Titans' Roll Ends After Another Perfect Ten

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

Titans at Pepperdine: Won 8-4 (Tuesday)

By Don Hudson

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

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

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

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


Game 1: Titans 4, UCSB Gauchos 3

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

Eshelman comes so close ...

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

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

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

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

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

What happened the next couple innings was really crazy.

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

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

Cracked Wiffle Ball

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Game 2: Titans 10, UCSB Gauchos 2

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

Garza dominant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Game 3: UCSB Gauchos 2,  Titans 0

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Tuesday Game:  Titans  8,  Pepperdine Waves  4

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

Kennedy tags out runner at plate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conant earns first win

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

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

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

So what have we learned recently?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Velazquez clubs first homer

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

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

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

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

Titans Steal Win From Gauchos

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

(Video Courtesy BigWest TV)

UC Santa Barbara Series Preview

UC Santa Barbara at Titans

Friday 7 p.m.; Saturday 6 p.m.; Sunday 1 p.m.

By FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton has had a great deal of momentum throughout the 2013 season, putting together two ten game winning streaks and taking a seven game winning streak into this week after going 4-0 last week to improve their record away from Goodwin Field to 16-1, which is the most road wins for anybody in the country.  The Titans won a matchup of top ten teams at UCLA 9-6 last Tuesday and swept their first road series on the conference schedule at UC Davis.  Things didn’t go as easy against the Aggies as it looked like they could before the series with UC Davis dropping their previous five series but the Titans ended up winning all three games by scores of 3-0, 4-2 and 5-2.  Fullerton got this week started off on the right foot by beating USC 6-4 on Tuesday to improve their record to 29-4 with their eighth straight win.

ullerton hammered the ball against Pacific on their way to scoring 45 runs and continued their onslaught against UCLA, scoring two runs in the first inning when Richy Pedroza led off with a walk, J.D. Davis doubled him in and Michael Lorenzen extended his hitting streak to thirteen games with by singling in Davis.  UCLA cut the lead by scoring a run in the second and took the lead when Pat Valaika hit a two run HR in the third off of starter Willie Kuhl.  The Titans responded as they often have this season, scoring two runs in the top of the fourth to take the lead for good when Lorenzen singled, Hutting singled him to third, a wild pitch scored Lorenzen to tie the game and an RBI groundout by Jared Deacon gave them the lead.  Fullerton added to their lead in the fifth when Carlos Lopez doubled and Davis singled him in and put the game away with four runs in the sixth when Deacon walked, Keegan Dale reached with two outs when the pitcher threw wide of first for an error on his bunt, Pedroza walked to load the bases, Lopez’s single drove in two runs, Davis walked to load the bases again and Lorenzen’s single scored two more runs.  UCLA scored a run in each of the sixth, seventh and eighth innings thanks to some help from the Titans with four errors in those innings before Lorenzen came in to finish things off in the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning for his ninth save.  Reliever Tyler Peitzmeier was the winner and improved his record to 2-0 with two scoreless innings.  Lorenzen had four hits and three RBI, Lopez and Davis both had two hits and two RBI and Pedroza had two hits and scored twice.

Fullerton once again scored in the first inning on Friday when Lopez tripled and was thrown out at home when Davis grounded out but advanced to second on the play and scored with two outs when the UC Davis SS threw Lorenzen’s grounder away.  The Titans scored in the third when Lopez walked, stole second and went to third when the throw went into CF, Lorenzen walked, Hutting was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Matt Chapman walked to force in the run.  Fullerton continued to get guys on base against Aggies starter Harry Stanwyck over the next three innings to push up his pitch count before UC Davis went to the bullpen but couldn’t get anybody across while Thomas Eshelman was his usual efficient self, allowing a single in each of the first four innings but holding the Aggies off of the scoreboard.  The Titans scored an insurance run in the eighth when Jake Jefferies led off with a single, Chad Wallach bunted over pinch-runner Keegan Dale, Austin Diemer’s infield single moved Dale to third and Lopez’s single drove in the run.  Eshelman retired the last fourteen batters he faced and Lorenzen pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his conference leading tenth save.  Eshelman improved his record to 7-1 and lowered his ERA to 1.09 after allowing four hits in eight scoreless innings and stretching his streak without a walk to start the season to 58 innings.  Lorenzen was hitless in the game and saw his hitting streak snapped.

