Titans' Near-Miss in Area (Code) 951

Titans at UCR: Won 14-7 (Friday), Won 12-0 (Saturday), Lost 7-6 (Sunday)

By Don Hudson

The Cal State Fullerton Titans went on the road and won another Big West Conference series, extending their winning streak to seven games by beating the UC Riverside Highlanders handily on Friday and Saturday evenings before dropping the finale on Sunday.  Despite the loss on Mothers Day, the Titans gained a game in the standing over the weekend over the second-place Cal State Northridge Matadors, who lost two-of-three at home against the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos.

The Titans continue in contention for a national seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament selection process, on the strength of: no lost series; 11-4 record against RPI Top 50 teams; 23-4 road record; #9 in RPI, but leading country in “adjusted wins” in system that applies 0.7 factor for home wins and 1.3 for road wins; and probable conference champion.  As we’ve seen before, it can all go up in smoke without a strong finish, but the Titans are in about as strong a position as could possibly be for a team outside the elite “BCS” conferences.


Game 1: Titans 14, UC Riverside Highlanders 7

(Photo Gallery)

In a pitching match between the Titans’ righty Thomas Eshelman and the Highlanders’ lefty Dylan Stuart, the Titans jumped ahead with four runs in the second inning.  J.D. Davis led off with a single, with Michael Lorenzen then hit by a pitch.  Chad Wallach sacrificed both runners along and reached base when Stuart’s throw to first was wide of the bag.  Greg Velazquez gave the Titans a 2-0 lead with a two-run single.  Two outs later, Pedroza singled to drive in Wallach and Lopez singled to drive in Velazquez and make it 4-0.

Eshelman's short and sweet outing

The Titans scored a solo tally in the third to make it 5-0.  With two outs, Wallach doubled and scored when Velaquez hit a hard bouncer over the third-baseman for an RBI single.  The Titans added another run in the fourth when Pedroza reached on an infield single and advanced to second when the ball deflected off third-baseman Joe Chavez before scoring on an RBI single by Lopez.  (It was a curious scoring call on Pedroza: Chavez tried to short-hop the ball and it hit him in the shins and bounced into foul territory – not unusual on that alabaster-plaster infield.  It should have either been called error-all-the-way or double.)

Meanwhile, Eshelman was coasting along, allowing an occasional base-runner, but twice escaping with the aid of double-plays, including a nifty 4-6-3 twin-killing with the runner going on the pitch in the fourth inning.

The decision to give Eshelman a short day of work became a no-brainer when the Titans put up four more runs in the top of the sixth, with Stuart left on the mound as the ‘sacrificial Friday lamb’ to preserve the bullpen for the remaining two games.  Pedroza drew a one-out walk, followed by a single by Lopez.  Matt Chapman then hit the ball over the centerfielder’s head for a two-run double before scoring on a two-out double by Lorenzen.  Wallach’s double drove in Lorenzen to make it 10-0, essentially ending the night for both Stuart and Eshelman.

With a 10-0 lead, the Titans removed Eshelman after five shutout innings and gave their bullpen some much-needed work.  Michael Lopez was touched up for two runs in the bottom of the sixth on a single, double and a pair of groundouts.

The Titans made it 14-2 with four runs in the top of the seventh.  Matt Orloff led off with a single, advanced on a walk to Pedroza and scored on an RBI single by Lopez.  Chapman followed with a two-run triple past diving rightfielder David Andriese and scored on a double by Davis.

With the game easily in hand, the Titans played sloppy baseball for the final innings.  The bullpen gave up seven runs (including three unearned) and eight hits in four innings of work.  Lopez was followed by Willie Kuhl, David Birosak and Jose Cardona, who struck out two batters sandwiched around a two-run single to end the game.

Eshelman improved his record to 9-2.  Lopez led the 17-hit attack with four singles and three RBI.  It was great to see Lopez jump on the first pitch for each of his hits and burn ‘the book’ on him that he always takes the first pitch.  Wallach was 3-for-3 before making an early exit.  Pedroza, Chapman, Davis and Velazquez each had two hits, with Velazquez equaling his career high with three RBI.


Game 2: Titans 12, UC Riverside Highlanders 0

(Photo Gallery)

The Titans jumped all over UCR starter Ben Doucette for eleven runs in the first two innings and rode the strong pitching of Justin Garza and a quartet of relievers in shutting out the Highlanders, 12-0.  Ten of the eleven runs in the first two innings were scored with two outs.

Garza improves to 11-0

Pedroza worked a full-count leading off before drawing a walk, and advanced to third on a hit-and-run single by Chapman.  Davis followed with an RBI single to make it 1-0.  After Lorenzen struck out and both runners advanced on a wild pitch, the Titans put up five more runs in the first inning to make it an early blowout.  With first base open, Riverside coach Doug Smith opted to pitch to the scorching-hot Wallach rather than walk him to set up a potential double-play – he may have been second-guessing himself when Chad crushed a three-run bomb to leftfield to make it 4-0.

Velazquez walked and Jake Jefferies singled before Austin Diemer laced a bases-clearing double – it should have been a triple, but Diemer was called out at third on an absurd call – twice in two nights Diemer was obviously safe but called out when he had already popped up and was dusting himself off.

The Highlanders posed a mild threat in the bottom of the first when they got a one-out walk and single against freshman righty Garza, but he struck out the clean-up hitter and got the final out on a foul-out to catcher Wallach.

Doucette appeared to have settled down in the second when he retired the first two Titans before Chapman launched a towering home run over the screen in leftfield – Happy birthday, Mom!

Davis followed with a single and Lorenzen hit a double on a chopper over the third-baseman’s head.  Okay, I’m certain Coach Smith learned his lesson and won’t pitch to Wallach, who has a single, two doubles and home run so far in four at-bats in the series, with an open base.  You know that definition of insanity?  They pitched to Wallach and he scalded a base hit to drive in both runners.

Have you ever thought you were saying something to yourself only to realize it was spoken aloud?  I was standing next to the UCR dugout behind third-base when my thought somehow slipped out: “Why the (bleep) are you pitching to that guy with an open base?”  Just as I said it, a couple of Riverside players jogged by headed towards the bullpen.  As they heard it, one nodded and the other muttered “No shit.”

It may have been a moot point as Velazquez followed Wallach with a home run to make it 11-0.

A 5-RBI day for Wallach

From there, it was simply a question of how long Garza would throw and whether there would be a recurrence of the late inning sloppiness from the night before.  While the Titans’ bats were stymied for six innings of shutout relief by UCR righthander Angelo Lingos, Garza threw zeros for five innings before Cardona, Tyler Peitzmeier, Kuhl and Koby Gauna each threw a scoreless inning.  By the fifth inning, every Titans’ starting position player had been replaced except Pedroza.

The Titans scored their final run in the top of the ninth on a double by A.J. Kennedy, a walk to Orloff and an RBI single by Pedroza.

Twelve different players got at least one of the Titans’ 17 hits, with two each by Wallach, Pedroza and Chapman.  The sixth spot in the order was very productive: two hits, a home run and five RBI by Wallach; a pinch-single by Nico Darras; and the double by Kennedy.

Garza improved his record to 11-0 with five innings of shutout work, allowing just three hits.


Game 3: UC Riverside Highlanders 7, Titans 6

(Photo Galleries: Game / Mother's Day)

In a recent article, we quoted the famous words of Senkichi Awaya (mayor of Hiroshima in 1945):  “What the f*@& was that?!!!”  The same could be said about the first inning on Sunday, in a game played on a miserably hot day with no clouds to give even a brief respite of shade.

After feasting on lefthanded pitching for two nights, scoring 26 runs (combined) and banging out 17 hits each game, you knew it would be different Sunday against a righthander, Zach Varela, who came in with a record of 3-0 and 0.92 ERA.  Reduced hitting by the Titans was expected – but the Highlanders coming out of the gate with six straight hits and a walk against the Titans’ Grahamm Wiest was completely unexpected.

It looked like “same old, same old” when Pedroza led off the game with a single, but Varela worked out of it scorelessly.

Devyn Bolasky led off with a chopper over the head of third-baseman Chapman for a single – have I mentioned how awful the infield is at the Plex?  Joe Chavez followed with a groundball single into rightfield that advanced Bolasky to third.  Clayton Prestridge followed with a groundball double between Chapman and the third-base bag to make it 1-0.

With two runners in scoring position, the cleanup hitter, David Andriese, lifted a routine pop-up into shallow leftfield.  The runner on third retreated and was not going to attempt to score, assuming the ball would be caught for just the first out.  But the ball was not caught, as shortstop Pedroza was blinded by the blazing sun and the high sky in the 951: it fell harmfully for an RBI single to make it 2-0.

Francisco Tellez then found a hole between Lopez and the first-base bag with a groundball single to load the bases.  Kyle Boudreau then grounded a single through the 5-6 hole to make it 3-0.  The fourth run scored on a walk to Nick Vilter and the fifth on a 4-6-3 double-play.

The Highlanders took it to the Titans for another run in the second on a hit-batsman, throwing error by catcher Jared Deacon, stolen base and RBI groundout.  I liked the confidence displayed by the Titans coaching staff, playing the infield back in the second inning, already trailing 5-0.  Although the late-inning comeback fell short, it showed a calm demeanor and they didn’t hit the panic button.

Trailing 6-0, the Titans finally got on the board in the top of the fourth with an unearned run against Varela.  Lorenzen reached on a bad-hop (go figure) infield single, went to third on a single by Anthony Hutting and scored on a groundball (reached on error) by Jefferies.  Varela escaped greater harm by inducing an inning-ending double-play ball.

But the Highlanders stayed tough, responding with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning off reliever Koby Gauna on a triple by Chavez and an infield groundout to make it 7-1.  Even in the fourth inning, the Titans demonstrated confidence in their offense by playing the infield back.

Peitzmeier entered the game in the bottom of the fifth and was sensational, throwing 3-2/3 innings of scoreless relief, giving his teammates an opportunity to chisel away at the UCR lead.

The Titans cut the deficit to 7-3 in the top of the sixth on a walk to Davis and two-out RBI hits by Hutting (double) and Jefferies (single).  After Wallach (who had entered the game after Deacon was injured running to first-base) walked, Coach Smith replaced Varela with southpaw Mark Garcia.  The Titans countered with pinch-hitter Velazquez, who grounded out to end the threat.

Pedroza led off the seventh with a single and advanced on a wild pitch and a groundout.  With the dangerous right-handed heart of the batting order coming up (Chapman, Davis, Lorenzen, Jefferies, Wallach), the Highlanders went to their righthanded closer, Trevor Frank, and decided to keep the game in his hands.  Chapman grounded out, with Pedroza scoring to make it 7-4.

The Titans drew to within one run with a pair in the top of the eighth.  Hutting singled, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single by Jefferies.  Wallach then crushed another shot into the gap in left-centerfield to make it 7-6.  Wallach remained in the game as the potential tying run with one out, but after Clay Williamson flied out, Diemer was sent in to pinch-run.  Pedroza struck out swinging to end the rally, after a 3-1 pitch that looked about ten inches outside was called strike two.

