Titans-Eaters: The Rest of the Story

UCI at Titans: Won 5-2 (Friday), Won 3-2 (Saturday), 7-5 (Sunday)

By Jim Venuto 
(A Letter From a Fan)

“Now, for the Rest of the Story ...”

“In a 14-pitch at-bat, in which Lopez fouled off nine straight, he eventually won the encounter, lacing a RBI single into right field as the Titans took a 3-2 lead when Jefferies crossed the plate.”

That sounds exciting, but there’s much more to the story...and it’s true.  It happened this weekend. The incident above was actually on national TV (ESPN) Friday night.  The funny thing about it:  Lopez was laughing between pitches, every pitch after his sixth foul tip.  He kept looking over to his teammates on the Cal. State Fullerton bench and smiling and laughing.  This was an important game. Fullerton needed to win to maintain a top-8 seed in the NCAA Regional tournament, where, like NCAA basketball, the top 64 teams play. But in baseball, the final 8 teams come to Omaha for the College World Series.  Fullerton was rated 4 or 5, depending upon the poll, and Irvine was rated 24-26.  Irvine wanted to win to remain in the top 45, as 18-19 teams win automatic berths by winning their leagues or conference tournaments, and the UC-Irvine Anteaters were in 4th place in their conference with no year-end tournament to allow them to qualify for an “at-large” berth.

Anyone that played baseball knows fouling off nine consecutive pitches is difficult, rare, and almost never done.  It wasn’t 6, 7, or 8 consecutive pitches; it was exactly 9.  Incredible.  And it was, indeed, nine (9) consecutive pitches against Irvine’s top reliever.  Most batters would have been extremely nervous and sweating, and maybe Lopez should have been.  But the camera showed, and the ESPN commentators pointed out, that Carlos flashed a big smile and was “giggling.”  Actually, he had fouled off two (2) other pitches in the same at bat, but they were not part of the “nine straight.”  Perhaps the smiling and giggling kept him loose.  Fullerton won the game in the bottom of the ninth.  Now, for “the rest of the story ...”

I was lucky enough to have dinner with Carlos and his father, when I drove down to Tulsa about 3-4 weeks ago to watch Fullerton play three games against Oral Roberts.  I went out to dinner with a friend from Fullerton, Don Hudson. When I arrived at the restaurant, Don was sitting with Carlos and his dad.  The elder Lopez was a tall thin man (probably 6’2”) that wore a Panama (straw) hat to all the games. I had met him before - in Dallas when I attended a series of games against TCU, last year.  The older Mr. Lopez remembered me only because I was the “guy from Nebraska”.  And I remembered him because he was always smiling and seemed to know everybody and he was always relaxed and happy-go-lucky.  So, I sat at the same restaurant table for about an hour and talked to Carlos, his dad, and Don Hudson, while we ate barbequed ribs. It was a “delightful” experience, and I came to like Carlos (and his dad) more.  I also learned Carlos is an excellent student, a “fifth-year senior” that was not drafted last year, like most 3 and 4-year Fullerton players.  There had been considerable concern that he might not come back this year and play baseball.

Last fall, he enrolled (I believe in Fullerton’s graduate school).  He had decided to play baseball one more year.  The Fullerton players seem to appreciate Carlos; he is humble, works hard, plus he’s quiet and friendly – one of those guys that “never says ‘boo’.”  And he smiles a lot.  Interestingly, by the time the baseball season started in February, he had lost 35 lbs. and was trim, faster, and going into Friday night’s game, he was batting .330+ in 199 at bats. Also, he had recently been selected by the NCAA as one of 10 NCAA baseball student-athletes who excel both on and off the field for a 2013 “Senior CLASS Award.” (To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division-I senior and have “notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character, and competition.”)  I don’t mean to “name-drop” by telling you I ate dinner with Carlos; I wanted you to know he is a good kid and a good student ... and I ate dinner with him.

Anyway, I promised you “the rest of the story ...”

After he won the game Friday night on national TV, Fullerton was down in the bottom of the ninth to Irvine Saturday night, also, and up steps Carlos Lopez, again. That’s right, bottom of the ninth, two out, probably a 3-2 count.  What does he do? “One swing of the bat from Carlos Lopez, and No. 4 Cal State Fullerton left UC Irvine on the field with a two-out walk-off home run in Saturday night’s 3-2 series-clinching victory at Goodwin Field.”

But I promised you “the rest of the story ...” and that’s not it. That was last night. What about today, Sunday?

This afternoon, Sunday, May 19th, Fullerton was down yet again, this time 5-2, and going into the ninth inning, still down 5-4. “Entering the ninth, trailing the Anteaters, 5-4, UC Irvine reliever Mitch Merten surrendered a leadoff single to Jake Jefferies and issued a one-out walk to Richy Pedorza. The Anteaters’ Evan Brock then came to the mound, and for the third day in a row, Lopez came to the plate with the game on the line. The fifth-year senior delivered, again. He took Brock's 1-1 offering and left UCI on the field with a three-run walk-off homer to right.”  The Cal. State Fullerton Titans (45-8) are now assured of winning their 27th conference championship in 39 years. (They didn’t play baseball before then.)  Let’s hope the Titans get to Omaha for the CWS so you can see how much fun this team is to watch, and so you can see, and maybe even meet, Carlos...and his dad.  (His dad will be the one wearing a Panama hat.  And he’ll likely be smiling.)

Carlos Lopez's Big West-Winning Homer

With the Titans down 5-4 in the bottom of the ninth, Carlos Lopez delivers his second consecutive walk-off homer in as many days, this time a three-run shot to give Fullerton a 7-5 victory over UC Irvine and outright title of the Big West Conference.

Carlos Lopez's Saturday Night Special

With the score tied at 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth, Carlos Lopez drills a 1-1 pitch over the right field fence to give the Titans a 3-2 victory over UC Irvine.

UC Irvine Series Preview

UC Irvine at Titans

Friday 8 p.m. (ESPNU); Saturday 6 p.m. (FS West); Sunday 1 p.m.

By FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton started out the season 31-4, scuffled for a bit when they went 3-3 and dropped a game in all three weekend series during that stretch, and rebounded to go on a five game winning streak after shutting out Hawaii in the final two games on the islands and returning home to sweep Long Beach State.  The Titans went on the road to Riverside last weekend and extended their winning streak to seven games by bludgeoning the Highlanders 14-7 and 12-0 before dropping the final game of the series 7-6 on Mother’s Day.  The win by Riverside also snapped Fullerton’s seven game winning streak in the Inland Empire at their former house of horrors.

After a scoreless first inning on Friday, Fullerton jumped on starter Dylan Stuart, who had shut them out in 2012, by scoring four runs in the top of the second when J.D. Davis singled, Michael Lorenzen was hit by a pitch, Chad Wallach bunted them over and reached first when Stuart’s throw was wide of the bag, Greg Velazquez singled in two runs and Richy Pedroza and Carlos Lopez followed later in the inning with RBI singles.  The Titans added to the lead in the third when Wallach doubled and Velazquez singled him in. Fullerton scored another run in the fourth when Pedroza singled to third and went to second on an error on the throw and Lopez singled him in.  The Titans finished off Stuart’s night in the sixth with four runs to make it 10-0 when Pedroza walked, Lopez singled, Matt Chapman doubled them in, Lorenzen doubled in Chapman and Wallach doubled in Lorenzen.  Thomas Eshelman was the beneficiary of the scoring onslaught and threw five scoreless innings, allowing three hits and lowering his ERA to 1.42 while improving his record to 9-2.  After Riverside scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth, the destruction continued in the top of the seventh when Fullerton scored four more runs after Matt Orloff singled, Pedroza walked, Lopez singled in a run, Chapman tripled in two runs and Davis doubled in a run.  The Titans had seventeen hits and were led by Lopez going 4-6 with 2 R and 3 RBI, Wallach going 3-3 with 2 R and an RBI, Chapman going 2-6 with 2 R and 4 RBI, Pedroza going 2-3 with 3 R and an RBI and Velazquez going 2-4 with a R and 3 RBI.

Fullerton stayed as hot as the temperatures were in Riverside on Saturday when they scored six runs in the first inning to pretty much end the game before it had started. Pedroza led off the game against starter Ben Doucette with a walk, Chapman singled him to third, Davis singled in Pedroza and Wallach crushed one to LF for a three run HR. Velazquez kept things going with a walk, Jake Jefferies singled and Austin Diemer doubled them in to finish off the scoring in the inning.  The Titans continued to bash the ball in the second when they scored five more runs to end Doucette’s night when Chapman nailed a HR to left-center, Davis singled, Lorenzen doubled, Wallach singled them in and Velazquez smacked one out to left-center for a two run HR.  That was pretty much it for the scoring because Highlander reliever held Fullerton off of the scoreboard for the next five innings. Justin Garza threw five shutout innings to lower his ERA to 2.12 and improve his record to 11-0 and Jose Cardona, Tyler Peitzmeier, Willie Kuhl and Koby Gauna each threw a scoreless inning to preserve the shutout.  The seventeen hits were pretty evenly distributed with thirteen batters each getting hits, Wallach getting five RBI and Velazquez and Diemer each drove in two runs.

The start of Sunday’s game was the exact opposite of the first two games with Riverside jumping on Grahamm Wiest for five runs in the first inning when nothing went right for Fullerton.  Two ground ball singles and a double scored a run, a pop to short left that Pedroza lost in the sun scored another run, two more ground balls found holes through the infield to score a run, a based loaded walk scored a fourth run and a double play scored the fifth run of the inning.  Wiest allowed another run in the second inning to end his day and it looked like Fullerton was in for a long game with starter Zach Varela throwing well. The Titans scored a run in the fourth when Lorenzen and Anthony Hutting singled and a ground ball to second by Jefferies was booted to score a run.  The Highlanders scored a run in the fourth off of Gauna to make it 7-1 and that insurance run came in handy later in the game.  Fullerton knocked Varela out of the game in the sixth when they scored two runs after Davis walked, Hutting doubled him in and Jefferies doubled in Hutting. Peitzmeier held down the fort with 3 2/3 scoreless innings to allow the Titans to continue to tighten things up.  Fullerton cut the lead to 7-4 in the seventh when Pedroza led off with a single and eventually scored on a ground out by Chapman after Riverside had brought in their closer, Trevor Frank.  The Titans scored two runs to cut the lead to one in the eighth when Hutting singled for his third hit of the game and went to second on a wild pitch, Jefferies singled him in and Wallach doubled in Jefferies but was left stranded there. Fullerton started the ninth with singles by Lopez and Chapman and Davis was asked to bunt to move the tying and go ahead runs into scoring position but popped up.  Lorenzen followed with an infield single to shortstop to load the bases but Hutting struck out and Jefferies flied out to end the rally and the game.

Fullerton has sometimes had issues on offense against weekend pitching but that definitely wasn’t the case at Riverside as the Titans had their second best output in a series this season with 32 runs on 46 hits for a .368 average.  Fullerton continued to have a patient approach at the plate and also walked twelve times in the series.  The Titans were led at the plate by Wallach (5-10, HR, 10 RBI, 5 R), Chapman (5-15, HR, 6 RBI, 4 R), Pedroza (6-12 with two hits in each game, 2 RBI, 5 R) and Lopez (5-13, 3 RBI) and Lorenzen and Davis both went 4-12 and scored four runs.  The freshmen starters Eshelman and Garza improved their combined record to 20-2 with ten scoreless innings and Peitzmeier threw 4 2/3 scoreless innings in his two appearances to lead the pitching staff.

