of the inning, Williamson followed with a single, Derek Legg doubled and Williamson scored the final run of the inning on another wild pitch.  Dylan Floro allowed hits in each of the first five innings but was able to escape without any damage and retired the Mustangs in order in the sixth and seventh before Cal Poly finally put a run on the board with three hits in the eighth.  Floro scattered ten hits and didn’t walk a batter while allowing only that one run and struck out eight batters to improve his record to 6-3.  The hitting leaders for Fullerton were Hutting with two hits, two runs and an RBI and Lorenzen with two hits, a run and an RBI.

The second game of the series was a pitchers duel between Cal Poly starter Kyle Anderson and Kenny Mathews until Fullerton scored twice in the bottom of the fourth.  Lorenzen got things started by getting on base on an error, Matt Chapman doubled, Ivory Thomas hit an RBI single and Hutting brought in the second run with a SF.  The Mustangs had two runners on with two outs in the fifth when the wheels fell off for the Titans when Big West HR leader Mitch Haniger hit his eighth HR, Mathews walked the next hitter, gave up a single and Nick Torres hit the second three run HR of the inning and Cal Poly took a 6-2 lead, which didn’t last long when Fullerton scored four runs in the bottom half of the inning to tie things up.  Anthony Trajano and Lopez singled with two outs, Lorenzen doubled them in to cut the lead in half, Chapman was hit by a pitch and Thomas tripled to left over a drawn in outfield to tie the game.  Willy Kuhl came into the game in the sixth and struck out two hitters in the sixth and seventh and struck out the first two batters of the eighth when Chris Hoo doubled and pinch-hitter Alex Michaels hit a HR off of the RF foul pole to give the Mustangs an 8-6 lead.  Reed Reilly came into the game for Cal Poly in the sixth inning and allowed only one hit while holding Fullerton scoreless for the last four innings to pick up the win.  Kuhl struck out eight batters in 3 2/3 IP but took the loss on Michaels’ HR to fall to 2-3.  Thomas had two hits and three RBI, Lorenzen had two hits, two runs and two RBI and Lopez had two hits and a run for the Titans.

Pacific Preview

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

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pacific Tigers

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

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

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

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

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

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

Offense

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

Infield

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

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

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

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

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

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

Outfield

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

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

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

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

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

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

Defense

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pitching

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

Starters

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

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

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

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

Relievers

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

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

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

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

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

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

Outlook

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

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

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

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