Even though Frank had entered in the seventh and the Titans had scored in three consecutive innings, there was never a thought of bringing in any other pitcher – nobody picked up a ball in the UCR bullpen.

Lopez led off the ninth and blooped a single into “no man’s land” in leftfield.  Chapman squared to bunt the potential tying run into scoring position – then drew back and perfectly executed the “slash” play, driving a hard groundball base-hit past the charging infielders.

This is when baseball strategy is at its best.  You’ve got your clean-up hitter at the plate in Davis, who swings a great bat but is not often called on to bunt (two sacrifices in 46 games played).  The “baseball book” says to play for the tie on the road and the win at home in this situation.  You have two very skilled bunters (Keegan Dale and Matt Orloff) available, but if you bring them to the plate, all uncertainty is removed.  It is further complicated by Davis also being the pitcher, so the designated-hitter was eliminated when he relieved Peitzmeier in the bottom of the eighth.  More complication?  Your options with closer Lorenzen (in the event you tie the score or take the lead) are also impacted by having already having removed outfielders Austin Kingsolver and Velazquez for pinch-hitters.  It’s what makes baseball so incredible.

Davis fouled off a bunt attempt, squared to bunt and took a ball, showed bunt when the pitcher stepped off the rubber to check the runners and finally popped out on a bunt attempt.  In a game that is remarkably easier to play, coach and umpire from up in the bleachers, I would have let him swing away.

Lorenzen and Frank then battled, with Michael finally reaching on an infield single smothered by the shortstop – the third hit of the inning for the Titans.  I felt great about our chances, with two clutch hitters due up, Hutting and Jefferies.

But Frank battled with the bases loaded and one out.  He threw six straight strikes to Hutting, including four that were fouled off, before slipping the seventh pitch past him for a called third strike.  Jefferies then flew out to centerfield to end the game.

Hutting had three of the dozen Titans’ hits, with Pedroza, Lorenzen and Jefferies having two each.  Jefferies had three RBI.  Wiest (8-3) took the loss, going just two innings and allowing six earned runs on seven hits and a walk.  It was his shortest outing as a starting pitcher in his Titans career.

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So what did we learn out in the 951 this weekend?

Somebody at UC Riverside has a sense of humor.  In the Saturday boxscore under “Weather,” where they usually post the game-time temperature and whether it is sunny, cloudy or precipitous, they listed “really, really hot.”

When you score 32 runs on 46 hits in a three-game series, some batting averages are going to go up.  Including freshmen Darras and Kennedy each going 1-for-1, there were twelve players hit .333 or better for the series.  Wallach led the way with a monster weekend: 6-for-7 (.857) with a slugging percentage of 1.714, including two singles, three doubles and a home run.  The only out he made was a warning-track flyball.

Pedroza (6-for-12) and Velazquez (3-for-6) each batted .500, with Velazquez contributing five RBI and a home run.  Jefferies batted .429 (3-for-7 with 3 RBI) while Lopez hit .385 (5-for-13 with 3 RBI).  Five players hit .333: Chapman (5-for-15 with double, triple, home run and five RBI); Davis and Lorenzen (both 4-for-12); Hutting (3-for-9) and Orloff (2-for-6).

Peitzmeier stellar

The big early leads on Friday and Saturday afforded the Titans the luxury of resting their super-frosh, Eshelman (65 pitches) and Garza (63 pitches), after five innings of shutout pitching each.  The bullpen hasn’t had much work recently because of the strength of the starting rotation and dearth of midweek games late in the season, so the rust was apparent on Friday night.  But the bullpen was fantastic on Saturday and Sunday, which will become very important if the team has any hopes of making a deep run in the playoffs.

I’m not sure what was more brutal: Mothers Day at the home of Pamela and “Jellybean” Joe Bryant or getting fried like an egg in the metal bleachers watching the first inning of the game on Sunday.  Let’s call it a toss-up.  It was just one of those games.  For a groundball pitcher like Wiest, most days you have a lot of balls hit within range of an infielder and there are some that find a hole.  Other days, you have balls hit hard but right at the fielders.  This was that odd day when every groundball found a hole – give credit to the Highlanders for hitting the ball down and hard on that booby-trapped infield of theirs.

As bad as the start of the game was and how exasperating it was to leave the bases loaded in the ninth, there were some very encouraging things that happened that day.  Even after digging themselves a deep hole, the Titans fought hard and nearly climbed all the way out.  The relief pitching was stellar, particularly Peitzmeier – maybe growing up pitching in the sweltering Midwest summers made him the perfect man for the assignment.  Hutting had a big day at the plate – he seems to be “Mr. Sunday” recently.

More than the loss, I was concerned about how the Titans lit up left-handed pitching all weekend but struggled against right-handers.

Baking in the sun on a 101 degree day, my mind tends to wander.  I contemplated the correlation between “good control” and “pitching effectiveness.”  While ERA is the legacy metric used to assess pitching effectiveness, sabermetricians have added a slew of new categories.  Some of my favorites are: CERA (Component ERA, which is an estimate of his ERA based on his K, H, 2B, 3B, HR, BB, HBP pitching line); FPOM (counts when outs are made on the first pitch); RRA (a function of how many inherited runners a relief pitcher allows to score); and my favorite, pNERD (expected aesthetic pleasure of watching an individual pitcher.)  I have no idea how pNERD is calculated, but I can intrinsically appreciate the difference in ‘aesthetic pleasure’ between watching a pitcher who works quickly and throws strikes versus the human rain delays and guys that habitually run deep in the count.

It got me thinking about a measurement of control that we will call WTF:  Wild Thing Factor.  WTF is the total number of walks, hit-batsmen and wild pitches allowed per nine innings.  The fifteen pitchers used this season by the Titans are listed in table in order of WTF; the ERA is not part of the calculation but is included for reader convenience:

A few observations:

• The calculation treats wild pitches as mathematically equivalent to walks and hit-batsmen, which is a debatable premise: wild pitches advance runners but don’t put men on base, unlike walks and HBP.  But one can argue a wild pitch may be more damaging than a walk or HBP.  A walk or HBP may be strategic and can set up a double-play, while there is nothing positive about a wild pitch, which can allow up to three runners to advance and can take away double-play situations without ever setting up a DP.  (Since I was the one out there baking in the sun on Sunday, I get to make the rules.)

• Even the term “wild” can be a misnomer.  To me, “wildness” equates to pitches that arrive at unintended locations.  While no pitch is released with intent to arrive at the backstop, many pitches that arrive in the dirt out in front of the plate were intended for that exact location in order to get the batter to chase an unhittable pitch, with greater susceptibility to wild pitches an intrinsic byproduct of that pitch selection.  Similarly, hit-batsmen are often strategic and not always indicative of wildness.

• There was not data available to subtract intentional walks, but the Titans rarely deploy that maneuver, so it should not skew the metrics in any substantive manner.

• There is not an exact correspondence between WTF and ERA in measuring pitching effectiveness….but there certainly is some degree of correlation.  I love quirky statistical anomalies like Lopez’s and Birosak’s WTF being identical to their ERA. It’s also just one more tangible metric of how great Eshelman has been – his WTF of 0.71 is sick!  It also shows the control displayed by Gauna and Peitzmeier, who sometimes tend to fly under the radar. I also like the reflection on Garza’s control: he lights up radar guns and strikes out a lot of hitters, but he should also be recognized for excellent control.

• You can’t draw much meaning from small data sizes – especially with small samples sizes of innings pitched. For pitchers with fewer than 10 innings, it is essentially statistically insignificant. But I think it is very noteworthy that WTF paints a stark contrast between the overall Titans’ pitching and their opponents’: Titan pitchers allow just 2.73 walks, HBP and wild pitches per nine innings, while their opponents allow 7.20.  The WTF gap (2.73 vs. 7.20) may be more revealing than ERA (2.54 vs. opponents’ 5.45.)

UC Irvine has a team ERA of 3.29 and WTF of 4.19 (as of Monday), so both are appreciably better than the average Titans opposing pitching staff.  Expect intense, well-pitched battles this weekend at Goodwin Field.

Baking and whittling in the 951

If it wasn’t for Cal State Northridge (and arguably UC Davis), the Riverside Sports Complex would be the worst facility in the BWC, and generally one of the worst in the West.  The infield is a landmine and the outfield is sloped more than the Oakmont Country Club.  The lights in the intramural field behind the stadium are far superior to those at the baseball field (which raises the philosophic question – are no stadium lights better than bad lights?)  There is no PA speaker working on the visitors’ side – we could hear the noise from a distant freight train louder than the National Anthem.  The tin can seating structure gives you a backache during night games and a backache plus third-degree burns during day games with that intense 951 sunshine blazing its way through the photochemically-enhanced ozone layer.

If it wasn’t for the terrific $2.50 hot dogs, free refills on soft drinks and that cool old guy that sits in the stands and whittles every game, I wouldn’t have anything nice to say about that place.  The dude playing the bagpipes was pretty cool too.

Hypothetically speaking…if you were an umpire, how would your calls be impacted by a blowout score?  I’ve watched a few games over the years and even umpired a couple when I wore a younger man’s clothes.  I think it is perfectly fine – even expected – that you will open up your strike zone in a blowout.  But I never found it right to intentionally blow safe/out or foul/fair calls just to get the game over faster.  Sure, you supersede the “tie goes to the runner” premise to get outs on close plays when the score is lopsided – but I never wanted to embarrass myself with absurd, blatantly wrong calls just to get the game over.  There were a couple of calls Friday and Saturday nights that would have been embarrassing to make even if the score was 50-0 at the time.  What are your thoughts?

Haven’t these playoffs been amazing this year?  Growing up in the era of George “Punch” Imlach, Hector “Toe” Blake, Lorne “Gump” Worsley, Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Eddie Giacomin, Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Jean Beliveau, Yvan Cournoyer, etc., there is nothing better than a playoff series between “Original Six” teams.  The Bruins’ shocking comeback from a 4-1 third period deficit to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime was amazing – the first time a team ever overcame a three-goal third-period deficit in a seventh game of a Stanley Cup playoff series.  Now it’s on to a series against the New York Rangers, another of the Original Six.  The Rangers have a hot goaltender, which can be the great equalizer in a seven-game series. And the match-up between the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings (both Original Six teams) renews one of the greatest sports rivalries – that should be a riveting series.

I’m really looking forward to Senior Day at home on Tuesday in the game against UCLA.  It will be very interesting how the deployment of seniors affects the line-up and pitching selections in this game, which has significant RPI impact potential for both teams as they near the finish line and look to strengthen their resumes for post-season seeding and host site selection.  I found it fascinating how the coaches prioritized winning the conference game on Sunday and didn’t “hold back” their bullpen stalwarts (Gauna, Peitzmeier and Davis) against Riverside to set up the pitching for the UCLA game.  I understand and agree with the strategy – they needed to push the pedal-to-the-metal to give them breathing space in the BWC and put them in position to clinch before playing Northridge the final weekend series.