Fullerton got this week started by celebrating Senior Night with a 5-2 win against #8 UCLA to win both midweek games against the Bruins this season.  UCLA scored a run in the top of the first off of SR starter Michael Lopez, making the first start of his career, and the Titans had six seniors in the lineup and came out motivated to bounce back from Sunday’s loss and jumped on starter Cody Poteet for three runs in the bottom of the inning when Chapman and Lorenzen singled with two outs and Hutting pulled an 0-2 pitch down the line and into the netting above the fence for a three run HR.  Fullerton scored in the third without the benefit of a hit when Chapman was hit by a pitch and stole second, Lorenzen and Hutting walked and Wallach’s ground out to shortstop scored Chapman.  SR David Birosak followed Lopez and threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings and ended up picking up his first win of the season.  After Gauna allowed a run in the fifth to cut the lead to 4-2, the Titans scored a run in the seventh to put the game away when Pedroza walked, moved up on a ground out and a wild pitch and scored on a single by Chapman, the first hit for Fullerton since the first inning.  Peitzmeier and Davis combined to throw three scoreless innings and Lorenzen finished things off in the ninth for his Big West leading sixteenth save.

Fullerton is two games ahead of Northridge in the conference standings and has a chance to possibly clinch the Big West championship this weekend, depending on how the Matadors do at Cal Poly, but it won’t be easy because the Titans will be welcoming UC Irvine to Goodwin Field.  This is an important series for Fullerton because they are looking to stay in contention for a national seed.  This is also an important series for the Anteaters because their hopes for getting an at-large berth in a regional are teetering on the brink due to playing a home heavy non-conference schedule that has hurt their RPI and not playing well on the road.  Fullerton has played thirteen series against Irvine since they brought their program back for the 2002 season and has won eleven of the series, including the last three, and has a 23-13 advantage in those series.  An interesting thing to note is there has only been one series sweep and that occurred in 2004 in Fullerton’s most recent national championship season.


UC Irvine Anteaters (31-17, 13-8 – 3rd)        

• 2012 Overall Record – 31-25
• 2012 Conference Record – 13-11 (4th)
• 2012 Post-Season – None. 
• 2013 RPI/ISR – 65/28.  2012 RPI/ISR – 89/50.
• Pre-season/Current ranking – Pre-season: 30th by Collegiate Baseball, 33rd by NCBWA.  Current:  24th by NCBWA, 25th by Collegiate Baseball and USA Today/Coaches Poll
• Predicted conference finish – 2nd by the Big West coaches, Baseball America, Perfect Game and Easton College Baseball.

2012 Summary and 2013 Preview

Irvine finished second to Fullerton in the regular season in 2011 but nearly went to the College World Series after winning all three of their games at the UCLA regional and taking a lead into the bottom of the ninth in the third game of their super regional at Virginia before allowing two runs with two outs, the second time in four years that the Anteaters had been eliminated in a super regional in dramatic fashion under coach Mike Gillespie.  Irvine entered 2012 ranked in the mid to high twenties in most of the polls and expected to be playing in a regional for the seventh straight year but things didn’t end up that way.  After winning three games in the RBI Tournament in Houston, the Anteaters went 6-8 over the next fourteen games and lost a series at home to Washington and dropped two games at Baylor.  Irvine started to turn their season around when they won their final two games at Nevada and swept Dartmouth at home and Pacific at home to start Big West play.  The Anteaters made their first conference road trip to Cal Poly and were swept by the Mustangs and outscored 17-3 and never really recovered, losing their next two series at home to Fullerton and on the road at Long Beach despite Andrew Thurman only allowing one hit in his win against the Titans and throwing a no-hitter against the Dirtbags.  Irvine swept series at home against Riverside and UCSB but dropped their final two conference series at Northridge and at UC Davis to lose all four Big West series they played on the road on the way to finishing 4-8 over the last twelve games and missing the post-season for the first time since 2006.

Irvine had the best offense in the Big West in 2011 and led the conference in scoring, AVG, SLG and OBP but lost several key cogs from that attack and saw their average drop by 25 points and they scored a run less per game, were in the middle of the Big West in most hitting categories and were held to three runs or less 25 times.  The Anteaters didn’t have much power and hit the second fewest HR’s in the conference.  Irvine had good plate discipline and was second in the Big West in walks and had the second fewest strikeouts. The Anteaters were once again among the leaders in the conference in SAC’s, using bunts and hit and runs as the way to get runners moving because they didn’t have much speed in their lineup and were in the middle of the pack in the Big West in SB’s and hit into the second most DP’s in the conference.

Irvine figured they would have a good pitching staff in 2012 after losing only one starting pitcher from 2011 but that loss was a big one, Big West pitcher of the year Matt Summers.  The Anteaters ran into injury problems and lost two of their starters in the first month to season ending injuries and former pitching coach and current Fullerton pitching coach Jason Dietrich did a good job of patching things together with the rotation for Irvine to end up third in the conference in ERA and was the toughest staff to hit, allowing teams to only hit .235 against them.  Irvine didn’t have many power arms except for Thurman and finished in the middle of the Big West in strikeouts but were effective in pitching to contact with a solid defensive team behind them and had the best opponents’ AVG in the conference.  The Anteaters allowed four runs or less 31 times.

Irvine came into this season with even lower expectations among the national media and was only mentioned in the low 30’s in a couple of the polls.  The Anteaters got off to a blazing 11-2 start against a home heavy schedule with only one midweek game played on the road after they swept Baylor and won three out of four games against both Cal and Portland.  Irvine had major issues playing on the road in 2012 when they only went 8-15 after their season opening weekend and those troubles resurfaced again this season when they lost the first two games of their series at BYU.  The Anteaters returned home and won their series against Nebraska before being swept at Riverside to start Big West play.  Irvine returned home for the next two series and swept Hawaii and won their series with Northridge before going on the road and struggling with Pacific, losing the second game 14-13 and winning the series deciding game 1-0.  The Anteaters had another tight series at home with last place UC Davis, sweeping the Aggies but needing to come from behind and score in the bottom of the ninth to win two of the games.  Irvine’s road issues continued at UCSB when they dropped the series to the Gauchos, who rallied for three runs in the bottom of the ninth to win the series deciding game.  Irvine had a must win series at home last weekend against Cal Poly and delivered by winning the series.

Irvine lost four seniors from last season’s lineup so they thought they might get off to a slow start offensively but it was the opposite with the Anteaters scalding the ball in the first thirteen games, hitting .337 and averaging 6.5 runs per game.  It has been a gradual regression to the mean since then for Irvine, who has hit .270 and averaged five runs per game over the last 35 games.  The Anteaters are hitting for more power this season with 19 HR’s after hitting only eight in 2012 and are second in the Big West in SLG %.  Irvine isn’t as patient at the plate without those seniors and is averaging well under three walks per game but they are still doing a good job of making contact with the second fewest strikeouts in the conference.  The Anteaters are still bunting quite a bit and are second in the Big West in SAC’s but they are running even less than they did in 2012 and are seventh in the conference in SB’s and they will put runners in motion often to stay out of double plays and have hit into the second fewest in the Big West after hitting into the second most in 2012.

Irvine brought back another very experienced pitching staff after losing only one starter from 2012 and the results for the most part have been solid but they have had some issues with inconsistency, especially on the road.  The Anteaters two returning starters in the weekend rotation have only gone 9-9 but a JC transfer has been lights out and gone 10-0 and is a big reason why they are in the hunt to get into a regional.  Irvine’s bullpen figured to be a strength due to having so many pitchers returning but they have been up and down and have been shelled in four recent midweek games and blown some leads late.  Overall, the staff has been good and they are second in the big West in ERA and opponents’ AVG. The Anteaters have starters in all three spots in the weekend rotation who are capable of striking hitters out and are second in the conference in strikeouts and all three of their starters also have excellent control and they have allowed the second fewest walks in the Big West.


Offense

• Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 105 from ’09-’12 (increases offense by 5%) due to playing most weekend games at home.  Irvine’s park plays big with lots of room in the gaps for 2B’s and 3B’s but is tough to hit HR’s out of, although the ball will carry out during the day. 
• Batting Average – .288 (2nd in the Big West, 67th nationally); .289 in conference (3rd).  .274 in 2012 (4/153).
• Scoring – 251 (4/126), 5.3 runs per game; 117 (3rd), 5.6 runs per game in conference.  260 (4/225), 4.6 runs per game in 2012.
• Home Runs – 19 (4/126); 10 in conference (3rd).  8 in 2012 (8/279). 
• Slugging Percentage – .397 (2/74); .399 in conference (3rd).  .363 in 2012 (4/192).
• On Base Percentage – .364 (3/103); .356 in conference (4th).  .363 in 2012 (4/120)
• Walks – 129 (6/273), 2.7 per game; 48 (5th), 2.3 per game in conference.  199 in 2012 (2/148), 3.6 per game.
• HBP’s – 69 (1/34); 30 in conference (2nd).   70 in 2012 (3/77).
• Strikeouts – 245 (9/xx; 2nd fewest), 5.2 per game; 107 (8th), 5.1 per game in conference.  269 in 2012 (9/xx, 2nd fewest), 4.8 per game.
• Stolen Bases – 33-50 (7/239); 14-19 in conference (8th).  45-67 in 2011 (4/182). 
• Sac Bunts – 56 (2/25); 23 in conference (2nd).  62 in 2012 (2/43).

Infield

Irvine went into 2012 with a very experienced infield with SR starters returning at every position except for 3B.  Injuries caused some things to be shuffled around with two FR taking over behind the plate.  This season, their SR catcher is back from a medical redshirt and they broke in three new starters after losing honorable mention all-conference 1B Jordan Fox, honorable mention all-conference 2B Tommy Reyes and 2nd team all-conference SS D.J. Crumlich, who was also the Big West defensive player of the year.

C/DH – SR #5 Ronnie Shaeffer (RH – .311/.343/.411, 3-34-1.  ’12 – Medical redshirt – .147/.268/.147, 0-3-0.  ’11 – .260/.313/.303, 1-31-2.  ’10 – .318/.370/.439, 3-31-1) was 1st team All-Big West, the MVP of the UCLA regional and the national Gold Glove winner in 2011 but broke a finger on his right hand early last season and was a medical redshirt.  He didn’t hit well in 2011 or early in 2012 with the BBCOR bats but has hit better this season. Shaeffer got off to a hot start as most of the Irvine players did in the first 12 games when he hit .423 with two HR’s and 13 RBI and has hit .268 since then with one HR.  He has heated up again recently and hit .370 the last two weeks with five RBI.  Shaeffer doesn’t walk much but does a very good job of making contact with a 9/12 BB/K ratio and usually hits fifth.  He is 7-31 in his career against Fullerton.

C/DH – Soph #11 Jerry McClanahan (RH – .252/.425/.315, 1-15-0.  ’12 – .276/.415/.388, 2-18-0) got off to a cold start as a FR with only two hits in his first 18 AB’s but started hitting better as he got regular playing time after Shaeffer got hurt and hit .313 for the rest of the season.  He hit .400 in the first nine games this season but missed ten games with a hairline fracture in his arm and has hit .198 since returning to the lineup.  McClanahan is the most patient hitter on the team and leads Irvine in walks and is also second in the Big West in HBP’s and is sixth in the conference in OBP despite his hitting struggles.  He has only hit .194 in conference games and has gone 2-15 over the last two weeks with five walks.  McClanahan splits time with Shaeffer at C and DH and starts once a weekend behind the plate and usually hits sixth.  He went 0-6 against Fullerton in 2012.