Fullerton had UC Davis starter Spencer Koopmans on the ropes on Saturday with two singles and a walk in the first inning but couldn’t push a run across and he traded zeroes with Justin Garza until the Aggies broke through with a run on three hits in the bottom of the fourth.  UC Davis added to the lead with a run on three hits in the fifth and it looked like the Titans might be in trouble in this one.  Fullerton finally got to Koopmans in the seventh with the help of the Aggies defense when Lorenzen reached on an error, Chapman walked and Jefferies singled in Lorenzen and the Aggies brought in closer Max Cordy, who got them out of the inning.  The Titans loaded the bases against Cordy in the eighth on a single, walk and a HBP but were unable to score.  Fullerton rallied for their third late inning comeback in two years against UC Davis in the ninth with more help from the Aggies when their SS threw away a one out grounder by Austin Kingsolver, pinch-hitter Clay Williamson walked, they moved up on a wild pitch and Pedroza’s single up the middle against a drawn in infield gave the Titans the lead and Davis’ long RBI double put Fullerton up by two runs.  Lorenzen picked up his third save of the week with his third straight 1-2-3 inning thanks to an outstanding catch by Williamson when he crashed into the RF wall and held onto the ball, turning a potential triple into a long out.  Garza went 7 1/3 innings and allowed two runs on nine hits with no walks and five strikeouts and Peitzmeier picked up his second win of the week by retiring both hitters he faced in the eighth before Fullerton’s comeback in the top of the ninth.

Fullerton jumped out to the lead in the final game of the series in the first when Pedroza singled, Lopez bunted him over, Pedroza stole third and Davis singled him in.  Grahamm Wiest pitched around doubles in each of the first two innings before the Titans put things away in the third with four runs when Pedroza once again got on base with a double, Lopez moved up to second and Pedroza scored when UC Davis starter Evan Wolf threw Lopez’s bunt away, Davis reached on an error on the SS and Lorenzen brought the hammer down when he crushed a ball to LF for a three run HR for his sixth HR of the season but that was it for the scoring for the Fullerton as they were held scoreless the rest of the way.  Wiest retired the Aggies in order in the third and fourth before allowing a run in the fifth and retired them in order in the sixth and seventh before allowing a run in the eighth, with Peitzmeier coming in to finish off the inning and Davis ended things in the ninth for his second save.  Wiest improved his record to 6-1 and lowered his ERA to 2.72 after allowing two runs on six hits with one walk in 7 2/3 innings.

Fullerton crushed the ball against Pacific when they hit .415 but that series looks like the outlier because they once again had issues hitting against weekend pitching at UC Davis.  The Titans only hit .234 in the series (25/107) and averaged four runs a game, with five of the twelve runs they scored being unearned due to a porous Aggies defense that made ten errors during the weekend.  Fullerton continued to do a solid job at working counts and taking walks and HBP’s with thirteen free passes but even that number is a little low compared to the usual six to seven free bases that the Titans usually get in games.  Despite all of that, Fullerton did have some noteworthy efforts this weekend with Lopez going 5-13 and increasing his Big West lead with three SB’s, Pedroza went hitless in the first game but went 5-8 in the final two games of the series with the game winning single on Saturday, Jefferies went 4-12 with hits in all three games and Lorenzen only went 2-13 but had the key three run HR on Sunday.  The pitchers came through this weekend and were dominant in holding a solid UC Davis offense to four runs in three games with a .208 AVG (20-96) and allowed only one walk all weekend.