UC Riverside Series Preview

Titans at UC Riverside

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

By FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton started out the season winning 31 of their first 35 games and swept six of their first eight series before things toughened up a bit and the Titans lost a game in each of the next three series but still won all three of them.  Fullerton was 3-3 over a six game stretch after losing the first game in Hawaii but they responded by shutting out the Rainbows in each of the next two games.  The Titans returned home to Goodwin Field last weekend to face their long-time rivals from Long Beach State and swept the Dirtbags by scores of 3-2, 2-1 and 9-4 to run their winning streak to five games, win all six games against Long Beach this season and improve their record against the Dirtbags to 22-3 over the last five seasons.

As has often been the case this season, Fullerton got out to a lead in the first inning with the help of some poor defense from Long Beach.  After Thomas Eshelman struck out the side in the top of the first, Richy Pedroza walked to get things started in the bottom of the inning against Shane Carle, stole second and advanced to third when the throw went into CF, J.D. Davis walked and Pedroza scored when Michael Lorenzen’s ground ball to third was thrown away to put runners on second and third.  The Dirtbags escaped further damage when Davis was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a fly out to RF.  Long Beach manufactured a run in the top of the third on a single by Colton Vaughn, a SAC bunt and a two out single and as the Titans have done many times, they responded by scoring in the bottom of the inning to retake the lead when Carlos Lopez doubled and Davis doubled him in.  Vaughn tripled to lead off the top of the fifth and Eshelman had some uncharacteristic wildness when he hit his second batter and walked his second batter of the season but escaped without allowing a run when he struck out the dangerous 3-4 duo of Juan Avila and Ino Patron to end the inning and Austin Kingsolver led off the bottom of the inning by launching a HR into the Arboretum for the first homer of his career at home to extend the lead to 3-1 and the Titans missed an opportunity to pad the lead when Pedroza followed with a double and was bunted to third by Carlos Lopez but was left stranded there.  The Dirtbags cut into the lead in the seventh when Vaughn doubled for his third hit of the game, was bunted to third and scored on a SF.  Fullerton had another chance to score in the bottom of the inning when Pedroza walked, Lopez doubled him to third and Lorenzen walked to end Carle’s night but Matt Chapman curiously attempted to bunt for a hit and popped the bunt to the catcher to end the inning.  Koby Gauna pitched a 1-2-3 inning in relief of Eshelman in the eighth and Lorenzen finished off the game with a 1-2-3 ninth for his Big West leading fourteenth save.  Eshelman improved his record to 8-2 by allowing two runs on seven hits and a walk with six strikeouts in seven innings.  Lopez had two doubles and a run, Davis had a double, two walks and an RBI, Pedroza had a double, two walks and a run to lead the offense along with Kingsolver’s HR.

The second game of the series was on national TV and the starting pitchers shined under the bright lights of the broadcast with Justin Garza and Jake Stassi trading zeroes for the first six innings.  Garza had his worst outing of the season the first time he faced Long Beach but he was a different pitcher this time and only allowed two batters to reach base in the first six innings on a single and a walk.  Stassi allowed three hits and two walks over the first six innings but managed to keep Fullerton off of the scoreboard.  The Dirtbags got on the scoreboard in the seventh when Vaughn singled, was bunted to second and scored on a long double by Zack Rivera.  The Titans once again responded in the bottom of the inning when Greg Velazquez walked, Chapman bunted him to second and Austin Diember came through with a clutch two out single to drive in Velazquez.  Long Beach didn’t score in the top of the eighth and Lopez led off the bottom of the inning with a double to end Stassi’s night.  J.D. Davis attempted to bunt Lopez to third and the bunt was misplayed by reliever Jon Maciel to put runners at first and third.  Lopez scored when Lorenzen hit into a double play after Long Beach decided to leave the infield back even though that was the go ahead run.  Lorenzen came into the game to finish things off and wasn’t sharp, allowing a walk and two singles to load the bases before getting a ground ball to third for a force out at home and a strike out to end the game and leave the bases loaded for his fifteenth save.  Stassi was the hard luck loser, allowing two runs (1 ER) in 7+ innings and Garza stayed undefeated at 10-0 after allowing a run on four hits and a walk with four strikeouts in eight innings.  Diemer had the only RBI for Fullerton and the runs were scored by Lopez and Velazquez.

As is often the case with Sunday baseball, runs were much more plentiful under the daylight and each team scored in the first.  Jeff McNeil singled for Long Beach to lead off the game, stole second and scored on a SF by Avila but Fullerton responded once again when Pedroza led off with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a fly out and scored on a single up the middle by Anthony Hutting.  Long Beach took the lead against Graham Wiest in the top of the fourth when Avila was hit by a pitch, Patron singled him to third and Rivera drove in Avila with a SF.  Nick Sabo relieved David Hill in the fourth and gave up a couple of hits but held the Titans off of the scoreboard before Fullerton got to him in the fifth with the help of some poor defense when Kingsolver reached on an error at first by Patron, Pedroza bunted him to second, Lopez’s long flyball to the wall in RF popped out of Avila’s glove for a two base error, Davis walked to load the bases, a walk to Lorenzen forced in a run to tie the game and end Sabo’s day, a passed ball gave the Titans the lead and move the runners up and Hutting’s third single of the game drove in two runs to make it a 5-2 game.  Jared Deacon and Chapman walked to lead off the sixth and Lopez came through with two outs with a laser shot into the net in RF for a three run HR to break the game open and bump Fullerton’s lead up to 8-2.  Wiest improved his record to 8-2 after throwing seven solid innings, allowing three runs on four hits and a walk with six strikeouts.  Lopez and Hutting led the offense with three RBI apiece and Lopez, Deacon and Kingsolver each scored twice.

Fullerton had trouble putting things together on offense against Long Beach in the first two games against a couple of good starting pitchers before breaking out in the third game to finish off the sweep.  The Titans only hit .205 in the series but as they have often done this season, they were very patient and got on base often with walks and HBP’s and took advantage of eighteen free bases and five errors by the Dirtbags to score fourteen runs. Lopez was a catalyst in all three games, going 4-11 with three doubles and a HR, three RBI and four runs, Davis and Pedroza were both 2-7 with four walks and Hutting went 3-4 with three RBI in the only game he started.  The pitching was once again outstanding as it has been almost every weekend and Fullerton had a 2.33 ERA, held Long Beach to a .208 AVG, had a 5/20 BB/K ratio and the starters improved their record to 26-4.

Fullerton will be trying to extend their winning streak this weekend against a team that has traditionally been a nemesis since joining the Big West in 2002, the UC Riverside Highlanders.  Fullerton has had more trouble with Riverside than they have any other conference opponent over the last eleven years and has only gone 18-15 against the Highlanders with Riverside winning four of the series, including last year’s series at Goodwin Field for their first series win at Fullerton, and are 9-6 against the Titans at home. As much as Fullerton has been very consistent on a week to week basis, the Highlanders have been the exact opposite and after sweeping Irvine to start out conference play and 14-10 overall, Riverside has only won four of their last twenty games with three of those wins coming at home against last place Pacific.  The Highlanders have played very well at home and won their first eleven games there before losing four of their last five games at home.


UC Riverside Highlanders

• (*18-26, 7-11 – 7th).  Riverside will be vacating eight wins for using an ineligible player, which would make them 10-26.
• 2012 Overall Record – 22-32
• 2012 Conference Record – 9-15 (8th)
• 2012 Post-Season – None.
• 2013 RPI/ISR – 143/126.  This will be adjusted once the eight wins are vacated. 2012 RPI/ISR – 145/110
• Current ranking/Pre-season ranking – None
• Predicted conference finish – 5th by Easton College Baseball, 7th by Big West coaches and Perfect Game and 8th by Baseball America

2012 Summary and 2013 Preview

UC Riverside won the Big West in 2007 and finished third, fourth and third in the conference in 2008-2010 before finishing fifth in 2011 at 11-13 and were next to last in the conference at 9-15 in 2012 and finished under .500 overall at 22-32 for the first time in four years.  The Highlanders had heavy personnel losses from 2011 and got off to a slow start and never really got going, losing their first three series vs. BYU, at ASU and at Sam Houston State before picking up a series win vs. Sacramento State.  After splitting a series at Fresno State, Riverside lost their next three series at UCSB and at home to Long Beach and Bakersfield.  The Highlanders picked up their second series win of the season at home against UC Davis before being swept at Irvine and losing a series at home to Northridge. Riverside won only their third series against last place Pacific before springing the biggest upset of the Big West season when they won their first series ever at Fullerton and finished off the year by getting swept at home by Cal Poly.

Riverside’s offensive approach before BBCOR bats were introduced in 2011 was to play for the big inning by not playing much little ball so it wasn’t much of a surprise that they had issues adjusting to the new bats.  The Highlanders were among the worst offensive teams in the conference the last two seasons and were next to last in the Big West in scoring in 2012 and scored four runs or less 31 times.  Riverside only hit .260, was next to last in slugging and struck out more than anybody else in the conference.  The one thing that the Highlanders did well was draw walks and they led the Big West in walks, which helped boost their on base percentage to third in the conference.  Riverside still didn’t play much little ball despite swinging BBCOR bats and were only seventh in the conference in SB’s and bunted less than anybody else in the Big West.

Riverside had a poor 5.85 ERA in 2010 and with the switch to BBCOR bats their ERA tumbled down by over two runs to 3.40 in 2011, which was third in the conference.  The Highlanders weren’t nearly as consistent in 2012 and saw their ERA shoot up by about 3/4 of a run per game and were sixth in the conference in ERA, allowing five runs or more 25 times.  Riverside had a solid 2.4 K/BB ratio and was in the top three in the conference both in strikeouts and walks with their pitchers having good control but they had trouble keeping batters off base when they hit the ball and allowed their opponents to hit .283 overall and Big West teams hit .297 against their pitching staff.

Riverside expected to be better this season after returning almost their entire lineup and most of their pitching staff from 2012 but things didn’t turn out that way.  The Highlanders lost three out of four games in a tournament at Palm Springs and split four games at Sacramento State, a series that was marred by a bench clearing brawl that was instigated by SS Eddie Young.  Riverside returned home and swept St. Mary’s before splitting four games at New Mexico and losing their series at Portland.  The program ran into more turmoil as the conference season started when Young was declared ineligible by the NCAA but the Highlanders responded to adversity with their best series of the season when they swept UC Irvine at home but they have skidded off of the road since then, losing sixteen of their last twenty games with three of the four wins coming at home against last place Pacific.  Riverside has lost their other four series at Northridge, at UC Davis, at home to UCSB and at Cal Poly, getting swept in each of the road series.  The Highlanders pitched better last weekend in San Luis Obispo, allowing eleven runs but seeing their offense get shut down and score only five runs.