1B – Soph #33 Connor Spencer (LH – .385/.464/.503, 0-31-2.  ’12 – .306/.388/.382, 0-30-1.  Going into Fullerton – .405/.489/.557, 0-14-0) was the DH as a FR and has taken over for Jordan Fox at 1B.  He was among several players who was auditioning for time in the lineup as a FR and hit his way into an everyday role by getting off to a hot start and was hitting over .400 going into the Fullerton series but cooled off significantly during conference play and only hit in the .250’s the rest of the season.  Spencer got off to another hot start this season and he has stayed hot, leading the Big West in AVG and OBP and he is also among the conference leaders in R, H, 2B, TB and SLG.  He hits third and is a line drive hitting machine who sprays the ball gap to gap and has an excellent 20/17 BB/K ratio. Spencer went 1-11 against Fullerton in 2012.

2B – FR #1 Mikey Duarte (RH – .222/.321/.278, 0-10-1) and FR #27 Grant Palmer (RH – .215/.292/.308, 0-7-0) have been splitting time while taking over for Tommy Reyes.  Duarte will usually start twice and Palmer once in weekend series.  Duarte is only hitting .111 and Palmer is hitting .222 in conference games and whoever is in the lineup will usually hit ninth.  Duarte is an excellent bunter and is second in the Big West with ten SAC bunts despite starting in just over half of Irvine’s games.

SS – Soph #22 Chris Rabago (RH – .268/.330/.355, 1-21-1.  ’12 – .286/.365/.405, 1-12-0. Going into Fullerton – .258/.378/.323, 0-2-0 in 31 AB’s) is a versatile player who split time behind the plate with McClanahan as a FR after Shaeffer was injured but has settled into the lineup as the replacement for three year starter D.J. Crumlich at SS.  He did an excellent job of making contact in 2012 and only struck out six times but has expanded his strike zone as an everyday player and has an 11/24 BB/K ratio.  Rabago was one of the few hitters who got off to a slow start and only hit .216 in the first 21 games but has been hitting better since moving into the leadoff role as conference play got started and has hit .303 since then.  He went 1-4 in his only start against Fullerton in 2012.

3B – Soph #25 Taylor Sparks (RH – .363/.387/.601, 9-43-5.  ’12 – .202/.277/.363, 3-12-2) was expected to make an immediate impact in 2012 after being drafted in the 24th round in HS and split time between 3B and RF as a FR but struggled most of the season before hitting a little better in the last six weeks.  He had a great summer and was one of the best hitters in the West Coast League and his success there has carried over into this season. Sparks got off to a decent start and was hitting .279 with one HR through the first sixteen games but has been the best hitter in the conference during Big West play and leads the conference in HR’s and hits and is second in AVG and RBI for the season and was the conference player of the week after going 7-13 against Cal Poly.  He has been hitting out of his mind during Big West games with a .430 AVG, .744 SLG %, 6 HR’s and 27 RBI as the cleanup hitter and he is the player that Fullerton cannot let beat them.  Sparks isn’t perfect and has issues with plate discipline and was fourth in the conference with 44 K’s in 2012 and has a poor 5/33 BB/K ratio this season.  He struck out in all three AB’s in his only start against Fullerton in 2012.

Outfield

Irvine only returned one starter in the outfield in CF in 2012 with a rotation of players splitting up time in LF and RF.  CF Christian Ramirez was honorable mention all-conference but moved on and has been replaced by a JC transfer and there has been a rotation in LF due to injuries with things more stable in RF.

LF – SR #2 Jeff Stephens (RH – .268/.343/.309, 0-12-5.  ’12 – .288/.345/.340, 0-20-2. Going into Fullerton – .323/.380/.385, 0-10-1) split time early in 2012 before becoming the regular starter as one of the hotter hitters in the lineup early in the season but cooled off during the conference schedule.  He started the first sixteen games this season before breaking a hamate bone in his hand and missing the next 21 games before returning to the lineup three weeks ago and has hit .258 over the last nine games while hitting in the lower part of the batting order.  Stephens does lots of little things well, is a good bunter (8 SAC’s in 2012), has pretty good speed and was a catalyst in the Cal Poly series with his straight steal of home last Friday night.  He is an aggressive hitter with only seventeen walks over the last two seasons.  Stephens went 0-8 with two RBI against Fullerton in 2012.

LF/2B – Soph #6 Kris Paulino (LH – .185/.349/.200, 0-6-2.  ’12 – .225/.333/.288, 0-7-1) split time in RF in as a FR and got some playing time between LF and 2B when injuries hit those positions but hasn’t started since Stephens returned to the lineup.  He does a good job of getting on base by walks and HBP’s with eighteen free bases in only 65 AB’s but has very little power with only one extra base hit.  Paulino had a good series against Fullerton in 2012 and went 3-7 with two RBI.

Soph #7 Ryan Cooper (LH – .227 in 44 AB’s.  ’12 - .250 in 28 AB’s) is the main pinch-hitting option against RHP’s because he usually makes contact with only four strikeouts. He is a good bunter and had the game winning RBI in the Friday game against UC Davis on a suicide squeeze.

FR #36 Jonathan Herkins (RH – .174 in 23 AB’s) looked like he was headed for a redshirt after not playing during the first month of the season but he started eight games while Stephens was out of the lineup and is sixth in the Big West with eight SAC’s despite his limited playing time.

CF – JC transfer #21 Dominique Taylor (RH – .301/.362/.434, 3-30-9) took over for Christian Ramirez and has made an instant impact as one of the better hitters in the lineup.  He was hitting leadoff earlier in the season before settling into the second spot in the lineup during conference play.  Taylor hit .360 with sixteen RBI in the first twelve games and has hit .281 with fourteen RBI since then.  He has been a sparkplug as the best athlete on the team and is in the top ten in the conference in hits and doubles and leads the team in SB’s. Taylor was in a 1-18 slump before hitting .391 over the last two weeks.  Taylor is an aggressive hitter and has a 13-31 BB/K ratio.

RF – SR #12 Scott Gottschling (RH – .250/.342/.383, 2-18-3.  ’12 – .176/.270/.250, 0-15-2.  ’11 – .282 in 39 AB’s) split time between LF and RF last season while starting 27 times but wasn’t able to hit enough to carve out more regular playing time and a major reason why was his inability to make contact and he struck out over 25% of the time.  He has been starting almost every game but he is still having issues with plate discipline with a 12/35 BB/K ratio and is sixth in the Big West in strikeouts.  Gottschling has been a very productive hitter lately and hit the only two HR’s of his career two weeks ago at UCSB and has nine RBI over the last two weeks while usually hitting sixth or seventh.


Defense

Fielding % – .980 (1/6) with 35 errors; .973 (4th) with 21 errors in conference.   2012 – .973 (3/41) with 58 errors.  Irvine only made eight errors in their first 21 games, which was surprising considering their losses around the infield, but has started to have some issues on defense and has made 27 errors over the 26 games.  Spencer does a solid job at 1B and Duarte and Palmer have only made three errors at 2B.  Rabago has a good arm with average range at SS but does a good job with getting in position to make plays and hadn’t made an error going into conference play but has made seven errors since then.  Sparks was below average at 3B as a FR but has become much better.  Stephens, Taylor and Gottschling are solid in the OF and Taylor has good range.  Taylor and Gottschling have good arms.

Stolen Base Attempts – 20-47 (2/xx); 7-18 in conference (2nd).   2012 – 26-54 (1/xx). Irvine traditionally is one of the toughest teams to run on in the Big West and that didn’t change in 2012 despite the injury to Shaeffer with Irvine starting two FR behind the plate and it hasn’t changed this season with Shaeffer returning to the lineup.  Runners are 14-30 against Shaeffer and 6-13 against McClanahan.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 57 (9/xx); 17 in conference (7th).   2012 – 32 (1/xx).  Shaeffer has had issues with blocking pitches during his career and that has been a problem during this season with Irvine allowing the second most WP’s and PB’s in the conference.


Pitching

• ERA – 3.29 (2/42); 3.25 in conference (2nd).  3.25 in 2012 (3/36).
• AVG – .247 (2/36); .253 in conference (3rd).  .235 in 2012 (1/6).
• HR – 10 (1/xx); 6 in conference (4th).  10 in 2012 (2/xx).
• SLG – .343 (2/xx); .350 in conference (4th).  .306 in 2012 (1/xx).   
• Walks – 112 (2/8), 2.4 BB’s/9 IP; 41 in conference (2nd), 2.0 BB’s/9 IP.  159 (5/40) in 2012, 2.9 per game.   
• HBP – 34 (8/xx); 10 in conference (10th).  48 in 2012 (5/xx).
• OBP – .309 (2/xx).  .305 in conference (2nd).   .312 in 2012 (2/xx).
• Strikeouts – 367 (2/29), 7.9 K/9 IP; 170 in conference (1st), 8.2 K/9 IP.  369 (3/121), 6.7 K/9 IP in 2012.

Starters

Irvine returned an experienced rotation in 2012 after losing only one starter but injuries hit their rotation hard with two of their starters lost early in the season.  They held things together to have one of the better pitching staffs in the conference and the only starter who didn’t return was Crosby Slaught.

JR #30 Andrew Thurman (RHP – 5-3, 2.98 ERA, 12 GS, 2 CG, 85 IP, 75 H, 14 BB, 72 K, .244 AVG, 1 HR, 2 HBP, 2 WP, 2-8 SB.  ’12 – 8-3, 2.66 ERA, 15 GS, 4 CG, 98 IP, 68 H, 23 BB, 69 K, .268 AVG, 2 HR, 0 HBP, 1 WP, 2-5 SB.  ’11 – 4-3, 3.82 ERA, 23 apps, 9 GS, 75 IP, 82 H, 21 BB, 64 K, .284 AVG, 3 HR, 5 HBP, 4 WP, 6-15 SB) was a swingman as a FR and ended up in the rotation later in the season, had a good start against UCLA in their regional and picked up Irvine’s only win in the super regional at Virginia with four effective innings out of the bullpen.  He was expected to be starting on Sat’s or Sun’s in 2012 but was moved up to the front of the rotation due to injuries to a couple of starters and was 2-2 with a 4.39 ERA in his first eight starts.  Thurman’s season changed with his start against Fullerton when he took a no-hitter into the ninth inning and followed that up the next weekend by throwing a no-hitter at Long Beach and was lights out over his last seven starts, going 6-1 with a 1.42 ERA.  He has been solid this season but hasn’t been as dominant as expected, mixing in good starts with some average ones.  Thurman had a 2.24 ERA in his first eight starts but only had a 3-3 record due to some inconsistency by Irvine’s offense.  He allowed fourteen runs (13 ER) on 27 hits in 19 1/3 over his next three starts at Pacific, vs. UC Davis and at UCSB before rebounding to have his best start of the season last week against Cal Poly when he threw a complete game and held the Mustangs to a run on four hits with no walks and seven strikeouts.  Thurman has been much better at home, where he is 4-1 with a 1.79 ERA and opponents have hit .204 off of him, than he has been on the road, where he is 1-2 with a 5.92 ERA where opponents have hit .333 against him.  He has outstanding control and has allowed two walks or less in ten of his starts with three walks in each of the other two starts.  Thurman’s fastball was sitting around 90 last season and he has seen a spike in how hard he is throwing and it now sits in the 92-94 range with occasional bumps up to 95-96 and he has an excellent straight change to go along with a curveball and a slider that he uses with two strikes as swing and miss pitches and he is expected to be drafted in the first two rounds in June.