Fullerton returned home to start this week and defeated USC 6-4 on Tuesday to extend their winning streak to eight games.  This game was similar to Sunday’s at UC Davis with most of the damage coming in the third inning from the long ball.  Davis hit the Titans’ fourth grand slam of the season to give them a 5-2 lead and Lorenzen went back to back with his seventh HR of the season and that was it for the scoring as the middle relievers held things down before Lorenzen finished things off for his twelfth save.  The degree of difficulty on the schedule figures to start increasing this weekend with the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos coming to Goodwin Field.  UCSB is coming off of a series win at home against nationally ranked Cal Poly and would like to make a statement that they will be a contender in the Big West this season.  The Gauchos would also like to get some revenge after losing a heated series to Fullerton in Goleta last season when one of their relievers mouthed off to the local paper after UCSB won the second game of the series about how he enjoyed making hitters look stupid and ended up being the one looking stupid when he grabbed himself below the belt while leaving the game as he heard it from the Fullerton dugout and crowd after he allowed five runs as the Titans pulled away in the final game of the series.


UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (17-14, 3-3)

·       2012 Overall Record – 28-28
·       2012 Conference Record – 10-14 (tied for 6th)
·       2012 Post-Season – None
·       2013 RPI/ISR – 110/78.  2012 RPI/ISR – 132/75
·       Pre-season/Current ranking – None
·       Predicted conf finish – 3rd by Easton College Baseball, 4th by Perfect Game, 5th by the Big West coaches and Baseball America


2012 Summary and 2013 Preview

UCSB was mediocre in 2009-2011 and went 28-23, 11-13 (5th) in 2009, 23-30, 10-14 (5th) in 2010 and 26-26, 10-14 (6th) in 2011 with a very experienced team and the result of failing to qualify for a regional for the tenth straight season in 2011 was a coaching change with longtime head coach Bob Brontsema being replaced by former UC Riverside and Oregon pitching coach Andrew Checketts, who has brought some new energy to the program that hasn’t been seen for a while with a recruiting class that arrived this fall that was ranked in the top twenty nationally by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball.

The Gauchos were an inconsistent team in 2012 that lost four of their six non-conference series against Oregon State, LMU, Nevada and USF (the latter three on the road) but swept the other two series at San Jose State and at home against Rhode Island.  UCSB was also inconsistent in conference series, not playing well by going 1-11 against the top four teams in the Big West (Fullerton, Cal Poly, Long Beach and Irvine) while going 9-3 against the next four teams in the conference standings to finish up 28-28 overall and 10-14 and tied for 6th in the Big West.

UCSB had the worst offense in the Big West in 2010 despite playing in one of the more favorable hitting parks in the conference, their offense was a little better in 2011 and they were in the middle of the pack in most offensive categories but things changed last season and the Gauchos were second in the Big West in scoring, AVG and SLG.  UCSB tended to play for the big inning and didn’t play much little ball under Brontsema but that changed with Checketts taking over and the Gauchos bunted quite a bit and led the conference in SB’s and SB attempts but were probably overaggressive and had 37 runners caught stealing.  UCSB was a very good offensive team at home, hitting .289 and scoring 6.3 runs per game but had their issues on the road where they hit .265 and averaged 4.5 runs per game.  The numbers for the Gauchos in conference games were similar to their road numbers and they hit .262 and averaged 4.7 runs per game.

UCSB had ERA’s over 5.00 in 2009-2010 but the BBCOR bats helped to bring their ERA down to 3.63 in 2011 and the Gauchos weekend rotation lacked power arms (second fewest strikeouts in the Big West) but most of their pitchers had solid control.  That all changed in 2012 and UCSB easily led the conference in strikeouts but they also easily led the Big West in walks, HBP’s and wild pitches, the team ERA went up by about half a run to 4.14 and the Gauchos allowed at least five runs thirty-three times.