Riverside has hit much better this season, batting almost twenty points higher and scoring a run more per game and they are ranked in the top half of the conference in scoring, AVG, SLG and OBP.  The Highlanders offensive improvement has been even more pronounced at home, where they have hit .331 and averaged seven runs per game while going 12-4 but their inability to hit on the road has sunk their season because they are 6-22 away from home and hitting .240 and averaging 3.4 runs per game on the road other than their four game stat padding series at New Mexico’s launching pad.  Riverside has only hit eleven HR’s but they are among the conference leaders in doubles and triples and have seen their SLG % go up by about fifty points.  The Highlanders have been walking a lot and striking a lot like they did in 2012 and are second in the Big West in BB’s and K’s.  Riverside still doesn’t bunt much but they are running much more this season and already have eighteen more steals than they had in 2012 with three weeks to go.  The Highlanders offense has started to slow down as their struggles have increased and they have been held to three runs or less in six of their last nine games and they have been held to four runs or less 24 times for the season.

Riverside’s pitching staff has been very inconsistent and they have seen their ERA go up again this season by almost a run and they have allowed five runs or more 26 times and their pitchers have allowed an average of at least five runs a game in seven of their eleven weekend series.  The Highlanders haven’t been missing enough bats and a porous defense has contributed to teams hitting over .300 against them.  Riverside has a 1.5 BB/K ratio and went from ranking in the top three in the conference in walks and strikeouts to seeing their pitchers rank in the bottom three in the Big West in those categories, although they have done a better job of not walking hitters in conference games.  The Highlanders have had one weekend starter s who has been pretty consistent, another one who has been up and down and there has been no reliable answer in the third starting spot but their bullpen has been pretty solid and kept them in games most of the time.


Offense

• Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 117 (increases offense by 17%). Standard dimensions, unique features are a 20 ft wall/batters eye in CF and drainage slopes behind the infield dirt down the 1B and 3B lines.  No marine layer due to being inland helps the ball carry better.
• Batting Average – .278 (5/115); .280 (6th) in conference.  .260 (7th in the Big West, 239th nationally) in 2012; .252 in conference.
• Scoring – 235 (4/112), 5.5 per game; 79 (7th), 4.4 per game in conference.  235 (8/246), 4.4 per game in 2012; 93, 3.9 per game in conference.
• Home Runs – 11 (7/209); 4 (8th) in conference.  13 (6/250) in 2012; 7 in conference.
• Slugging Percentage – .376 (4/114); .371 (6th) in conference.  .333 (8/268) in 2012; .326 in conference.  
• On Base Percentage – .377 (2/52); .368 (3rd) in conference.  .361 (3/137) in 2012; .341 in conference.  
• Walks – 188 (2/73), 4.3 per game; 65 (3rd), 3.6 per game in conference.  229 (1/71), 4.2 per game in 2012; 83, 3.5 per game in conference.  
• HBP’s – 55 (6/91); 22 (4th) in conference.  61 (5/113) in 2012; 27 in conference.
• Strikeouts – 298 (1/xx), 6.9 per game; 109 (2nd), 6.1 per game in conference.  386 (1/xx), 7.1 per game in 2012; 171, 7.1 per game in conference.  
• Stolen Bases – 54-77 (3/114); 18-30 (5th) in conference.  36-57 (7/239) in 2012; 14-21 in conference.
• Sac Bunts – 30 (8/173); 14 (7th) in conference.  34 (9/203) in 2012; 15 in conference.

Infield

UC Riverside expected to have an experienced infield coming into the season after only losing one player from 2012, 1B/3B Vince Gonzalez, who was 2nd team All-Big West. Eddie Young started at SS in 2012 and was starting there earlier this season until being ruled ineligible by the NCAA right before conference play started.

C – SR #36 Bart Steponovich (RH – .262/.333/.292, 0-5-0.  ’12 – .183/.241/.198, 0-11-0. ’11 – .290/.377/.323, 0-7-0 in 93 AB’s) split time in 2011 but hit his way into more playing time during the second half of the season.  He hit .270 in his first 33 AB’s last season but only hit in the .150’s after that.  Steponovich kept his job in the lineup because his defensive skills are very good and he has been hitting better this season and hasn’t been as much of a liability at the plate.  He has trouble making contact and struck out nearly 1/3 of the time in 2011 and had even more issues in 2012 and was second in the Big West with 46 strikeouts and has struck out about 1/4 of time.  Steponovich is a good bunter and had five SAC’s in 2012 and has three this season and will usually be batting 9th and splits time behind the plate.  He went 0-8 at Fullerton in 2012 and is 0-12 in his career against the Titans.

C/1B – SR #7 Clayton Prestridge (RH – .344/.450/.416, 1-23-13.  ’12 – .292/.435/.357, 0-24-9) played mostly LF in 2012 and was hitting in the .250’s most of the season but got hot over the last fifteen games and has continued to stay hot and is among the Big West leaders in AVG and OBP and will hit third while splitting time between C and 1B.  He will stand in and take a HBP and has been hit 20 times over the last two seasons and is second in the conference with 12 HBP’s.  Prestridge is a patient hitter who will see lots of pitches and was third in the Big West in 2012 in walks but is also prone to striking out and had a solid 36/34 BB/K ratio in 2012 and has a 20/29 ratio this season.  He has good speed and led the team in SB’s in 2012 and is third in the conference this season. Prestridge is a gap to gap hitter and has only hit one HR in two seasons despite usually hitting in the middle of the lineup.  He had a seventeen game hitting streak snapped against UCSB two weeks ago and was hitless in two games last weekend at Cal Poly. Like most of the team, he has hit better at home with a .377 AVG while hitting .327 on the road.  Prestridge was 3-8 with five walks at Fullerton in 2012.

1B – FR #42 Francisco Tellez (LH – .317/.405/.571, 2-12-1) is a part-time starter who has been getting more playing time recently against RHP’s and figures to be in the lineup at least twice this weekend because he has been hitting for lots of power with ten extra base hits in only 63 AB’s.  He has solid plate discipline with a 9/13 BB/K ratio.

1B/DH – JR #27 Kyle Boudreau (LH – .237/.350/.361, 2-21-3.  ’12 – .267/.380/.389, 2-18-1.  ’11 – .250/.363/.294, 0-8-1 in 68 AB’s) started 16 games in 2011 as a reserve and after a 2-24 start in 2012 hit around .300 after that.   He has been a hot hitter at home with a .343 AVG but has only hit .177 on the road.  Boudreau got off to a hot start this season but has only hit .151 over his last 53 AB’s and has seen his playing time dwindle with Tellez playing more.  Boudreau went 2-7 at Fullerton in 2012.

DH – Soph #48 Kyle Davidson (RH – .256 in 39 AB’s.  ’12 – .321/.410/.396, 1-9-0 in 53 AB’s) hit well in limited playing time as a FR and has only started eight times, usually against LHP’s.

2B – Soph #22 Nick Vilter (RH – .245/.361/.328, 1-13-1.  ’12 –.229/.369/.337, 1-9-2) split time at 2B as a FR but has been the starter for almost every game this season and will usually hit seventh.  He is big for a middle infielder and has some pop in his bat with ten extra base hits, although he hasn’t been too consistent and after going thru a 6-49 slump he has started hitting better lately and is 13-35 over the last twelve games.  Vilter is patient at the plate and leads the team in walks but also has a big swing and is second in the conference in strikeouts and has a 21/46 BB/K ratio.  He went 2-5 with two walks at Fullerton in 2012.

SS – Soph #20 Alex Rubanowitz (LH – .248/.336/.316, 1-15-3.  ’12 – .244/.324/.300, 0-9-1) split time at 2B with Vilter as a FR and was playing at 3B earlier in the season but became the everyday SS after Young was ruled ineligible.  He was on a hot streak when he hit .405 over a thirteen game stretch but has been ice cold and has only hit .181 over the last sixteen games.  Like most of his teammates, Rubanowitz has hit much better at home with a .383 AVG and has only hit .157 on the road.  He has switched positions with Vilter the last couple of games with Vilter playing SS so that is something to keep an eye on to see if they continue playing doing that.  Rubanowitz went 1-9 at Fullerton in 2012 but the hit was a big one because it drove in the only run in the series deciding 1-0 win for Riverside.

3B/CF – Soph #8 Joe Chavez (RH – .325/.437/.497, 2-24-15.  ’12 – 3-12) rarely got off the bench as a FR but has been one of the constants in the lineup and is having a strong season, leading the Big West in doubles and ranking in the top ten in the conference in runs, OBP and SLG.  He is a patient hitter who is second on the team with 20 walks and will crowd the plate and has 11 HBP’s but he also has a big swing and leads the Big West with 50 strikeouts.  Chavez was in a slump where he hit .178 over a twelve game stretch but he has gotten hot again and hit .408 over the last thirteen games.  He will usually hit second, has good speed and leads the conference in SB’s.  Chavez played in CF quite a bit earlier in the season but has started at 3B in seven of the last eight games.

3B – JR #16 Cody Hough (RH – .226/.333/.369, 2-9-1.  ’12 –.196/.302/.232, 0-8-2) started during most of the non-conference season in 2012 but lost his spot in the lineup due to his issues at the plate.  He hasn’t hit much better this season and usually starts at 3B when Chavez moves to the OF.

Outfield

Riverside returned all of their outfielders from 2012 so they are very experienced but that has also created a crowded situation with some players shifting back and forth and Prestridge, one of last season’s outfielders, being moved to catcher.

LF – SR #4 Phil Holinsworth (RH – .256/.367/.344, 0-30-6.  ’12 – .237/.314/.366, 4-17-3. ’11 – .279/.333/.380, 0-16-4) was the fourth OF in 2011 and got playing time in all three OF spots last season when other OF’s were out of the lineup with injuries.  He is a good bunter and has seventeen SAC’s over the last three seasons, including five this year. Hollinsworth is one of several players who have gone into a slump recently and has only hit .200 over the last thirteen games.  He is another player who has hit much better at home with a .298 AVG and has only hit .231 on the road.  Hollinsworth is a good run producer and is second on the team in RBI and usually hits fifth.  He had a game to remember at Fullerton in 2012 when he single-handedly outproduced the Titans offense with two 2-run HR’s in Riverside’s 6-3 win in the second game of the series.

CF/LF – Soph #6 Devyn Bolasky (LH – .321/.341/.344, 0-9-4.  ’12 – .284/.376/.303, 0-8-6) was having a solid season as a FR before he injured a hamstring against Long Beach and missed a month before returning.  He has very little power with only five extra base hits (all doubles) over the last two seasons and is a slap hitter who puts the ball in play and runs to beat out hits as the leadoff hitter.  Bolasky isn’t patient at the plate and has only walked five times but he usually puts the ball in play and is one of the toughest players to strike out in the country with only seven strikeouts.  He was in a 4-31 slump before being one of the few players to hit well at Cal Poly and went 7-12 last weekend.  Bolasky has hit .410 at home and was only hitting .235 on the road before his hot streak in SLO.  He will play in LF whenever Chavez moves from 3B to CF.  Bolasky went 0-3 in his only start at Fullerton in 2012.