JC transfer #13 Andrew Morales (RHP – 10-0, 1.79 ERA, 15 apps, 11 GS, 80 IP, 68 H, 17 BB, 71 K, .233 AVG, 1 HR, 5 HBP, 11 WP, 3-6 SB) was the JC state pitcher of the year in 2012 after going 12-1 for Rio Hondo, who had one of the best teams in the area last season.  He has made an immediate impact since being moved into the rotation after making a few appearances out of the bullpen.  Morales has allowed two runs or less in nine of his starts and has allowed no runs in five of them.  He is second in the Big West in wins and ERA, third in AVG and fifth in strikeouts.  Morales had a streak of 26 1/3 scoreless innings before allowing seven runs in starts against UC Davis and UCSB before bouncing back with his best start of the season in the series deciding win against Cal Poly when he had ten strikeouts in the first four innings on his way to throwing seven scoreless innings to win the Big West pitcher of the week award for the third time this season.  He is a strike thrower who has allowed two walks or less in ten of his eleven starts and relies on a sinking fastball to get hitters to pound the ball into the ground and a slider as his swing and miss pitch with two strikes.  Because Morales is usually trying to get hitters to pound the ball into the ground and chase pitches in the dirt, he leads the conference with eleven wild pitches.  He has had the most success on the road of Irvine’s three starters, where he is 2-0 with a 2.67 ERA and opponents are hitting .277 against him, and has been lights out at home, where he is 8-0 with a 1.35 ERA and opponents have hit .209 off of him.

JR #44 Matt Whitehouse (LHP – 4-6, 3.30 ERA, 14 apps, 12 GS, 2 CG, 79 IP, 68 H, 15 BB, 74 K, .234 AVG, 1 HR, 11 HBP, 9 WP, 3-6 SB.  ’12 – Medical redshirt – 0-2, 4.15 ERA, 3 GS, 13 IP, 16 H, 3 BB, 17 K, .302 BA, 0 HR, 3 HBP, 2 WP, 1-3 SB.  ’11 – 4-0, 2.12 ERA, 23 apps, 12 GS, 72 IP, 54 H, 15 BB, 63 K, .208 BA, 1 HR, 3 HBP, 7 WP, 3-6 SB; ’10 – 0-0, 4.50 ERA, 10 apps, 6 IP) was pitching out of the bullpen and making midweek starts for the first half of 2011 before moving into the weekend rotation and threw very well during the conference season and ended up finishing second in the Big West in ERA and third in AVG.  He was expected to contend for conference pitcher of the year honors in 2012 but came out of his third start at Baylor with a sore shoulder and ended up taking a medical redshirt.  Whitehouse has pitched in some bad luck this season and Irvine is 2-7 over his last nine starts and when he has pitched well, they usually haven’t hit. He is fifth in the conference in AVG and second in the Big West in strikeouts despite not being a hard thrower with a mid-upper 80’s fastball due to an outstanding slider he uses as his swing and miss pitch with two strikes and also has a good changeup.  Whitehouse has good control and has only allowed more than two walks in one of his starts but will pitch inside and is fourth in the conference with 11 HBP’s.  He has allowed four runs or more in three of his last four starts and will swap spots in the rotation with Morales this weekend and start on Sunday.  Whitehouse has been excellent at home, where he is 4-3 with a 2.17 ERA and teams have hit .200 against him, but has had his issues on the road, where he is 0-3 with a 6.55 ERA and opponents have hit .308 off of him.

Relievers

Irvine expected to have a good bullpen due to returning their closer and so many pitchers from 2012 and only losing a couple of their set-up men.  Their relievers and midweek guys have been inconsistent with blown saves at home against UCLA and at UCSB on home runs and meltdowns at Pacific, at San Diego State, at UCLA and at home against San Diego on Wednesday night and they are a big reason why Irvine is 9-9 over the last eighteen games.

SR #55 Race Parmenter (RHP – 2-3, 3.54 ERA, 7 saves, 18 apps, 20 IP, 13 H, 8 BB, 20 K, .188 BA, 1 HR, 1 HBP, 3 WP, 1-2 SB.  ’12 – 1-2, 2.28 ERA, 8 saves, 22 apps, 28 IP, 23 H, 11 BB, 28 K, .232 BA, 1 HR, 3 HBP, 0 WP, 2-2 SB) emerged from the group of relievers to end up being the closer in 2012, has continued in that role and is fifth in the Big West in saves.  He was throwing well earlier in the season but has started to have trouble and allowed the game tying run against Northridge, two runs in extra innings in the first loss to UCLA and three runs in the Sunday game at UCSB, with the Gauchos winning the game and the series on a walk-off two run HR.  Parmenter has a fastball that will touch 90 and a splitter that is tough on RH hitters.  He made two appearances against Fullerton in 2012, throwing two scoreless innings and had the save in Thurman’s start when he took a no-hitter into the ninth inning.

JR #16 Jimmy Litchfield (LHP –  1-0, 1.73 ERA, 23 apps, 26 IP, 19 H, 8 BB, 15 K, .200 BA, 2 HR, 0 HBP, 1 WP, 1-2 SB.  ’12 – 3-2, 3.60 ERA, 1 save, 29 apps, 2 GS, 45 IP, 43 H, 13 BB, 30 K, .251 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 2 WP, 3-6 SB.  ’11 – 2-1, 2.89 ERA, 3 saves, 34 apps, 44 IP, 43 H, 7 BB, 34 K, .253 BA, 5 HR, 1 HBP, 1 WP, 1-1 SB) has been a solid reliever and among the Big West leaders in appearances in each of the last three seasons due to his ability to make multiple appearances on the weekends.  He isn’t a hard thrower with a low 80’s fastball and will rely on throwing changeups and curves to get batters to hit the ball into the ground.  Litchfield has allowed five runs over eleven innings in his last seven appearances.  In 2011 he allowed three runs in 2/3 IP against Fullerton and in 2012 he walked the only batter he faced in Thurman’s start and came back the next day to start the game and allowed two runs on four hits in 2 2/3 IP.

JR #28 Kyle Hooper (RHP – 1-3, 4.76 ERA, 17 apps, 3 GS, 40 IP, 39 H, 12 BB, 34 K, .264 BA, 2 HR, 1 HBP, 7 WP, 3-6 SB.  ’12 – Medical redshirt – 3-1, 1.30 ERA, 5 apps, 3 GS, 1 CG, 28 IP, 17 H, 3 BB, 28 K, .173 BA, 1 HR, 0 HBP, 0 WP, 1-3 SB.  ’11 – 3-0, 4.06 ERA, 17 apps, 6 GS, 44 IP, 49 H, 17 BB, 31 K, .290 BA, 2 HR, 5 HBP, 9 WP, 2-10 SB; ’10 – 0-0, 7.61 ERA, 18 apps, 24 IP, 45 H, 4 BB, 14 K) was mostly a long reliever during his first two seasons despite having one of the better arms on the staff because of his inability to command his pitches.  Hooper started to refine his pitches after his Soph season and after making a couple of strong appearance out of the bullpen was moved into the weekend rotation and had two excellent starts before leaving his third start with an elbow injury and missed the rest of the season.  He has been inconsistent and was throwing better lately, throwing three scoreless innings against Cal Poly last Saturday, before having a bad start against San Diego on Wednesday night when he allowed five runs on eight hits in 1 2/3 IP.

JR #4 Mitch Merten (RHP –  4-1, 4.10 ERA, 2 saves, 16 apps, 3 GS, 26 IP, 30 H, 11 BB, 28 K, .309 BA, 3 HR, 2 HBP, 2 WP, 2-6 SB.  ’12 – 1-2, 4.13 ERA, 1 save, 22 apps, 33 IP, 29 H, 18 BB, 27 K, .252 BA, 1 HR, 6 HBP, 2 WP, 0-2 SB) only made one appearance in 2011 but became one of the more reliable options in middle relief last season despite having control issues.  He missed the non-conference part of the season with a shoulder injury and has pitched quite a bit since returning and hasn’t been as effective after throwing pretty well after returning.  He is primarily a fastball-changeup pitcher with an occasional slider.  Merten allowed a hit and a walk in 2/3 IP against Fullerton last season.

JR #34 Evan Brock (RHP – 2-1, 3.18 ERA, 15 apps, 5 GS, 34 IP, 35 H, 9 BB, 27 K, .260 BA, 0 HR, 3 HBP, 5 WP, 2-5 SB.  ’12 – 2-1, 2.12 ERA, 18 apps, 2 GS, 34 IP, 22 H, 11 BB, 25 K, .186 BA, 1 HR, 3 HBP, 1 WP, 3-3 SB.  ’11 – Medical redshirt.  ’10 –  6-4, 3.14 ERA, 1 save, 20 apps, 6 GS, 63 IP, 34 H, 30 BB, 62 K, .162 BA, 4 HR, 5 HBP, 4 WP, 4-9 SB) became one of Irvine’s best SP’s down the stretch in 2010 but injured his shoulder that fall and was a medical redshirt in 2011.  He was slow bouncing back from that injury last season and his pitches didn’t have the same life they had prior to his surgery but he started to throw better in conference play with his appearance against Fullerton, when he threw three scoreless innings with five strikeouts against the Titans.  Brock has been inconsistent while making several midweek starts earlier in the season and has only made three appearances in Big West games.

JR #50 Phillip Ferragamo  (RHP – 1-0, 8.36 ERA, 9 apps, 14 IP, 18 H, 7 BB, 17 K, .340 BA, 0 HR, 5 HBP, 5 WP, 2-4 SB.  ’12 – 3-5, 3.72 ERA, 1 save, 19 apps, 8 GS, 65 IP, 64 H, 16 BB, 40 K, .259 BA, 2 HR, 7 HBP, 3 WP, 2-3 SB.  ’11 – 2-0, 2.03 ERA, 19 apps, 27 IP, 23 H, 7 BB, 24 K, .237 BA, 0 HR, 7 HBP, 0 WP, 0-1 SB) is one of the biggest players you will see on a baseball diamond at 6’8”, 260 and was effective out of the bullpen in middle relief as a FR and was in a similar role in 2012 before being moved into the weekend rotation due to injuries to Hooper and Whitehouse.  He started off the season in the doghouse and was suspended and hasn’t thrown well, allowing eight runs in his last two appearances. Ferragamo pitched in relief against Fullerton last season and allowed three runs (2 ER) on six hits in 4 2/3 IP and took the loss in the series deciding game on J.D. Davis’ two run HR.

Soph #40 Sam Moore (RHP – 0-0, 5.06 ERA, 11 apps, 11 IP, 10 H, 4 BB, 7 K, .238 BA, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 2 WP, 1-2 SB.  ’12 – 0-0, 6.75 ERA, 4 apps, 4 IP, 3 H, 0 BB, 4 K) has only made three appearances in Big West games but threw three scoreless innings against Northridge in one of them.


Outlook

There are some strong trends that factor pretty heavily into this series.  Fullerton has won 25 of their last 26 weekend series going back to the second series of 2012.  Irvine has lost seven of their last eight weekend series that they have played on the road.  As mentioned earlier, the Titans have won eleven of the thirteen series these teams have played since 2002 and the only two series that Irvine won were in seasons when they were the better team.  Irvine is 36-3 in series opening games in conference series over the last five seasons, including winning the first game of each series against Fullerton in the last three seasons before seeing the Titans respond by winning the final two games of each of those series.  Finally, the losing team in this series has scored four runs or less in each of the last fourteen games.

Fullerton has sometimes had trouble with hitting weekend pitching but has had a patient approach that has allowed them to put extra runners on base in order to put together rallies and be productive enough to scratch out some runs.  That philosophy will be put to the test this weekend against an Irvine starting staff that doesn’t give out too many free bases.  The Anteaters try to string together hits to put together rallies and there don’t figure to be too many walks handed out when they are hitting because they are an aggressive team and Fullerton walks the fewest batters per game in the country.

Fullerton has had the best pitching staff in the conference all season long, both in the rotation and the bullpen, and their pitchers have been especially effective at home most of the time.  Irvine’s rotation has been close to the equal of the Titans but hasn’t been nearly as good on the road and their bullpen has been very inconsistent.

Both teams are very good defensively and rarely give away outs.  Fullerton has had occasional mental lapses during midweek games earlier in the season but when it has been crunch time during conference games, the Titans have had the best defense in the Big West conference.  Irvine’s defense was outstanding during the non-conference schedule and has been solid during conference play but they have had some issues recently.