UCSB started this season by winning a series at Fresno State before returning home and splitting a four game series with USF and sweeping San Jose State.  The Gauchos tested themselves by traveling to Texas but didn’t pass that test, getting swept by the Longhorns, and won their series against Sac State when they returned home.  UCSB’s final non-conference series was against their central coast rivals from Cal Poly and the home team won each game with the Mustangs winning two games in SLO.  The Gauchos continued to have trouble on the road when they opened up the Big West schedule by losing their series at Hawaii before winning an additional non-conference game on the islands.  UCSB returned home and played well against Cal Poly in their second series in three weeks against the Mustangs and won the first two games of the series, one a 4-2 pitchers’ duel and the other a 13-2 blowout, before losing the final game 7-6 when they were down big early and came back to almost pull the game out with two runs in the eighth and two runs in the ninth.

UCSB has good team speed and has continued to play an aggressive style of ball this season on the bases and is among the conference leaders in SB’s but they are much more efficient (40-56 SB’s) than they were in 2012 and they have also hit into the fewest DP’s in the Big West.  They are bunting less and swinging away more but that hasn’t always worked out, especially on the road.  The Gauchos are 12-6 at home, where they are hitting .290 and scoring 5.6 runs per game, and they are 5-8 on the road where they are hitting .234 and scoring 4.7 runs per game.

UCSB had two of the biggest power arms in the Big West in 2012 but one of them moved on and the other one hasn’t been effective and the result has been some regression in the number of strikeouts back to the middle of the pack in the conference.  However, that has also meant that the Gauchos pitchers haven’t been nearly as wild and have gone from the bottom of the Big West to the middle of the pack in walks and they have thrown the second fewest HBP’s.  The UCSB pitchers have been giving up more hits due to pitching to contact more but the end result with less runners getting on base due to free bases has been a team ERA that is about the same as it was in 2012.


Offense

·       Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 102 (increases offense by 2%).  UCSB only plays day games because they don’t have lights and the winds coming in from the ocean are usually blowing out.
·       Batting Average – .267 (6th in the Big West/161st nationally).  .277 in 2012 (2/141).
·       Scoring – 156 (3/144), 5.2 runs per game.  302 (2/145), 5.4 runs per game in 2012.
·       Home Runs – 8 (5/173).  17 in 2012 (4/214).
·       Slugging Percentage – .350 (7/186).  .376 in 2012 (6/157).
·       On Base Percentage – .364 (4/112).  357 in 2012 (5/165).
·       Walks – 103 (4/163), 3.4 per game.  195 in 2012 (4/160), 3.5 per game.
·       HBP’s – 53 (2/12).  58 in 2012 (6/131).
·       Strikeouts – 165 (6/xx), 5.5 per game.  298 in 2012 (6/xx), 5.3 per game.
·       Stolen Bases – 40-56 (2/85).  58-95 in 2012 (1/129).
·       Sac Bunts – 22 (6/135).  56 in 2012 (4/65).

Infield

UCSB lost three SR starters in their infield at C, 2B and 3B but the team has become more athletic with the incoming FR and transfers that have taken over in those positions.

C – JC transfer #14 Jackson Morrow (RH – .247/.360/.299, 0-7-4) took over for Bryce Tafelski and has been an upgrade offensively and defensively before slumping recently, going 2-22 in the first two conference series.  He has been an iron man and has started 29 of 31 games.  Morrow has good speed for a C and is third on the team in SB’s.  He only has a little bit of power with four extra base hits (three 2B’s, one 3B) but has some trouble with making contact and leads the team with 22 strikeouts.  He has been hitting all over the lineup, even leading off five times, but has been batting seventh lately.  Morrow has hit .276 at home but has had issues on the road, hitting .205.