RF – JR #30 David Andriese (LH – .321/.367/.411, 0-33-3.  ’12 – .233/.326/.380, 4-25-3. ’11 – .307/.392/.453, 4-30-1) was one of the better FR in the Big West in 2011 while playing in LF and led the team and was tenth in the Big West in SLG and was honorable mention all-conference.  He injured his wrist four games into 2012 and missed the next thirteen games and never really got going as he went through a sophomore slump due to the injury.  Andriese is a good run producer as the cleanup hitter and leads the team and is eighth in the conference in RBI.  He struck out about 25-30% of the time in his first two seasons but has been doing a better job of making contact for a big hitter in the middle of the lineup and has a 12/25 BB/K ratio.  Andriese was hitting .375 through the non-conference season but has been hitting in the .270’s since then.  He has hit .362 at home and .300 on the road.  Andriese went 1-11 at Fullerton in 2012 and is 4-22 in his career against the Titans.


Defense

Fielding % – .950 (10/278) with 84 errors; .954 (10th) with 32 errors in conference.  .966 (7/140) with 70 errors in 2012; .959 with 39 errors in conference.  Riverside had one of the better defenses in the Big West in 2010-2011 but the defense was below average in 2012 and has come off of the rails this season.  The Highlanders are the worst fielding team in the conference and have allowed 73 unearned runs.  Prestridge and Tellez are adequate at 1B, Vilter has good range at 2B but makes too many errors, Rubanowitz has been below average at SS and Chavez has been below average at 3B.  Hollinsworth and Andriese have average range in the corner OF spots and Bolasky has good range in CF.

Stolen Base Attempts – 35-51 (6/xx); 13-19 (4th) in conference.  42-70 (5/xx) in 2012; 16-30 in conference.   Steponovich was better at throwing out runners in 2012 (35-56) than he has been this season (17-22).  Runners are 7-7 against Prestridge.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 38 (4/xx); 8 (1st) in conference games.  33 (2nd) in 2012; 17 in conference.   Steponovich and Prestridge have been doing a solid job of blocking pitches and giving the pitching staff confidence in throwing off-speed pitches in the dirt.


Pitching

• ERA – 5.14 (8/227); 4.69 (8th) in conference.  4.13 (6/112) in 2012; 4.13 in conference.
• AVG – .313 (9/281); .312 (9th) in conference.  .283 (7/179) in 2012; .297 in conference.
• HR – 20 (8/xx); 8 (7th) in conference.  23 (5/xx) in 2012; 10 in conference.
• SLG – .376 (9/xx); .371 (9th) in conference.  .392 (7/xx) in 2012; 410 in conference.
• Walks – 156 (8/174), 3.8 BB/9 IP; 42 (5th) 2.5 BB/9 IP in conference.  155 (3/44), 2.9 BB/9 IP in 2012; 65, 2.7 BB/9 IP in conference.
• HBP – 38 (7/xx); 23 (3rd) in conference.  36 (1/xx) in 2012; 23 in conference.
• OBP – .388 (9/xx); .372 (8th) in conference.   .345 (4/xx) in 2012; .358 in conference.
• Strikeouts – 221 (8/258), 5.4 K/9 IP; 78 (9th), 4.6 K/9 IP in conference.  370 (2/92), 7.0 K/9 IP in 2012; 149, 6.3 K/9 IP in conference.

Starters

Riverside had an experienced weekend rotation in 2012 with two starters back from 2011 and they usually kept the Highlanders in games but wore down a little bit as the season went on and all three allowed conference opponents to hit in the low .300’s.  Honorable mention all-conference starter Eddie Orozco moved on and one of the other starters was moved into the closer’s role, leaving returning and relievers to take over the other two spots in the weekend rotation.

JR #5 Dylan Stuart (LHP – 3-6, 4.69 ERA, 12 GS, 2 CG, 71 IP, 104 H, 15 BB, 24 K, .351 AVG, 4 HR, 3 HBP, 1 WP, 7-9 SB, 5 pickoffs.  ’12 – 7-7, 4.00 ERA, 15 GS, 3 CG, 99 IP, 108 H, 21 BB, 56 K, .281 AVG, 3 HR, 3 HBP, 6 WP, 7-11 SB, 5 pickoffs.  ’11 – 1-1, 1.72 ERA, 18 apps, 31 IP, 34 H, 11 BB, 29 K, .301 AVG, 0 HR, 3 HBP, 1 WP, 4-9 SB) was a middle reliever in 2011 and ended up pitching well enough to earn Big West FR Pitcher of the Year honors.  Stuart got off to a great start in 2012 when he was Big West pitcher of the week for a shutout against BYU in his first start but was up and down after that, mixing bad outings with good ones and had a great start at Fullerton when he shut out the Titans in a 1-0 complete game win when he induced Fullerton into hitting sixteen groundouts.  He has very good control and is usually around the plate and pitches to contact, which has been a problem this season with Riverside having such a poor defense that turns balls that should be outs into hits and errors and has allowed at least eight hits in each of his last eight starts.  Stuart hasn’t made it out of the sixth inning five times but if he gets through the early innings without too much damage he is usually able to pitch deep into games because he keeps his pitch count down and doesn’t strike out many hitters with three or fewer strikeouts in his last nine games.  He has allowed 18 R (14 ER) on 31 H in 19 1/3 IP in his last three starts.  Stuart a very good move to first and has picked off ten runners over the last two seasons but when runners are able to run they usually have a pretty good chance to succeed.

JR #26 Ben Doucette (LHP – 2-5, 4.01 ERA, 11 GS, 61 IP, 68 H, 27 BB, 36 K, .282 AVG, 1 HR, 11 HBP, 4 WP, 2-5 SB.  ’12 – 1-1, 1.69 ERA, 5 saves, 24 apps, 27 IP, 22 H, 10 BB, 26 K, .220 AVG, 0 HR, 5 HBP, 1 WP, 1-3 SB.  ’11 – 1 IP) was moved into the closer’s role for the last six weeks of 2012 after pitching in middle relief earlier in the season and converted all five save chances that he had, including one at Fullerton.  He does a good job of getting sink on his fastball and will sometimes run into control issues if hitters are laying off of it and he has walked at least three hitters in five of his starts, including six walks last week at Cal Poly when he was wildly effective in holding the Mustangs to two runs in seven innings.  Doucette will pitch inside and leads the Big West with 10 HBP’s in conference games.  He has been Riverside’s best starter lately despite a 1-4 record in Big West games and is seventh in the conference with a 2.65 ERA in Big West play.  Doucette has allowed three runs or less in his last seven starts with a 2.33 ERA.

JR #25 Zach Varela (RHP – 3-0, 0.92 ERA, 14 apps, 3 GS, 29 IP, 24 H, 5 BB, 11 K, .220 AVG, 0 HR, 5 HBP, 2 WP, 4-4 SB.  ’12 – 0-1, 3.86 ERA, 8 apps, 9 IP, 14 H, 1 BB, 12 K, .350 AVG, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 1 WP, 0-0 SB) didn’t pitch much in 2012 and was a middle reliever for most of this season, pitching very effectively in that role with a 0.53 ERA in eleven appearances out of the bullpen.  He has started the last two weekends, allowing one run on six hits in four innings vs. UCSB and allowing two runs (1 ER) on five hits in five innings at Cal Poly.  Varela isn’t a hard thrower but has very good control and does a good job of getting sink on his fastball.

JR #33 Jacob Smigelski (RHP – 1-1, 6.03 ERA, 6 GS, 31 IP, 45 H, 6 BB, 23 K, .346 AVG, 3 HR, 5 HBP, 3 WP, 5-7 SB) was the Sunday starter for the non-conference schedule but injured his arm against Irvine in his first conference start and hasn’t pitched since.

SR #17 Mitch Patito (RHP – 1-0, 3.86 ERA, 4 GS, 19 IP, 18 H, 12 BB, 11 K, .257 AVG, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 3 WP, 4-4 SB.  ’12 – 3-4, 3.96 ERA, 16 apps, 10 GS, 50 IP, 41 H, 40 BB, 61 K, .227 AVG, 3 HR, 4 HBP, 1 WP, 7-11 SB.  ’11 – 1-3, 5.75 ERA, 6 saves, 19 apps, 20 IP, 22 H, 18 BB, 24 K, .286 AVG, 1 HR, 4 HBP, 1 WP, 4-5 SB.  ’10 – 3-0, 1.33 ERA, 3 saves, 21 apps, 27 IP, 13 H, 13 BB, 27 K, .138 AVG, 1 HR, 8 HBP, 1 WP, 3-3 SB) was the closer in 2010 and moved out of that role due to ineffectiveness during 2011 and was the midweek starter the last two seasons but was injured four starts into the season and hasn’t pitched since.

Relievers

Riverside brought back a decent amount of experience in their bullpen from 2012 and one of the keys to the success that they have had has been due to converting one of last season’s weekend starters into the closer’s role.

SR #14 Trevor Frank (RHP – 4-1, 1.91 ERA, 9 saves, 21 apps, 33 IP, 23 H, 8 BB, 37 K, .187 AVG, 1 HR, 1 HBP, 2 WP, 1-1 SB.  ’12 – 2-8, 4.63 ERA, 16 apps, 14 GS, 1 CG, 80 IP, 97 H, 19 BB, 40 K, .307 AVG, 3 HR, 5 HBP, 3 WP, 6-14 SB.  ’11 – 2-3, 3.35 ERA, 1 save, 13 apps, 12 GS, 83 IP, 84 H, 14 BB, 55 K, .268 AVG, 3 HR, 7 HBP, 4 WP, 2-7 SB. ’10 – 3-3, 8.46 ERA, 17 apps, 8 GS, 50 IP, 79 H, 18 BB, 31 K, .374 AVG, 5 HR, 8 HBP, 4 WP, 7-11 SB) moved from a midweek starter/middle reliever to a weekend starter early in 2011 and was in the rotation through the end of last season before being converted into the closer’s role in the fall.  He was more of a strike thrower and a pitch to contact guy as a starter but has been able to air it out more as a reliever and has his fastball getting into the mid 90’s as the closer and he is third in the Big West in saves.  Because Frank used to be a starter, he is able to go more than an inning when called upon and threw 3 1/3 innings to pick up a save against UCSB two weeks ago.  He didn’t allow a run over fifteen straight appearances but has allowed six runs on eleven hits in his last six outings and picked up the loss last Sunday when he allowed two runs after an outfielder misplayed the potential final out, turning a fly ball into a triple.  Frank allowed five runs on sixteen hits and five walks in 13 2/3 IP in his starts against Fullerton over the last two seasons.

SR #29 Mark Garcia (LHP – 3-4, 5.79 ERA, 17 apps, 3 GS, 42 IP, 48 H, 19 BB, 23 K, .296 AVG, 3 HR, 5 HBP, 1 WP, 3-7 SB.  ’12 – 2-1, 2.45 ERA, 1 save, 18 apps, 40 IP, 42 H, 16 BB, 27 K, .271 AVG, 0 HR, 4 HBP, 3 WP, 0-2 SB.  ’11 – 1-2, 4.68 ERA, 17 apps, 25 IP, 30 H, 11 BB, 18 K, .306 AVG, 1 HR, 3 HBP, 3 WP, 2-2 SB.  ’10 – 0-0, 10.80 ERA, 8 apps, 8 IP, 13 H, 5 BB, 7 K) has been solid in a middle relief role over the last two seasons as the main guy to get the ball from the starters to the closer.  He has been a workhorse and has often gone 2-3 innings in his appearances and is 3-2 with a 3.68 ERA in relief but has a 12.27 ERA in his three starts.