Irvine is desperate to pull off an upset this weekend to try to stay in contention to get into a regional.  Fullerton is motivated to keep plugging away and moving towards a conference championship and a national seed.  The Anteaters have been inconsistent, playing .500 ball over the last eighteen games, and have not been a good road team the last couple of seasons.  Fullerton has been very consistent in finding ways to win series every weekend this season.  The Titans will definitely be tested this weekend but with the way things have gone for these teams this season and the way that they have gone in this series over the years, this looks like it should be a tight series that Fullerton will find a way to win.

Titans Spoil Perfection, Then Best 'Eaters

By Don Hudson

The Cal State Fullerton Titans (23-12, 7-2) made their first road trip of the Big West Conference schedule and won a best-of-three series against their recent nemesis, the UC Irvine Anteaters (18-14, 4-5.) The Titans were nearly no-hit in the opening game of a double-header on Saturday which was necessitated by Friday’s rainout, dropping a 4-1 in the lidlifter before storming back to win the nightcap, 13-2. In the nationally televised rubber match on Sunday, the Titans won on a combined three-hitter thrown by a quartet of pitchers and highlighted by a two-run bomb by J.D. Davis.

It was the eighth consecutive weekend series win for Fullerton and left them in a tie with the Long Beach State Dirtbags atop the BWC standings. That regular season-ending final series at Blair Field could be huge – which is what Titans vs. Dirtbags should be. The Titans remained at #12 in the Baseball America rankings, consistent with their RPI, which improved five slots to #11 on the strength of four road games against UCLA and UCI.


Game 1: “We Can’t Hit Righties Either”

Cal State Fullerton 000 000 000 - 1 1 1
UCI Irvine Anteaters 000 012 10X - 4 8 1

The UCI Anteaters came into the series in desperate need of a series win – if not a sweep – to stay in contention for a BWC championship, which is likely to be their only path to an NCAA tournament bid.

After sweeping their opening conference series against the University of the Pacific Tigers, the ‘Eaters had been swept last weekend by the Cal Poly SLO Mustangs, the first time UCI had been swept after winning at least one game in 46 consecutive conference series dating back to 2006. Perhaps even more remarkably, the series-opening loss up in SLO was the first time UCI had lost a BWC series opening game since 2008 – they had won an amazing 25 consecutive opening games in BWC series openers. Just think how many outstanding pitchers they had to beat to win 25 straight series openers – truly an amazing record. (Thanks, FBF, for that stat.)

So could the Titans extend UCI’s new ‘streak’ to two straight BWC series-opening losses, facing Andrew Thurman, moved up in the rotation because of injuries to UCI’s top two weekend starters? He had pitched well in the beginning of the season, but had been lit up recently, allowing 12 runs in his prior 15-2/3 innings. Even better, he was a righty – a welcome respite from all the southpaw pitchers the Titans have struggled against lately.

You’ve got to like your chances, eh?

No.

UC Irvine Series Preview

Titans at UC Irvine (Anteater Park)

Friday 6:30 p.m., Saturday 1 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m. (ESPNU)

By FullertonBaseballFan

Fullerton started their quest towards winning their third consecutive Big West conference championship by opening the conference schedule with two series at Goodwin Field against Cal State Northridge and UC Davis.  The Titans won the first two games with the Matadors but dropped the final game of the series for the third straight weekend.  Fullerton had a much tougher time in the first two games with the Aggies and had to come from behind in the later innings to win both games in their final AB by identical 5-4 scores before breaking their final game of the series hex with a resounding 11-0 win to take over sole possession of first place in the conference standings at 5-1.

Fullerton started the week by driving down to San Diego State on Tuesday and defeated the Aztecs 7-1 to finish a season sweep of both midweek games.  The Titans got on the board in the first inning for the fifth straight game when Richy Pedroza and Anthony Trajano led off the game with singles and Carlos Lopez drove in the run on a ground out.  Fullerton increased the lead with two runs in the second on an infield single by Ivory Thomas, two errors by San Diego State, a SAC bunt by Matt Chapman and an infield single by Austin Kingsolver.  The Aztecs took advantage of an error by the Titans that was later followed by a double to cut the lead to 3-1 in the third before Fullerton came back to score a run in the fifth on two errors and a bunt single by Pedroza.  The Titans put the game away with a run in the eighth and two runs in the ninth.  Pedroza walked to lead off the eighth, was bunted over by Trajano and Michael Lorenzen singled him in.  Kingsolver got on base on an infield single with two outs in the ninth, Jared Deacon (in his first start of the season) was hit by a pitch, Pedroza singled in Kingsolver and Deacon scored on a passed ball.  Koby Gauna threw five effective innings, as he has done in all five starts, and held San Diego State to an unearned run on two hits with four strikeouts to improve his record to 3-2 and Dimitri DeLaFuente, Willie Kuhl and Dave Birosak combined to throw four scoreless innings in relief.  The leaders of the attack for the Titans were Pedroza with three hits, two runs and two RBI and Kingsolver with two hits, two runs and an RBI.  Trajano and Lorenzen each picked up hits in the game to increase their hitting streaks to seven and eight games, respectively.

UC Irvine Preview

Titans vs. UC Irvine (Friday 7 p.m., Saturday 6 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m., Goodwin Field)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

The Cal State Fullerton Titans continued on their hot streak last week and they have now won nine games in a row and 13 out of 14 since their trip to the South. The Titans got last week started with a 5-3 win in a midweek game against UCLA, the team that eliminated the Titans in a Super Regional last season to leave them one step short of a trip to Omaha. They were led on the mound by Colin O’Connell’s six effective innings and three scoreless innings from Ray Hernandez and at the plate by Richy Pedroza and Ivory Thomas (two runs each) and Tyler Pill and Carlos Lopez (two RBI each).

Fullerton opened the defense of their Big West championship with a trip to UC Davis and won all three games against the Aggies by a combined score of 25-2, although two of the games were much closer than the totals would indicate.

The Titans were dominant in Friday’s game and scored ten runs in the last three innings on their way to a 14-0 win. Jake Floethe was outstanding and held UC Davis to two hits in eight innings and struck out six batters on his way to Big West Pitcher of the Week honors. Thirteen different hitters either drove in and/or scored a run and Fullerton was led by Joe Terry’s four hits with two runs and an RBI and Pedroza’s three hits and three runs.

Saturday’s game was expected to be a pitchers duel with two of the Big West leaders in ERA on the mound and it lived up to expectations. Anthony Kupbens held the Titans off of the scoreboard until the 8th inning when Nick Ramirez hit a sac fly to break the scoreless tie. Fullerton broke through against the UC Davis bullpen in the 9th inning for six runs with Anthony Hutting doubling in the first run, Thomas doubling in two more runs and Ramirez finishing things off with his third HR of the season. Noe Ramirez threw five scoreless innings and the bullpen trio of Dylan Floro, Hernandez and Ryan Ackland threw the final four innings in a 7-0 win for the Titans.

Sunday’s game was also a pitchers duel in which the Aggies hung tough but couldn’t get over the hump as Fullerton completed the sweep with a 4-2 win. Tyler Pill allowed two runs in seven innings and tied his career high with 11 strikeouts for the second week in a row. Nick Ramirez threw a scoreless 9th for his Big West leading sixth save. Ramirez had three hits in the game and drove in the first run of the game on his way to earning Big West Player of the Week honors. Blake Barber’s double drove in Casey Watkins to tie the game in the 7th inning and Thomas singled in Barber later in the inning to give the Titans the lead for good.

Fullerton returned home on Tuesday for a midweek game with Pepperdine and the Titans continued to swing the bats well at home with twelve hits and they took advantage of six walks and five errors by the Waves for an easy 13-3 win that was highlighted by nine runs in the 4th inning. Five pitchers saw action for Fullerton with the win going to David Hurlbut. Lopez was the hitting star for the Titans with a three run HR and five RBI in the decisive nine run inning. Pedroza drove in three runs and Ramirez, Pill, Lopez, Jared Deacon and Anthony Trajano all scored two runs apiece.

Fullerton looks to stay on their torrid pace this weekend with what figures to be one of the key series in the race for the Big West title as the Titans welcome their intra-county rivals from UC Irvine to Goodwin Field.

UC Irvine Anteaters

• Overall Record – 18-6 in 2011; 39-21 in 2010
• Conference Record – 3-0 in 2011; 17-7 in 2010 (2nd).
• Post-Season – 2nd at UCLA Regional (L 10-11 LSU; W 19-9 Kent State; W 4-3 LSU; L 2-6 UCLA)
• 2011 RPI/ISR – 49/23. 2010 RPI/ISR – 39/20
• Current ranking – 16th by USA Today/Coaches Poll, 19th by NCBWA, 27th by Collegiate Baseball
• Predicted conference finish – 2nd (tied) by the Big West coaches and 2nd by Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

UC Irvine went into 2010 with very high expectations after winning the Big West championship for the first time in 2009 with a 22-2 record and hosting a regional for the first time as a national seed and the consensus #1 team in the country. The Anteaters returned seven of nine position players and all of the pitchers who were responsible for UC Irvine having the best regular season in school history and were ranked in the top ten in most of the polls and rankings going into the season.

Things didn’t go nearly as well as expected almost from the start with UC Irvine losing three games at Coastal Carolina’s tournament and losing a series at Nevada as well as weekend games against lower level teams like Saint Mary’s and Sac State. After opening defense of their Big West title with a sweep at Northridge, the Anteaters dropped the next two series at home to Fullerton and Pacific and were sitting at 20-13, 5-4 in late April and unranked. UC Irvine recovered to go 17-6 the rest of the way to finish second in the Big West and qualify for the post-season as an at-large team. The Anteaters played well at the UCLA regional, where the lost an extra-inning game to defending national champion LSU. UC Irvine came back to beat Kent State and win a rematch with LSU before being eliminated by UCLA, who went on to Omaha and finished as the runner-up in the College World Series.

UC Irvine didn’t go into this season with the lofty expectations that the 2010 team had after losing all three starting pitchers and their closer as well as four of the leaders from their lineup who all had been starting for at least two seasons. The Anteaters were picked to finish second in the Big West and were on the fringe of the top 25-30 in most of the pre-season polls and rankings. UC Irvine got off to a very fast 13-1 start against a soft schedule that was rated in the bottom 50 nationally to that point with sweeps at home of Nevada and Sac State, three wins in the RBI Tournament and a split at Saint Mary’s along with some midweek wins. The Anteaters started to struggle once they started playing better teams and had to play on the road and they split games at LMU, lost a midweek game at UNLV and were swept at Gonzaga. UC Irvine scored a total of eight runs in those six games. The Anteaters have bounced back to win their last five games in a midweek game at USC, a sweep of Northridge to open Big West play and a midweek game at USD on Tuesday.

UC Irvine has had the best offense in the Big West this season and leads the conference in scoring, AVG, SLG and OBP. The Anteaters offense was on fire to start the season when they were playing almost all of their games at home and their home/road splits are pretty drastically different. UC Irvine is 14-0 at home and averaging 9.6 runs per game with an AVG/OBP/SLG line of .352/.468/.499 and a .967 OPS but they are only 4-6 on the road and averaging 2.7 runs per game with .220/.322/.256 numbers and a .578 OPS. The key to the Anteaters lineup has been the production from the first four hitters in the lineup, all of whom appear all over the place at the top of the Big West hitting leader board. The hitters for UC Irvine will work deep into counts and they lead the conference in walks. They also make very good contact and have the fewest strikeouts in the conference and average under five per game. The Anteaters will bunt often to move runners along and use the hit and run to get runners going but they don’t use straight steals much to take extra bases.

The pitching staff for UC Irvine has exceeded expectations considering the personnel losses that they had from last season as well as losing their pitching coach, Ted Silva, to LMU. The Anteaters have the second best ERA in the Big West as well as the second best AVG. UC Irvine has had a solid starter on Fridays but the other spots in the weekend rotation have been in a state of flux with pitchers going back and forth from the rotation to the bullpen. The Anteaters have had a pitching staff that goes ten deep and that has allowed them to mix and match starters and relievers with positive results. Even when they went 2-5 on their seven game road trip they only allowed an average of 3.3 runs per game.

Offense

• Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 87 (decreases offense by 13%).
• Batting Average – .300 (1st in the Big West). .308 in 2010 (4th in the Big West).
• Runs Per Game – 6.8 (1st). 6.6 in 2010 (3rd).
• Home Runs – 6 (4th). 41 in 2010 (6th).
• Slugging Percentage – .403 (1st). .445 in 2010 (6th).
• Walks – 109 (1st), 4.5 per game. 208 in 2010 (2nd), 3.5 per game.
• HBP’s – 38 (2nd). 82 in 2010 (2nd).
• Strikeouts – 117 (1st), 4.9 per game. 257 in 2010 (1st), 4.3 per game.
• Stolen Bases – 21 (5th). 40 in 2010 (7th).
• Sac Bunts – 23 (4th). 61 in 2010 (2nd).

Infield

Irvine has an experienced left side of the infield at SS and 3B but is breaking in new starters on the right side of the infield at 1B and 2B as well as behind the plate but all three of those players have seen playing time on at least a part-time basis previously.

C – JR #5 Ronnie Shaeffer (RH – .266/.333/.367, 1-11-0; ’10 – .318/.370/.439, 3-31-1) was 2nd team All-Big West in 2009 after hitting .388 as a FR, when he went from not playing much to 3rd in the conf in AVG and led the team in SLG and was 2nd in OBP. He was the DH in 2010 and the backup behind the plate to two-time 1st team All-Big West C Francis Larson. Shaeffer got off to a very slow start while playing every game at C and was only hitting .239 going into last week, including 3-21 during the seven game road trip, before going 9-19 with a HR and 9 RBI over the last five games against USC, Northridge and USD. He leads the team and is 9th in the Big West with 5 SAC’s. Shaeffer has usually been hitting 7th but was bumped up to 6th in the last two games of the Northridge series and at USD. He went 1-9 against Fullerton last season and is 4-20 against the Titans in his career.

1B – JR #43 Jordan Fox (LH – .362/.426/.436, 0-19-4; ’10 – .275 in 69 AB’s) was only a part-time player in his first two seasons (’09 – .289 in 38 AB’s) but replaced 2nd team All-Big West 1B and four year starter Jeff Cusick and has been one of the best hitters in the conference in the first half of the season. He is among the leaders in the Big West in AVG, OBP, H, R, RBI and TB and has been outstanding at making contact because he is among the national leaders in fewest strikeouts with only three K’s in over 100 plate appearances. Like most of his teammates, Fox struggled during Irvine’s road trip when he went 4-25 before going 6-14 last week against USC and Northridge. He will be hitting second.

DH – JR #33 Jordan Leyland (RH – .259/.312/.400, 2-19-1; ’10 – .301/.326/.494, 2-13-2 in 83 AB’s) was another part-time player during his first two years at Irvine (’09 - .310 in 42 AB’s) and was hitting around .300 before going 6-29 on Irvine’s road trip. Despite his recent struggles at the plate, Leyland is 4th in the Big West in RBI and usually hits 5th and will occasionally play 1B. He leads the team with 18 K’s and struck out three times last Friday against Northridge and didn’t play in the final two games of the series before going 1-3 at USD. SR #26 Jonathon Hurst (RH – 5-23; ’10 – .342 in 79 AB’s) was the DH last Sat and Sun, going 2-6 with 2 RBI while hitting 8th.

2B – JR #3 Tommy Reyes (RH – .278/.426/.370, 0-11-2; ’10 – .229/.369/.257, 0-9-4) has taken over for two year starter Casey Stevenson and gotten off to a good start after a bad Soph season. Reyes was honorable mention All-Big West as a FR when he hit .348 and played all over the field as a utility player. He started the year 11-25 before going 2-21 on Irvine’s road trip. Reyes drove in four runs out of the 9 hole against Northridge and went 2-3 at USD. He is a very good bunter and had two SAC’s last weekend.

SS – JR #32 D.J. Crumlich (RH – .319/.439/.451, 1-19-2; ’10 – .284/.396/.388, 1-16-2) has been known more for his defense at 3B as a FR (.261 in 2009) and at SS last year than for his bat but that has changed this year. He has been the guy to get the offense going out of the leadoff spot, leading the Big West in runs and is 3rd in the conf in OBP and has 21 BB/HBP while striking out only nine times. Crumlich started out hitting .400 in his first 50 AB’s and had a 10 game hitting streak earlier in the season but has cooled off since then by hitting only .205 in his last 44 AB’s. He went 2-9 last year against Fullerton and is 4-17 in his career against the Titans.

3B – SR #14 Brian Hernandez (RH – .340/.423/.404, 0-18-1; ’10 – .322/.389/.470, 4-44-5) was forced to redshirt in 2009 due to a paperwork issue with his transfer to Irvine but has been doing nothing but hitting line drives on a consistent basis as the #3 hitter in the lineup the last two seasons and was 1st team All-Big West in 2010 when he hit .371 in conference games. He was one of the few players who kept hitting on the road trip, going 9-29, and wore out Northridge’s pitching staff by going 7-12 in the series. Hernandez went 3-12 last season against Fullerton and hit a 2 run HR in the opening game of the series.

Outfield

Irvine lost several OF’s from last season and only has one starter returning with the other two spots being taken over by a part-time player and a redshirt from last year.

LF – SR #7 Drew Hillman (RH – .322/.406/.478, 2-21-4; ’10 – .352/.423/.582, 4-19-0 in 91 AB’s) hardly left the bench for much of the first couple months of 2010 as a JC transfer but once he got his chance to play, all he did was hit and he went 13-28 in Big West games down the stretch. He has continued to hit well this season as the cleanup hitter and is among the conf leaders in RBI, SLG and TB and had an 11 game hitting streak earlier in the season. Hillman got off to a great start like most of the hitters for Irvine but went only 9-35 in ten games before getting two hits at USD. He is a versatile player who will be a late inning replacement at 3B in save situations.

CF – JR #1 Christian Ramirez (LH – .273/.393/.409, 0-7-0; redshirt in 2010) didn’t play last year as a JC transfer with Irvine having a logjam in the OF. He has good speed but didn’t get much of a chance to use it early in the season because he was only 6-35 going into the Northridge series before going 6-9 against the Matadors and hitting a two run triple at USD. Six of his 13 hits have gone for extra bases (four 2B’s and two 3B’s) so the Fullerton OF’s will have to be ready to keep him from taking an extra base and turning singles into doubles. Ramirez is a good bunter and bunted twice for hits against Northridge. He will usually hit 8th but was bumped up to 7th in the final two games last weekend. Soph #12 Scott Gottschling (RH – 8-25) got some playing time while Ramirez was struggling but hasn’t played in the last four games except as a late inning defensive replacement when Hernandez went in to finish games.

RF – SR #2 Sean Madigan (LH – .303/.451/.395, 0-14-6; ’10 – .280/.364/.352, 1-29-1) is in his fourth year as a starter and is the last player left in the program who played for Dave Serrano. He was a regular his first two seasons (hit a combined .330 in ’07 and ’08) but injured his knee the second weekend of 2009 and had to take a medical redshirt. Madigan usually hit in the top of the lineup earlier in his career but has been hitting 6th most of the time this season. He is a gamer who will do whatever it takes to get on base (14 HBP’s the last two years) and is 2nd in the Big West in OBP and he has an outstanding 19/13 BB/K ratio. Madigan only went 4-25 on Irvine’s road trip but he torched Northridge’s pitching and went 6-10 with 4 RBI in the series. He is Irvine’s most aggressive base runner and is 6-10 on SB attempts. Madigan went 3-11 last year against Fullerton and is 9-37 in his career against the Titans.

Defense

Fielding % – .976 (1st) with 23 errors. 2010 – .974 (1st) with 62 errors. Crumlich and Hernandez are outstanding on the left side of the infield. Reyes and Fox are good athletes for their positions on the right side of the infield. The OF defense has been solid after being an issue last season with so many players being shuffled in and out of the lineup.

Stolen Base Attempts – 7-21 (1st). 2010 – 33-68 (1st). Larson was a good defensive catcher but Shaeffer has been outstanding at completely shutting down the running game. Fullerton will have to be more careful than usual on the basebaths to avoid running their way out of innings.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 26 (7th). 2010 – 40 (3rd). Shaeffer has had some issues with blocking pitches so the one way that Fullerton might be able to move runners up on the bases is by being aggressive with pitches in the dirt.

Pitching

• ERA – 2.88 (2nd in the Big West). 3.98 in 2010 (2nd in the Big West).
• BA – .234 (2nd). .267 in 2010 (2nd).
• BB’s/9 IP – 3.4 (6th). 2.6 in 2010 (2nd).
• K’s/9 IP – 7.3 (6th). 8.0 in 2010 (2nd).
• Extra Base Hits – 49 (3rd), 2.0 per game. 193 (6th), 3.2 per game in 2010.
• HR – 6 (6th). 34 HR in 2010 (2nd).

Starters

UC Irvine had to rebuild their rotation after losing three SR starting pitchers and another starting pitcher, Evan Brock, due to an injury and he was expected to be their Friday SP after he led the Big West in AVG and was 3rd in ERA in 2010. The Anteaters have used six starting pitchers and have had trouble with getting their SP’s to pitch deep into games and other than their Friday SP, the Irvine starters have gone less than five innings in eleven of the last thirteen games.

FRI – JR #25 Matt Summers (RHP – 3-2, 2.45 ERA, 7 GS, 40 IP, 29 H, 21 BB, 36 K, .201 BA, 0 HR, 9 HBP, 3 WP, 0-2 SB; ’10 – 2-2, 8.51 ERA, 21 apps, 4 GS, 31 IP, 40 H, 18 BB, 32 K, .317 BA, 5 HR, 6 HBP, 4 WP, 3-5 SB) barely pitched as a FR and was primarily a middle reliever in 2010 but he had a good summer and has developed into a good SP. He is a good athlete (also played OF last season) and has a live arm with a low 90’s fastball with his best secondary pitch a good slider with late movement. Summers is in the top ten in the Big West in ERA, K, AVG and IP and he is tough to hit but he has also had major issues with control so expect Fullerton to work counts. He has walked at least three hitters in four of his seven starts but has not allowed more than three ER in any of his starts (allowed 4 R with 2 ER in two of them). Summers getting his pitch counts up due to his control issues has limited him to only going more than 6 1/3 IP twice. He allowed one run on two hits in 1 2/3 IP in one appearance against Fullerton in 2010.

SAT – FR #30 Andrew Thurman (RHP – 1-2, 3.29 ERA, 9 apps, 4 GS, 31 IP, 35 H, 10 BB, 25 K, .299 BA, 1 HR, 2 HBP, 3 WP, 3-8 SB) did a solid job out of the bullpen in five appearances (12 IP, 14 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 11 K) and took advantage of some of the issues with other starters to move into the rotation. Thurman’s longest start has been six innings at Gonzaga two weeks ago (6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K) and he wasn’t able to get out of the third inning last week against Northridge (3 2/3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 3 K). He has been prone to being nervous early in his starts, like he was in his first weekend start three weeks ago at LMU (4 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 5 BB, 1 K) so expect Fullerton to try to put pressure on him to see if he will get rattled.