Soph #35 Kevin Sprague (LHP – 1-0, 3.65 ERA, 17 apps, 25 IP, 36 H, 7 BB, 14 K, .346 AVG, 1 HR, 2 HBP, 1 WP, 2-5 SB) has also been effective in relief despite allowing a high average due to very good control.  He started on Tuesday against San Diego State and allowed three runs in four innings.

SR #28 Donovan Gonzales (RHP – 0-5, 9.45 ERA, 12 apps, 2 GS, 20 IP, 34 H, 20 BB, 12 K, .374 AVG, 1 HR, 0 HBP, 3 WP, 2-3 SB.  ’12 – 0-0, 5.50 ERA, 12 apps, 18 IP, 15 H, 5 BB, 6 K, .212 AVG, 1 HR, 2 HBP, 2 WP, 0-0 SB)


Outlook

Unlike with how Fullerton has beaten Long Beach like a drum over the last five seasons, it has been the exact opposite in their series with Riverside because they circle this series on their schedule more than they do any other series that they play.  It looked like the Titans had gotten over their issues when they play the Highlanders after winning the previous four series the teams had played, including an eight game winning streak from 2009-2011, before Riverside pulled off the upset in the series at Goodwin Field last season.  That is the only series that Fullerton has lost since the opening weekend of 2012.

Riverside has hit the ball very well at home but they have started to cool off a bit at the plate lately so it will be interesting to see if they can start to heat up against a strong Fullerton pitching staff that held them in check last season except for Hollinsworth’s two home-run game.  The Titans did not hit well against the Highlanders in any of the three games last season but their offense is much better this season and Riverside’s pitching staff hasn’t been as good as they were in 2012.

Fullerton has a big advantage in the pitching match-up, although Riverside did pitch well in each of the three games at Cal Poly last weekend in holding the Mustangs to three runs.  If the Highlanders can continue to pitch like they did last weekend that will decrease the edge that the Titans have in pitching in this series.

One area that is a mismatch is how these teams have played in the field.  Fullerton has had an occasional lapse but for the most part has fielded well and has one of the better defenses in the conference, especially during Big West play.  Riverside has been brutal in the field for the entire season and has only played error free ball in twelve of 44 games and the Titans have been making teams pay for making mistakes against them all season.

This could be looked at as a trap series for Fullerton, playing on the road in a place where they have traditionally not played well in between series against Long Beach and Irvine. The Titans have been a focused team this season and will remember that this is the only team that has won a series against them in the last twenty-four series.  It doesn’t figure to be easy this weekend but look for Fullerton to come out of Riverside with a series win.

A Lost Weekend for Titans

By Don Hudson

The Cal State Fullerton Titans squandered an opportunity to keep pace or extend their Big West Conference (BWC) lead over the second place Long Beach State Dirtbags when they dropped two-out-of-three games at home against the eighth-place UC Riverside Highlanders.  The losses came in the wake of a 6-3 midweek home loss to the UCLA Bruins last Tuesday, making the Titans losers of three-out-of-four games for the week (and four-of-their-last six, dating back to the UC Santa Barbara series.)

The Titans’ lead in the BWC was reduced to one game over the Dirtbags, who took two-out-of-three at home against the hapless University of the Pacific Tigers.

With the 1-3 record last week, the Titans dropped from #8 to #12 in the Baseball America rankings – still more generous than I would rank them.  In all of the other recognized national rankings, the Titans are in the #15 to #19 range.  As of today, the Titans are #20 in RPI, as calculated by Boyd’s World.

Prologue:  We didn’t recap the UCLA Bruins game (I have to work once in a while) but there seemed to be some “carry-over” effect going into the weekend series against UCR, so I’ll go back and make a few observations.

My overall take-away from the game was actually pretty positive, with my thinking that “if we can make this many mistakes and still be tied going into the ninth inning against an outstanding team like UCLA, we should win games like that if we just play to the level of our capability.”

Make no mistake – UCLA is an excellent team, deserving of their lofty (#3) RPI status.  Their win last Tuesday against the Titans made them 11-0 in midweek games, which they extended to 12-0 last night by beating UCI.  I love their “foot to the throat” attitude to win those games, even to the point of using their closer in the eighth inning of a tie game in the midweek.  Time will tell if that proves to be a good long-term strategy, but you certainly can’t deny that a 12-0 midweek record greatly enhances UCLA’s 2012 resume.

In no particular order of sequence or importance, let’s recap what we saw:

UC Riverside Series Preview

UC Riverside at Titans (Goodwin Field)

Friday 7 p.m., Saturday 6 p.m., Sunday 6 p.m.

By FullertonBaseballFan

Fullerton looked to build on the momentum they got going coming out of their bye week in the Big West schedule when they won all four games against USC and Pacific by a combined score of 40-8 when they went on the road for a second straight conference series when they traveled up the 101 to UCSB.  It was a hard fought series between the Titans and Gauchos and one that got testy at times and Fullerton won their eleventh straight weekend series by holding off UCSB in opener 9-7, seeing their five game winning streak broken in a 7-1 loss in the middle game before coming back with a late rally to win 9-3 in the deciding game of the series.

Fullerton got things rolling right away on Friday against UCSB starter Kevin Gelinas when Richy Pedroza walked and advanced to second on a bad pickoff throw, was bunted over to third by Ivory Thomas, Carlos Lopez doubled him in, Matt Chapman walked, Anthony Hutting tripled them both in and J.D. Davis launched one over the LF wall for a two run HR to wrap up a five run inning in the highest scoring first inning of the season for the Titans.  Fullerton was held off of the scoreboard until the fourth when Pedroza walked again and moved up to third on two wild pitches and was tagged out in a rundown on a fielder’s choice by Lopez before Michael Lorenzen ended Gelinas’ day with a two run HR that stretched the lead to 7-0.  The Titans scored again in the fifth when Anthony Trajano got on base on an error and Jared Deacon tripled him in and thought they would have an easy win when Chapman hit Fullerton’s third HR of the day in the sixth to increase the lead to 9-0.  Dylan Floro had cruised through the first five innings and allowed no runs on one hit thru the first five innings but the wheels started to fall off in the bottom of the sixth when UCSB rallied for four runs on four hits and a walk to cut the lead to 9-4 and things really got dicey when the Gauchos scored three more runs in the seventh to cut the lead to 9-7 before Koby Gauna restored order after balking in the third run of the inning by getting the next two batters out.  Gauna retired all three batters in order in the eighth and Lorenzen finished things off with a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his Big West leading fourteenth save and Floro picked up the win to improve his record to 8-3.  The Titans’ thirteen hit attack was led by Chapman with three hits and two runs, Hutting with two hits, two RBI and a run, Lopez with two hits, two runs and an RBI, Deacon with two hits and an RBI and Lorenzen and Davis with two run HR’s.

The second game of the series went much differently as Fullerton struggled to hit against Andrew Vasquez, as many teams have this season.  The Titans got two hits in the first but stranded both runners and got three walks in the next two innings and also stranded those runners.  UCSB scored in the third off of Kenny Mathews to take the lead and the Titans took advantage of more wildness by Vasquez to tie the game in the fourth when Hutting was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a wild pitch, Casey Watkins was hit by a pitch, Pedroza walked to load the bases and a walk to Thomas forced in the run but Fullerton ended up leaving the bases loaded.  The Gauchos took the lead for good with a run in the bottom of the fourth.  Fullerton tried to come back in the fifth when Chapman bunted for a single and Hutting got the sixth walk of the game off of Vasquez to knock him out of the game.  Matthew Vedo came in a struck out the first two hitters he faced to stop the rally and UCSB scored two more runs in the sixth to stretch their lead to 4-1 when Mathews hit the first batter he faced and hit two doubles off of Dmitri De La Fuente and extended their lead to 6-1 in the seventh on a two run HR by Lance Roenicke and tacked on another run in the eighth to finish off the scoring.  Hutting walked three times and Lopez had two hits, and was the only Titan with multiple hits as Fullerton stranded thirteen runners after getting seven walks and two HBP’s.  Mathews lost the first game of his career to fall to 5-1 while Vedo picked up the win with three scoreless innings and five strikeouts.  About the only excitement to come out of the latter part of the game occurred afterwards when Vedo had some interesting things to say to the Santa Barbara newspaper when he said he enjoyed making the Fullerton hitters look stupid.

UC Riverside Preview

Titans at UC Riverside (Friday 6 p.m., Saturday 6 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m.)

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton continued to scuffle last week with injuries turning the lineup into a M*A*S*H unit and also impacting the rotation with Noe Ramirez missing his second straight start as the Titans went 2-2, losing their midweek game but winning the weekend series to maintain their lead in the Big West.

San Diego battered the Fullerton pitching staff and sent the Titans to their third defeat in four games in a 12-8 slugfest last Tuesday. All six pitchers who saw time on mound for Fullerton struggled to get hitters out and the defense made three errors and had a couple of more plays that were questionably not ruled errors. The Titans were led at the plate by Carlos Lopez, who had four hits and three RBI, and Tyler Pill, Nick Ramirez and Ivory Thomas each scored two runs.

Fullerton was happy to be home after losing three out of four games on the road and defeated Pacific 12-6 in a sloppy opening game of the series that saw the teams combine to make seven errors. Neither starting pitcher was effective as the Tigers jumped out to a 6-4 lead before the Titans bounced back with three runs in the fifth inning and four more runs in the sixth to put the game away. Keegan Dale led the way at the plate in his second game in a Fullerton uniform with three hits and three RBI, Ramirez and Lopez both had two hits and two RBI and Anthony Trajano had two hits and scored three runs. Raymond Hernandez threw 2 1/3 solid innings of relief to get the win but the story of the night on the mound was Chris Devenski throwing four shutout innings with six strikeouts to get his first career save.

Pacific evened things up on Saturday with an 8-7 win in another sloppy game that saw the teams combine to make five more errors. The Tigers jumped on Fullerton for five runs in the first inning with three of the runs unearned thanks to two errors by the Titans and Fullerton was playing catch up the rest of the game. The Titans attempted to put together a rally late in the game with runs in each of the last three innings but were too far behind to come back for the win. The leading hitters on the night for Fullerton were Greg Velasquez with three hits, including his first career HR, Ramirez with two hits (one of them his Big West leading 7th HR) and Pill with two hits and an RBI.

Fullerton bounced back from splitting two poorly played games with Pacific to win the series deciding game 6-4 in a cleanly played contest that didn’t have any errors. The two teams traded runs in the third and fourth innings before Pacific tied the game in the fifth. The game stayed tied until the eighth inning when Lopez hit a two run HR into the arboretum to settle things. Other leaders at the plate for the Titans were Trajano with a two run single and Ramirez with two hits and an RBI. Dylan Floro had a solid seven inning start and Nick Ramirez retired all six batters he faced to pick up his first win of the season.