SUN – TBA

The most likely candidate to start is JR #13 Crosby Slaught (RHP – 3-0, 2.38 ERA, 5 GS, 23 IP, 16 H, 8 BB, 19 K, .200 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 3 WP, 2-2 SB; ’10 – Redshirt; ’09 – 8-0, 4.62 ERA, 16 GS, 76 IP, 87 H, 23 BB, 52 K,.297 BA, 2 HR, 5 HBP, 6 WP, 5-7 SB), who was the Sunday SP in 2009 but was a medical redshirt last season with an elbow injury. He threw well in his first four starts, allowing three runs or less in each of them, but sat out the last three weekends with a sore shoulder. Slaught threw three scoreless innings on Tuesday at San Diego and allowed only one hit and would be on a pitch count as he builds up arm strength while starting on short rest. He has a fastball that sits in the upper 80’s and his best pitch is his changeup. Slaught allowed one run on seven hits in 5 2/3 IP in his start at Fullerton in 2009.

Relievers

UC Irvine wasn’t sure what to expect out of their bullpen after losing the two SR pitchers who closed games for them and had thirteen saves in 2010. The Anteaters have been pleasantly surprised by the results from their relievers, who have been called upon early and often and six of them have already appeared in at least nine games. UC Irvine has several LHP options in the bullpen so expect them to see a good amount of work against Fullerton’s LH heavy lineup.

SR #14 Brian Hernandez (RHP – 2-0, 0.00 ERA, 11 apps, 6 saves, 12 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 10 K, .182 BA, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 1 WP, 0-1 SB) hadn’t pitched since high school but started pitching again during the fall and has been lights out thus far and shares the Big West lead in saves. UC Irvine would prefer that he doesn’t go into the game before the 9th inning to limit how much he throws and to keep his glove at 3B.

JR #21 Nick Hoover (RHP – 2-1, 2.05 ERA, 12 apps, 22 IP, 12 H, 5 BB, 14 K, .164 BA, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 2 WP, 0-0 SB; ’10 – 2-0, 2.48 ERA, 20 apps, 1 save, 29 IP, 18 H, 14 BB, 34 K, .186 BA, 1 HR, 3 HBP, 0 WP, 5-6 SB) was the most experienced returning reliever and he has been a workhorse out of the pen and is tied for 4th in the Big West in appearances. He doesn’t have any problems going several innings and last Sat he came into the game in the 4th in relief of Thurman and finished the game by throwing 5 1/3 innings, allowing 1 R on 3 H with 4 K. Hoover threw 2/3 IP against Fullerton last season without allowing a run.

Soph #28 Kyle Hooper (RHP – 3-0, 4.66 ERA, 7 apps, 5 GS, 29 IP, 36 H, 9 BB, 19 K, .316 BA, 2 HR, 1 HBP, 5 WP, 1-5 SB; ’10 – 0-0, 7.61 ERA, 18 apps, 24 IP, 45 H, 4 BB, 14 K) got his feet wet last year as a FR, often pitching in midweek games and mop up situations. He was in the rotation for the first month of the season but wasn’t able to get out of the 4th inning in his last three starts and was moved to the bullpen. Hooper came into last Sunday’s game against Northridge in the 3rd inning and threw 5 1/3 effective innings to get the win, allowing 2 R on 4 H and 1 BB with 5 K. He allowed 2 H in 1/3 IP against Fullerton last season.

Soph #44 Matt Whitehouse (LHP – 1-0, 2.65 ERA, 12 apps, 2 GS, 17 IP, 10 H, 8 BB, 18 K, .167 BA, 0 HR, 0 HBP, 0 WP, 0-1 SB; ’10 – 0-0, 4.50 ERA, 10 apps, 6 IP) is tied for 4th in the Big West in appearances. He started two games last week, throwing 4 2/3 shutout innings at USC but struggled against Northridge when he allowed 2 R and only went 2 2/3 IP. He threw 2/3 scoreless innings against Fullerton last season.

Soph #23 Andy Lines (LHP – 1-1, 2.45 ERA, 11 apps, 2 GS, 15 IP, 12 H, 9 BB, 11 K, .222 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 2 WP, 1-1 SB; ’10 – 1-1, 8.44 ERA, 20 apps, 11 IP) has done a good job out of the bullpen, allowing 3 R in 8 1/3 IP in nine appearances. He had a good spot start at LMU when he threw five shutout innings but struggled in his start at Gonzaga when he allowed 1 R on 1 H and 4 BB in 1 1/3 IP and was moved back to the bullpen last weekend.

FR #16 Jimmy Litchfield (LHP – 1-0, 3.00 ERA, 13 apps, 1 save, 15 IP, 16 H, 2 BB, 12 K, .265 BA, 3 HR, 0 HBP, 0 WP, 0-0 SB) is 3rd in the Big West in appearances and wouldn’t be likely to go more than an inning as a situational LHP.

FR #50 Phillip Ferragamo (RHP – 1-0, 2.35 ERA, 9 apps, 15 IP, 12 H, 4 BB, 9 K, .226 BA, 0 HR, 3 HBP, 0 WP, 0-1 SB) is one of the biggest players you will see on a baseball diamond at 6’8”, 260 and has quite a bit of upside.

Outlook

For both Fullerton and UC Irvine, 2011 has been a tale of two seasons. The Titans got off to an 8-7 start playing only five of their first 15 games at Goodwin Field and have gotten red hot, winning 13 of their last 14 games. The Anteaters got off to a blistering 13-1 start against a schedule played predominantly at home, lost five out of six games on the road and have won their last five games.

One of the keys to this series will be how UC Irvine’s offense does playing away from home. The Anteaters have been shut out four times and scored four runs in their other two losses in their six road losses. The pitching for UC Irvine has been solid both at home and on the road but the Anteaters are going to have trouble winning this series if their offense is shut down by a very good Fullerton pitching staff.

Another key to this series will be how the relatively inexperienced pitching staff of UC Irvine handles the pressure of going into Goodwin Field to face a Fullerton team that has gone 10-1 at home after losing the first game of the season and averaged 7.4 runs per game in their last ten home games. If Fullerton is able to put up a solid number of runs with the way their pitchers have been throwing, this figures to be a long weekend for the Anteaters.

The key intangible for this weekend favors UC Irvine. The visiting teams are 12-6 in the six series these teams have played over the previous five seasons and in each of the last four years, the home team was the higher ranked team and the visitors came out ahead each time.

It is doubtful that UC Irvine can win this series without winning the first game with the pitching advantage that Fullerton would likely to have in the next two games. If the Anteaters are able to sneak out what will probably be a low scoring game on Friday, they have a chance to win the series. If the Titans win the opening game, it would be highly unlikely that UC Irvine would be able to put together back to back solid games on the road the way they have played away from home to win the series with the way that Fullerton has played at Goodwin Field.

UC Irvine Series Preview

By FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton has been on a major roll recently and is 12-4 over the last 16 games, including an 11-1 stretch over the last four weekends, after defeating #3 UCLA 6-1 on Tuesday night, improving their record against John Savage coached teams to 24-5. The Titans got their second series sweep in the past three weekends in their Big West opening series against UC Davis as Fullerton bludgeoned the Aggies pitching staff in the first two games in 20-4 and 23-7 blowouts before winning a 3-2 pitchers duel last Saturday. All nine regulars hit at least .375 and Fullerton hit a blistering .461 for the weekend, four Titans combined to hit five HR’s (two by Christian Colon) and the RBI leaders were Nick Ramirez (nine, including a grand slam) and Tyler Pill (seven).

The Titans also received strong starts from Noe Ramirez (7 IP, 3 R, 2 ER) on Thursday and Kyle Mertins (6 2/3 IP, 2 R) on Saturday to keep the team in the game after the Aggies led 2-0 going into the bottom of the 5th before Pill’s two run double tied the game and Billy Marcoe’s HR in the 8th won it. Fullerton will need to keep playing well this weekend as the Titans travel to south Orange County to play the UC Irvine Anteaters in an important Big West series that figures to have a big say in who wins the conference championship.

UC Irvine (17-9) is the defending Big West champions and had their best regular season ever in 2009 when they were ranked #1 in the country for the last month of the season. With an experienced and veteran laden team returning the expectations for the Anteaters were sky high going into the season and like Fullerton they were ranked in the top ten in the nation. Similarly to the Titans, Irvine has also struggled to meet those expectations. The Anteaters flew across the country to play in Coastal Carolina’s tournament the second weekend of the season and came home with their tails between their legs after going 1-3 as part of a stretch where they only went 10-8 against a middling schedule (they have only played two games against teams in the top 50 in the RPI and lost both of them to Coastal Carolina). Irvine has started to come out of their slumber by winning four straight games including a sweep at Cal State Northridge in their Big West opening series before losing 6-5 to San Diego State on Tuesday.

LINEUP

Anteater Ballpark is notorious for being beneficial to pitchers due to the spacious dimensions and ample foul territory as well as the cool damp air at night. But this season, it has been a much different story for the Anteaters at home where they are 9-2, averaging 8.8 runs per game and hitting .337 in their home games. Irvine’s approach at the plate has gradually changed in the three years that Mike Gillespie has been the coach as they have gone from a team that played quite a bit of little ball with bunting, hit and runs and stealing bases to a team that is hitting for more power and hitting the ball in the gaps and relying less on playing little ball to score runs. The Anteaters are 4th in the conf with a .321 AVG and 3rd in the conf in scoring, SLG and OBP while ranking next to last in the conf with only 15 SB’s. Irvine will make pitchers work because they are 3rd in the conf in BB and have almost 40 fewer strikeouts than any other team.

Irvine traditionally has one of the better defensive teams in the conference and this season isn’t any different. The Anteaters struggled some defensively when they weren’t playing well but they have picked it up in the field lately and have made only one error in their last seven games. Irvine has a .972 FLD % and has made 28 errors.

Infield

Irvine has three very experienced players at C, 1B and 2B and all three of them are solid all around players offensively and defensively. The two starters Irvine lost were 1st team all-conf players – Big West Player of the Year SS Ben Orloff and 3B/OF Eric Deragisch and both were SR’s. Their replacements were in the program last season although one was a utility infielder and the other redshirted.

C – SR #20 Francis Larson (RH – .288/.333/.462, 3-22-0; ’09 – .309/.350/.532, 9-43-5) is in his third year as a regular and his second year starting behind the plate. He usually hits 5th or 6th and is 2nd in HR and RBI. Larson was 1st team all conf in 2009 and led the team in HR, RBI and total bases and was 2nd in 2B and SLG. He also led the team in K’s and leads the team this season. Larson is a good defensive C who has thrown out about half the baserunners attempting to steal the last two seasons (9-18 this year and 26-49 in 2009). He is 9-26 with one HR in his career against Fullerton.

DH – Soph #24 Ronnie Shaeffer (RH – .356/.418/.540, 3-14-1; ’09 – .388/.441/.533, 4-36-4) was 2nd team all conf in 2009. He wasn’t playing much the first month of the season but once he got his chance he did nothing but hit and was 3rd in the conf in AVG, led the team in SLG and was 2nd in OBP. Shaeffer will usually hit 5th or 6th and has been one of Irvine’s better hitters again this season and went 7-13 last weekend at Northridge. He is also the backup C and will be the starter behind the plate in 2011. Shaeffer went 3-11 against Fullerton in 2009.

1B – SR #14 Jeff Cusick (RH – .371/.446/.588, 4-28-0; ’09 – 293/.375/.437, 6-40-2) is a four year starter who has been a little overlooked during his career but is having an outstanding SR season. He leads the team in HR and RBI and is 2nd in SLG while hitting primarily in the cleanup spot and is on a 17 game hitting streak. Cusick was among the team leaders in 2B, HR and RBI in 2009, is the most patient hitter on the team and has led Irvine in BB’s the last two years. He is a solid defensively and a good athlete around the bag at 1B. Cusick is 5-25 in his career against Fullerton and hit 2 HR’s in last year’s series.

2B – SR #27 Casey Stevenson (LH – .305/.402/.453, 2-21-2; ’09 – .346/.441/.503, 3-41-8) was 2nd team all conf in 2009 and has quite a bit of power for a middle infielder. He led the team in 2B, was 2nd in RBI and 3rd in SLG in 2009. Stevenson got off to a bit of a slow start but broke out last weekend at Northridge with 4 H’s and HR and 5 RBI’s in the opening game. He was hitting 2nd most of the season but has led off the last four games and will do anything to get on base, leading the conf with 22 HBP’s in 2009 and leading the team again this season. Stevenson also handles the bat well and leads the team with SAC bunts. He is one of the better defensive 2B’s in the conf. Stevenson is 5-20 with one HR in his career against Fullerton.

SS – Soph #32 D.J. Crumlich (RH – .214/.377/.262, 0-6-2; ’09 – .261/.351/.323, 1-30-4) has been a part-time starter the past two seasons, at 3B in 2009 and SS this year, but has struggled with injuries and physical ailments that have kept him from playing more. He is healthy now and has started in 7 of the last 9 games and went 4-9 at Northridge last weekend. Crumlich is one of the more patient hitters on the team and will usually hit 9th. He is solid defensively and will make the plays on balls that he gets to. Crumlich went 2-8 last year at Fullerton. Soph #11 Tommy Reyes (RH – .226/.351/.274, 0-5-2; ’09 – .348 in 92 AB’s) started most of the year at SS before Crumlich returned a couple of weeks ago. Reyes had a very good FR season when he was honorable mention all-conf but has struggled at the plate and will usually hit 9th. He has a bit more range than Crumlich but is prone to making more errors.

3B – JR #5 Brian Hernandez (RH – .366/.408/.516, 2-20-2) was forced to redshirt in 2009 due to a paperwork issue with his transfer to Irvine and has been busy taking out his frustrations on pitchers this season. He usually hits 3rd and has been a line drive hitting machine who went 8-14 with 6 RBI last weekend at Northridge. Hernandez does a good job defensively at 3B.

Outfield

Irvine returns all of their OF’s from 2009 except for part-time OF Deragisch and has had several players fighting for playing time. The Anteaters will usually put their best offensive lineup in the game and then make substitutions late in games when they are leading.

LF – JR #36 Ryan Fisher (LH – .391/.458./609, 3-12-2; ’09 – .320/.412/.520, 4-28-2) was 3rd on the team in SLG in 2009 but wasn’t playing much the first couple of weeks. When Fisher got into the lineup he started mashing the ball and has rarely been taken out since and leads the team in AVG, OBP and SLG while usually hitting 7th. He is an average defensive player who will often be replaced late in the game. Fisher is 4-13 in his career against Fullerton. If Fisher isn’t in the lineup, another candidate would be #33 Soph Jordan Leyland (RH – .448 in 29 AB’s; ’09 - .310 in 42 AB’s).

CF and RF – Irvine has been using lots of players in the OF so there figure to be several players out there this weekend. JR #2 Sean Madigan (LH – .323/.405/.331, 1-12-1) was a regular his first two seasons (hit a combined .330 in ’07 and ’08) but injured his knee the second weekend of 2009 and had to take a medical redshirt. Madigan will usually hit leadoff when he is in the lineup but has missed the last four games and is questionable this weekend.

SR #8 Cory Olson (RH - .227 in 22 AB’s; ’09 – .315/.394/.495, 4-18-3) was the regular CF most of last season before injuring his ankle and missing the last month of the season. He has seen limited playing time and usually enters the game as a defensive replacement. SR #15 Dillon Bell (LH – .250 in 28 AB’s; ’09 – .274/.378/.405, 2-21-1) has also found himself in a struggle for AB’s after being a part-time player in 2009. He will often come into games for defense in the corner OF spots. Soph #43 Jordan Fox (LH - .302 in 43 AB’s; ’09 - .289 in 38 AB’s) has seen the most playing time of these three players because he has been the best hitter this season.

JC transfer #26 Jonathon Hurst (RH – .355 in 31 AB’s) has been seeing the most time in RF recently because he has been the hottest hitter in the OF besides Fisher. If Hurst isn’t in the lineup then Fox or Bell would be in RF if Madigan is in CF.

PITCHING

Irvine’s program has been built on solid pitching going back to when John Savage and then Dave Serrano were the head coaches and that is still the case with a veteran rotation and closer. Irvine has a team ERA of 4.11 that is just behind Fullerton for the conf lead. Former Fullerton pitching coach Ted Silva has the Anteaters pitching well after they got off to a terrible start when they allowed 77 R in the first 10 games and opponents hit .325. Irvine has been allowing 3.5 runs per game the last 16 games and opponents have only hit .251 during that time. The Anteater pitchers will throw strikes and are allowing only 2.4 walks per game (4th nationally) and have hit the fewest batters in the conf while ranking in the top 30 nationally averaging 8.5 K’s per 9 IP.

Starters

FRI – SR #3 Daniel Bibona (LHP – 4-2, 2.54 ERA, 7 starts, 50 IP, 38 H, 11 BB, 60 K, .213 BA, 2 HR, 1 HBP, 3 WP) was the Big West pitcher of the year in 2009 (12-1, 2.63 ERA, 106 IP, 78 H, 26 BB, 108 K, .209 BA, 7 HR) but didn’t sign with the Cardinals after being drafted in the 16th round. He is a crafty lefty with great command of a mid 80’s fastball, an outstanding changeup, off-speed pitches and a cut fastball he has added this year. Bibona has had two poor outings when he allowed 11 R in those starts but has also had five outstanding starts when he allowed 6 R (4 ER) and 21 H total with double digit strikeouts in each of those starts. He has allowed 21-42 SB’s the last three years (3-8 this season). Bibona was excellent in his start last season at Fullerton when he threw 8 shutout innings. The Titans also struggled to hit Bibona at Irvine in 2008 when he held Fullerton scoreless for five innings before allowing 4 R in the next two innings.

SAT – SR #21 Christian Bergman (RHP – 3-1, 6.02 ERA, 9 apps, 7 starts, 40 IP, 58 H, 7 BB, 33 K, .339 BA, 4 HR, 2 HBP, 4 WP) was 2nd team all conf in 2009 (9-3, 3.50 ERA, 98 IP, 111 H, 16 BB, 66 K, .288 BA, 9 HR) but he hasn’t pitched up to expectations most of this season. He had two poor starts in his first three outings, allowing 12 R in 8 IP to LMU and St. Mary’s, but has pitched better in three of his last four starts when he allowed 7 R in 21 IP in those three starts, including 3 R (2 ER) in 6 IP at Northridge, but allowed 6 R in 3 2/3 IP at Nevada two weeks ago. Bergman does not have overpowering stuff and pitches to contact with an upper 80’s fastball and a sinker-slider mix to get batters to hit the ball into the ground. He does a very good job at holding runners and has allowed 10-30 SB’s the last three years (1-4 this season). Bergman had allowed 4 R’s on 8 H’s in 6 IP in three career appearances against Fullerton before holding the Titans to 1 R on 7 H in 5 2/3 IP last season.

SUN – SR #55 Eric Pettis (RHP – 5-0, 3.08 ERA, 2 saves, 9 apps, 7 starts, 53 IP, 54 H, 12 BB, 29 K, .265 BA, 0 HR, 3 HBP, 2 WP) was 1st team all conf in 2009 (5-2, 3.86 ERA, 17 saves, 29 apps, 42 IP, 47 H, 7 BB, 37 K, .296 BA, 6 HR) and was an All-American closer the last two years but has been converted to a SP this season. Pettis closed a couple of games earlier this year but Irvine has straightened things out in the bullpen so it’s unlikely he would relieve on Fri before taking his turn on Sun. Pettis takes a similar approach to Bergman in pitching to contact to get hitters out and has a very effective changeup. He has kept Irvine in every game and hasn’t allowed more than 4 ER in any of his starts and has allowed 5 R twice, allowing unearned runs in both of those starts. Pettis has allowed 5 R (3 ER) on 11 H in 7 IP in his career against Fullerton.

JR #13 Crosby Slaught (RHP – 8-0, 4.62 ERA, 16 starts, 76 IP, 87 H, 23 BB, 52 K, .297 BA) was expected to be a major contributor this season after being the Sun SP in 2009 but has been dealing with arm injuries and has only appeared twice in relief.

Relievers

Closer - SR #17 Kyle Necke (RHP – 1-3, 3.76 ERA, 5 saves, 12 apps, 2 midweek starts, 26 IP, 31 H, 3 BB, 30 K, .301 BA, 2 HR, 1 HBP, 2 WP) contributed to the bullpen’s struggles when he allowed 8 R in his first 2 IP. He has been outstanding since then and had not given up a run in 11 IP over seven appearances before blowing the save against San Diego State when he allowed 2 R in the 9th inning on Tuesday. Necke has a power arm with a low 90’s fastball and a cutter that he added in the middle of last year that made him very effective in the last month of the season as a set-up man for Pettis. He has thrown five innings in both of his midweek starts and will be able to come into a game and throw 2+ innings in a save situation.

The middle relievers most likely to come into close games are FR #23 Andy Lines (LHP – 1-0, 5.40 ERA, 1 save, 11 apps, 7 IP, 4 H, 3 BB, 10 K, .182 BA, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 1 WP), Soph #22 Matt Summers (RHP – 1-2, 7.98 ERA, 10 apps, 2 midweek starts, 15 IP, 22 H, 7 BB, 17 K, .355 BA, 1 HR, 3 HBP, 2 WP), FR #28 Kyle Hooper (RHP – 0-0, 4.61 ERA, 8 apps, 14 IP, 21 H, 1 BB, 12 K, .344 BA, 1 HR, 1 HBP, 1 WP) and Soph #18 Nick Hoover (RHP – 0-0, 1.93 ERA, 6 apps, 5 IP, 2 H, 3 BB, 7 K, .133 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 0 WP). Irvine will take it by batter by batter with these four, especially with situational LHP Lines who could see action in a couple of games this weekend with all of the LH hitters in Fullerton’s lineup. Summers and Hooper have two of the best arms on the pitching staff with low 90’s fastballs.

OUTLOOK

There won’t be too many secrets among the coaching staffs of Fullerton and Irvine with Serrano and his staff having coached many of the position players and pitchers on Irvine’s roster and Gillespie very familiar with Fullerton after having coached against the Titans since the 1980s. An interesting intangible in this series is the visiting teams are 10-5 in the five series the teams have played over the previous four seasons.

The pitching staffs and offenses for both Fullerton and Irvine are pretty much mirror images of each other. Both teams got off to slow starts on the mound and at the plate but have been doing better in both areas recently.

Fullerton’s offense was completely stifled when they were held to seven runs in three games by Irvine in last year’s series. If the Titans are going to win this series the bottom line is they are going to have to figure out how to be more productive offensively.

Fullerton’s weekend starting pitching has been struggling after Noe Ramirez and both Daniel Renken and Tyler Pill are going to need to show improvement this weekend for Fullerton to win the series. Christian Bergman and Eric Pettis are veterans and are likely to make it tough on the Fullerton hitters.

The key to winning this series of pretty evenly matched teams will probably come down to Friday night’s matchup of Ramirez vs. Bibona. As the home team Irvine would be more likely to be able to lose the first game and come back to win the next two games and the series. Fullerton needs to play with a great sense of urgency on Friday night to win that game and split the next two games because it would be difficult to drop Friday’s game and win the next two games to win the series.