Fullerton is looking to add to their lead in the Big West standings this weekend at UC Riverside, a ballpark that has been less than hospitable to the Titans since the Highlanders entered the Big West in 2002.

UC Riverside Highlanders

• Overall Record – 23-15 in 2011; 32-23 in 2010
• Conference Record – 6-6 in 2011 (5th); 13-11 in 2010 (3rd).
• 2010 Post-Season – None
• 2011 RPI/ISR – 108/42. 2010 RPI/ISR – 74/34
• Current ranking – None
• Predicted conference finish – 2nd by the Big West coaches and 3rd Baseball America

2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

UC Riverside won the Big West in 2007, had a rebuilding year in 2008 when they went 21-33 but tied for 3rd in the conf at 14-10, and had similar records the last two seasons (’09 – 33-20, 12-12, 4th and ’10 – 32-23, 13-11, 3rd) when they were on the fringe of at-large consideration for getting into regionals with RPI’s in the 70’s in both seasons. The Highlanders had won seven of eight series and split two others and were on a roll after winning seven of nine games heading into their series at Fullerton last season. The Titans swept Riverside and finished off any hopes that they had at contending for the Big West title and the Highlanders won two of their final three series to end up finishing in third in the conference.

Riverside came into this season with expectations of having their best season since they won the conference in 2007 with all three weekend SP’s and their closer returning along with most of their lineup. The Highlanders haven’t been too consistent and they got off to a slow start by losing three out of four games with LMU, bounced back won seven in a row in a stretch that included a sweep of Sac State and wins in their first three games at ASU’s tournament before the Sun Devils beat them in the final game in ten innings and lost seven of their next ten games, including a series loss at Cal Poly to start the Big West season. Riverside won their series with Pacific and lost the first two games at Long Beach before winning the final game, which ended up being the first win of another seven game winning streak that was snapped last Sunday by UCSB. The Highlanders bounced back to beat USC 10-6 on Tuesday.

Riverside’s offensive approach last year was to play for the big inning by not playing much little ball as they ended up last in the Big West in SB and SAC’s so it wasn’t much of a surprise that the Highlanders would have some issues adjusting to the BBCOR bats. However, they didn’t expect to struggle as much as they did because Riverside was held to four runs or less in 18 of their first 22 games. The Highlanders have started to be more productive on offense and have scored five runs or more in 12 of their last 16 games. Riverside hit .273 in their non-conf games but has improved to .298 in Big West action. The Highlanders have changed their approach somewhat this season instead of waiting for the big inning. They have been more patient at the plate and have been running more and bunting more, already passing last year’s totals in SB and SAC’s, in an effort to try to generate offense with the deadened bats.

Riverside had the most improved pitching staff in the Big West in 2009 with the second best team ERA at 4.22, two runs lower than it was in 2008. Most of the pitchers who were responsible for putting up those numbers were drafted and the Highlanders ERA shot back up to 5.85 in 2010. Riverside expected their pitching staff to bounce back to where they were in 2009 with an experienced group that returned all of their starters along with their closer. Two of the returning starters have had injury problems but they have been replaced by two of last year’s midweek starters who have both pitched well and the Highlanders ERA has come tumbling down to 3.19. Riverside has held their opponents to three runs or less in half of their games (going 15-4 in those games) to help keep the team over .500 while the offense figured things out. The Highlanders don’t have too many power arms but most of their pitchers except for one of their starters have very good control and they do an excellent job of keeping the ball down and preventing big innings by allowing the fewest extra-base hits in the conference.

Offense

• Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 98 (decreases offense by 2%). Standard dimensions, unique features are a 20 ft wall/batters eye in CF and drainage slopes behind the infield dirt down the 1B and 3B lines.
• Batting Average – .281 (3rd in the Big West). .311 in 2010 (3rd in the Big West).
• Runs Per Game – 5.5 (4th). 7.1 in 2010 (4th).
• Home Runs – 9 (7th). 58 in 2010 (2nd).
• Slugging Percentage – .373 (3rd). .491 in 2010 (2nd).
• Walks – 149 (2nd), 4.0 per game. 184 in 2010 (5th), 3.3 per game.
• HBP’s – 31 (7th). 53 in 2010 (7th).
• Strikeouts – 258 (4th), 7.1 per game. 297 in 2010 (7th), 5.4 per game.
• Stolen Bases – 26-37 (8th). 22-42 in 2010 (9th).
• Sac Bunts – 35 (5th). 25 in 2010 (9th).

Infield

UC Riverside has an experienced infield despite losing starters at C and 1B. The Highlanders have three starters back from 2010 plus a three year starter who redshirted in 2010 along with a veteran catcher who has been in the program for four years.

SR #9 Dan Pellegrino (RH – .238/.270/.295, 0-15-1; ’10 - .283 in 53 AB’s, 2 HR, 8 RBI) has been a solid backup the past three years who could have been starting for many teams but was stuck behind 1st team All-Big West and 2nd round pick Robert Brantly. He hasn’t been the hitter that Brantly was but has done a good job behind the plate. Pellegrino does a solid job of making contact but rarely walks (3/15 BB/K ratio). Soph #36 Bart Steponovich (RH – .311/.415/.333, 0-5-0 in 45 AB’s) is the backup and has been starting once a weekend and has struck out about 40% of the time. Whoever is in the lineup will probably be hitting 8th. Pellegrino has seen enough playing time against Fullerton to go 6-21 in his career against the Titans.

1B/2B – SR #1 Brian Horst (RH – .241/.351/.289, 0-13-3; ’10 – .294/.255/.423, 4-27-1; ’09 - .227/.306/.297, 1-14-4) has been splitting time between 1B and 2B after being the starter at 2B in 2010. Horst doesn’t have much power (only three extra-base hits) but does a solid job of working counts and putting the ball in play. JR #22 Vince Gonzalez (RH – .230/.294/.262, 0-10-1 in 61 AB’s) has been part of the rotation at 1B with Horst and will probably be in the lineup once. He has a poor BB/K ratio (4/15). Whoever is in the lineup will probably be hitting 6th or 7th. Horst went 4-9 last year at Fullerton and is 5-16 in his career against the Titans.

2B – Soph #3 Eddie Young (LH – .257/.339/.295, 0-8-7; ’10 – .270/.362/.357, 0-26-3) was expected to be a reserve infielder in 2010 but was forced into action due to some injuries and saw plenty of playing time against RHP’s at 3B. He is one of the faster runners on the team and leads them in SB’s. Young is also a good bunter and leads them with six SAC’s. He puts together solid AB’s and has a good 14/18 BB/K ratio. Young has been scuffling lately and is 11 for his last 50. He will probably be in the lineup twice and has usually been hitting 9th. Young went 2-9 at Fullerton last season.

SS – SR #10 Trevor Hairgrove (RH – .349/.424/.443, 1-23-3; ’10 – .265/.354/.425, 5-24-0; ’09 – .251/.343/.371, 2-29-3) has been the most improved player on Riverside’s team and is one of the frontrunners for All-Big West honors at SS. He has been a catalyst in the leadoff spot and has been hot and had a 14 game hitting streak snapped last Sunday, improving his average over 100 points during that stretch. Hairgrove had two hits in each of the first two games against UCSB and went 7-13 against both Bakersfield and Long Beach. He is among the conf leaders in AVG, H, 2B and TB. Hairgrove had a good 17/22 BB/K ratio. He went 2-9 at Fullerton last season and is 3-19 in his career against the Titans.

3B – SR #6 Ryan Goetz (Both – .318/.373/.422, 2-23-3; 2010 – Redshirt; 2009 – .340/.386/.502, 5-45-5) started at 3B in his first three years but injured his knee early last year and had to sit out the rest of the season. He got off to a bit of a slow start as he was bouncing back from sitting out last year but has been hitting well lately and is batting .340 in Big West games. Goetz doesn’t walk much or strike out much (11/18 BB/K ratio) and usually puts together good AB’s. He is among the conf leaders in H and 2B and will usually hit 2nd. Goetz is 10-35 in his career against Fullerton.

Outfield

Riverside isn’t quite as experienced in the OF after losing two of the three players who split time between the two corner OF spots and DH but the two players who are returning were both 1st team All-Big West OF’s in 2010.

LF/DH – FR #30 David Andriese (LH – .315/.396/.508, 4-23-1) moved right into the lineup after redshirting last year, replacing Michael Hur who moved on after his SR season. Andriese has been a power bat in the middle of the lineup, usually hitting 5th, and leads the team and is 3rd in the conf in HR and SLG but has a big swing and is among the leaders in the conf with 35 K’s. He got off to a good start and was hitting in the 340’s before going a 6-31 skid but bounced back against UCSB, going 5-11 with an HR and 6 RBI. He will usually start once at DH and twice in LF during the weekend.

CF – SR #15 Tony Nix (RH – .287/.360/.406, 1-30-5; ’10 – .361/.425/.699, 11-43-5; ’09 – .318/.356/.514, 4-39-10) had a tale of two seasons in 2009 and 2010. He was hitting well over .400 going into the Big West schedule in 2009 but barely hit .200 in conf games. Nix got off to a slow start in 2010 but hit a scorching .386 off of Big West pitchers and was among the leaders in HR (7) and RBI (21) during conf games and ended up being one of the 1st team All-Big West OF’s. Nix has been a productive hitter this year in the cleanup spot and is among the conf leaders in RBI and 2B but he hasn’t been consistent and has been in a slump, going 13-58 over the last five weekends. He has only walked eight times but will crowd the plate and is 4th in the conf with 9 HBP. Nix went 2-6 at Fullerton last season and is 3-17 against the Titans in his career.

RF/1B – SR #33 Justin Shults (LH – .297/.439/.422, 2-14-0; ’10 – .390/.458/.695, 11-62-0; ’09 – .310 in 56 AB’s) went from being a reserve in 2009 to one of the most dangerous hitters in the conf on his way to 1st team All-Big West honors when he was among the conf leaders in AVG, HR, RBI, 2B, TB, SLG and OBP. Shults hasn’t adjusted well to the new BBCOR bats and has been struggling in all power categories but he has continued to be patient at the plate and leads the Big West with 33 walks and is 3rd in OBP and R. He has been hitting 3rd and will usually start twice in RF and once at 1B during the weekend. Schults went 2-11 at Fullerton last season.

RF/DH – Soph #4 Phil Holinsworth (RH – .231/.303/.321, 0-8-1; ’10 – 3-10) is the fourth OF and the best defensive corner OF and will usually be a late inning defensive replacement when they have a lead. He has been seeing most of his regular AB’s against LHP’s. Holinsworth will usually be batting 8th or 9th when he is in the lineup.

DH – FR #27 Kyle Boudreau (LH – .258/.372/.303, 0-8-1) has been getting more playing time over the last month against RHP. He doesn’t have much power but he is patient (10 BB in 66 AB). Boudreau has usually been starting twice during a weekend series and hitting 7th.

Defense

Fielding % – .975 (2nd) with 37 errors. 2010 – .971 (3rd) with 63 errors.

Riverside has one of the better infields in the Big West. Horst and Young are both solid at 2B, Hairgrove has been much better at SS and Goetz is a very good 3B. Nix is solid in CF, Shults is average in RF and Andriese is below average in LF.

Stolen Base Attempts – 20-40 (2nd). 2010 – 51-79 (6th).

Pellegrino (14-23) has done a good job at holding down runners and Steponovich (6-14) has been outstanding.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 28 (2nd). 2010 – 46 (5th).

Both Pellegrino and Steponovich have been doing a strong job of blocking pitches and giving the pitching staff confidence in throwing off-speed pitches in the dirt.

Pitching

• ERA – 3.19 (3rd in the Big West). 5.85 in 2010 (7th in the Big West).
• BA – .250 (4th). .321 in 2010 (9th).
• Walks – 104 (2nd), 2.8 BB/9 IP. 164 (5th), 3.0 BB/9 IP in 2010.
• Strikeouts – 282 (5th), 7.5 K/9 IP. 316 (7th), 5.9 K/9 IP in 2010.
• Extra Base Hits – 68 (1st), 1.8 per game. 181 (5th), 3.3 per game in 2010.
• HR – 5 (1st). 37 HR in 2010 (4th).

Starters

Riverside returned all three weekend starters from last season but injuries to two of them have shuffled things around. Two of the starters have moved into the rotation after being relievers and midweek starters in 2010.

FRI – JR #35 Matt Andriese (RHP – 3-3, 2.33 ERA, 10 GS, 1 CG, 70 IP, 55 H, 16 BB, 54 K, .215 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 3 WP, 7-10 SB; ’10 – 5-5, 4.95 ERA, 14 GS, 4 CG, 104 IP, 130 H, 18 BB, 69 K, .315 BA, 4 HR, 9 HBP, 6 WP, 6-13 SB) has thrown much better than his record would indicate because he has not gotten much support with Riverside scoring two runs or less in seven of his starts. He has also thrown much better than his already good stats would indicate because 7 of the 18 ER that he allowed came in one inning (Air Force) and his ERA in his other nine starts is an outstanding 1.45. Andriese got outdueled at Cal Poly by Mason Radeke (6 1/3 IP, 4 R, 3 ER, 7 H, 4 BB, 3 K) but has only allowed 3 R in 33 IP in his last four starts, including ten shutout innings at Long Beach in which he allowed only three hits and a CG one-hitter at Bakersfield. He is among the conf leaders in IP, ERA, K and AVG. Andriese has a fastball that sits in the low 90’s and a sharp breaking slider that he buries to make hitters pound the ball into the ground. He allowed 6 R on 12 H in 8 IP in his start at Fullerton last season.

SAT – JR #21 Eddie Orozco (RHP – 3-1, 2.41 ERA, 7 GS, 41 IP, 33 H, 25 BB, 32 K, .223 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 2 WP, 5-9 SB; ’10 – 1-3, 8.71 ERA, 11 apps, 6 GS, 31 IP, 42 H, 15 BB, 21 K, .333 BA, 4 HR, 8 HBP, 8 WP, 2-4 SB) has one of the better arms on the staff but has had trouble with being consistent with his command during his career. He has been much tougher to hit this season but has still struggled with control and has walked at least four batters in four of his starts. Orozco was a midweek starter earlier in the season but moved into the weekend rotation recently and won his starts against Bakersfield (6 2/3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 8 K) and UCSB (6 1/3 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 5 BB, 5 K), which was his longest start of the year.

SUN – Soph #14 Trevor Frank (RHP – 2-2, 3.77 ERA, 9 GS, 62 IP, 63 H, 9 BB, 45 K, .266 BA, 2 HR, 6 HBP, 3 WP, 1-5 SB; ’10 – 3-3, 8.46 ERA, 17 apps, 8 GS, 50 IP, 79 H, 18 BB, 31 K, .374 BA, 5 HR, 8 HBP, 4 WP, 7-11 SB) had a similar season to Orozco in 2010 as a spot starter and long reliever but his command has been much sharper, he has been difficult to hit and he has been in the weekend rotation all season. He is a strike thrower who has been efficient and able to work deep into games, going at least seven innings in five of his starts. Frank threw well in his last three starts on the road at Cal Poly (8 IP, 2 R, 8 H, 2 BB, 6 K), Long Beach (8 IP, 2 R, 5 H, 0 BB, 0 K) and Bakersfield (5 IP, 2 R, 7 H, 2 BB, 6 K) but has not thrown well in his last two starts at home against Pacific (5 1/3 IP, 4 R, 10 H, 0 BB, 2 K) and UCSB (5 2/3 IP, 8 R, 9 H, 2 BB, 5 K).

JR #34 Dustin Emmons (RHP – 4-2, 4.95 ERA, 12 apps, 5 GS, 36 IP, 36 H, 10 BB, 24 K, .271 BA, 1 HR, 3 HBP, 5 WP, 2-4 SB; ’10 – 9-4, 3.99 ERA, 16 apps, 13 GS, 2 CG, 90 IP, 114 H, 24 BB, 51 K, .314 BA, 4 HR, 9 HBP, 5 WP, 9-10 SB) was in the weekend rotation in 2010 after being 2nd team All-Big West as a reliever in 2009. He was injured to start the season and was working his way bay back as a midweek starter and middle reliever to build up arm strength. He made starts against Pacific and Long Beach, allowing 10 R in 9 1/3 IP, and has started the last two midweek games at San Diego State and USC and pitched into the 7th inning in each game. He allowed 8 R on 10 H in 4 2/3 IP in his start at Fullerton last season.

SR #18 Matt Larkins (RHP – 4-1, 2.48 ERA, 5 GS, 33 IP, 26 H, 8 BB, 40 K; ’10 – 6-5, 5.34 ERA, 14 GS, 86 IP, 103 H, 27 BB, 33 K, .316 BA, 6 HR,11 HBP, 3 WP, 4-14 SB) was in the weekend rotation last season and earlier this year, getting off to a good start and winning four of his five starts before having soreness in his forearm after his start at Cal Poly and he has been shut down. He allowed 6 R on 11 H in 6 1/3 IP in his start at Fullerton last season.

Relievers

Riverside has a decent amount of experience in the bullpen and returns their closer and setup man from last year along with some pitchers who saw a limited amount of innings in 2010.

Closer – Soph #17 Mitch Patito (RHP – 1-3, 3.63 ERA, 6 saves, 16 apps, 17 IP, 16 H, 13 BB, 21 K, .254, 0 HR, 4 HBP, 0 WP, 1-1 SB; ’10 – 3-0, 1.33 ERA, 3 saves, 21 apps, 27 IP, 13 H, 13 BB, 27 K, .138 BA, 1 HR, 8 HBP, 1 WP, 3-3 SB) has a good arm with a low 90’s fastball and a solid curveball but command has been an issue and he has allowed nearly a BB/HBP per IP in 2010 and this year. He has been on a short leash lately with other relievers also being used to close games and has been taken out twice in his last three outings when he couldn’t finish up games.

SR #42 Mike Wolford (RHP – 2-0, 2.14 ERA, 1 save, 14 apps, 21 IP, 20 H, 3 BB, 16 K, .267 BA, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 3 WP, 0-2 SB; ’10 – 3-1, 8.78 ERA, 4 saves, 21 apps, 28 IP, 50 H, 8 BB, 26 K, .400 BA, 6 HR, 3 HBP, 3 WP, 8-8 SB) was the closer last year but was removed from that role due to ineffectiveness. He has thrown much better this year and has been getting the chance to throw key innings. Wolford has good control but he has done a much better job this year of missing bats after getting hit around in 2010.

SR #23 Kevin Dickey (RHP – 1-1, 3.24 ERA, 2 saves, 9 apps, 8 IP, 6 H, 1 BB, 4 K, .222 BA, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 0 WP, 0-0 SB; ’10 – 0-1, 12.96 ERA, 12 apps, 17 IP, 33 H, 8 BB, 11 K) didn’t pitch much last season and when he did the results usually weren’t good but he has slowly worked his way into the equation in the late innings and is a strike thrower who has been pitching well and picked up the save last Fri vs. UCSB when Patito was pulled due to his wildness.

Soph #29 Mark Garcia (LHP – 1-1, 4.74 ERA, 12 apps, 1 GS, 19 IP, 22 H, 8 BB, 15 K, .301 BA, 1 HR, 2 HBP, 3 WP, 2-2 SB; ’10 – 0-0, 10.80 ERA, 8 apps, 8 IP, 13 H, 5 BB, 7 K) and FR #5 Dylan Stuart (LHP – 1-1, 1.54 ERA, 12 apps, 23 IP, 24 H, 9 BB, 25 K, .293 BA, 0 HR, 2 HBP, 1 WP, 2-5 SB) give Riverside a good 1-2 LHP combo to bring into games for situational match-ups. Stuart has a very good move and has picked off three runners.

Outlook

Fullerton goes into the series at Riverside in their first rut of the season (aside from the trip to the south) after going 3-4 over the last two weeks and often playing poor defense with so many new faces in the lineup. The Titans are going to have a very difficult time winning this series if they continue to play as poorly on defense as they did against Pacific and at key times at Cal Poly.

Another reason that Fullerton has struggled the last two weeks has been a pitching staff that was the strength of the team for much of the season allowing six or more runs in four of their last seven games. The Titans cannot pitch that poorly and win the series and getting a good outing from Noe Ramirez on Friday night after missing his last two starts is obviously a big key to Fullerton winning this series.

Despite all of the shuffling around of players in and out of the lineup due to injuries, something that has been surprising recently has been the production of the Fullerton offense because the Titans have scored at least six runs in each of their last five games. Fullerton doesn’t expect to score that frequently off of a good Riverside pitching staff but doing enough at the plate to not put their pitchers behind the eight ball would go a long way towards the Titans winning this series.

Riverside enters this series playing their best baseball of the season after winning eight of their last nine games. The Highlanders have held their opponents to four runs or less in seven of those games and have scored at least five runs in their last six games. Riverside is playing with a great deal of confidence and they are looking to make a run during the final month of the season.

Home teams have been faring very well during the Big West portion of the schedule with visitors coming away with only five series wins in seventeen series (one of those series was at last place Northridge). As most people are aware, Fullerton’s lack of success at Riverside is pretty notorious with the Titans losing nine out of ten games out there before winning the final two games of the series two years ago. If the Highlanders get on a roll in this series then Fullerton is going to be in trouble.

Riverside has been playing a more consistent brand of ball over the last few weeks than Fullerton has. The Titans have been up and down on the mound and have been giving away too many outs in the field. Fullerton obviously has a good enough team to win this series but if the Highlanders keep playing like they have been and Fullerton continues to be inconsistent this weekend then it is likely that Riverside will win two out of three games to win this series.