1B – Soph #18 Tyler Kuresa (LH – .299/.371/.419, 1-24-1) was an 11th round draft pick out of HS and decided to go to Oregon instead of signing but things didn’t go well for him as a FR and he only hit .191 in 89 AB’s and transferred to UCSB and had to sit out in 2012.  He was one of the better hitters on the team in the fall and has continued to hit well in the middle of the lineup, batting cleanup most of the season before settling into the fifth spot the last couple of weeks.  Kuresa is a productive hitter and one of the main sources for power who is third in the conference in RBI, 18 of them at home and six on the road.  He has solid plate discipline for a tall man with a bit of a long swing with a 9/13 BB/K ratio.

2B/LF – Soph #5 Joe Woodward (RH – .361/.471/.472, 0-10-4.  ’12 – .259 in 27 AB’s) missed a couple of weeks with injuries before returning to the lineup last week.  He has split time between 2B and LF and has started at 2B the last six games while batting second.  Woodward is a sparkplug and would be among the conference leaders in AVG, OBP and SLG if he had enough AB’s to qualify.  He played a big role in the series win against Cal Poly by going 7-13.  Woodward has hit .389 at home with .500 OBP and SLG but has hit a more pedestrian .278 in road games.  He doesn’t walk much with only six BB’s but is among the Big West leaders with nine HBP’s.  Woodward has good speed and has four SB’s.

SS – JR #16 Brandon Trinkwon (LH – .267/.368/.362, 2-19-6.  ’12 – .347/.460/.490, 2-32-7.  ’11 – .253/.318/.329, 1-6-0) platooned at SS as a FR before he missed most of the latter part of the season when a batted ball hit him in the face and fractured several bones.  He became a full-time starter in 2012, splitting time between 2B and SS, and was 2nd team All-Big West after ending up among the conference leaders in AVG, SLG, OBP, BB, R, H, RBI and TB.  Trinkwon has excellent plate discipline and had a 40/24 BB/K ratio in 2012 and is at 17/12 this season.  He was hitting second for a couple of weeks but has settled into the three hole over the last month.  Trinkwon was in a 10-55 slump before finding his hitting stroke against Cal Poly and went 5-10 with three RBI last weekend.  He has struggled in road games, hitting only .196, while hitting .314 at home.   Trinkwon is one of the better SS prospects in this year’s draft class and is projected to be drafted in the first few rounds in June.  He has hit well against Fullerton, going 5-11 with three RBI last season at home and has gone 8-19 in his career against the Titans.

3B – FR #13 Ryan Clark (RH – .250 in 28 AB’s, 0-5-3) only had eight AB’s in the first 25 games before starting the last seven games.  He was moved into the lineup due to a wrist injury to SR #9 Marc Venning (RH – .235 in 34 AB’s.  ’12 – .262/.308/.372, 1-30-3), who split time last season between 1B and 3B, sharing time at 3B with three year starter Ryan Palmero.  Clark hit well last weekend and had two hits in both of the games that UCSB won against Cal Poly and has been hitting ninth.  He has good speed and is a threat to run.

2B/3B – Soph #3 Peter Maris (LH – .182/.288/.303, 2-14-1.  ’12 – .186/.271/.221, 0-3-1) and 2B – JC transfer #31 Parker Miles (RH – .216/.392/.297, 0-5-2) were playing more earlier in the season due to the injuries to Woodward and Venning but with Clark moving into the lineup and Woodward returning from his injuries both of them have been moved to the bench and neither of them started in the last six games.

Outfield

UCSB lost all three outfielders from last season – 1st team All-Big West Brett Vertigan, HM All-Big West Lance Roenicke and Joey Wallace – so it has been tryout time in the outfield with things settling down in CF and RF over the last month of the season.

LF – FR #10 Dalton Kelly (LH – .346 in 26 AB’s, 0-8-0) only had six AB’s over the first 22 games but has moved into the lineup since conference play started two weeks ago with Woodward shifting to 2B and has been a hot hitter with two hits in three different games while hitting in the bottom part of the order.  He is a good athlete with quite a bit of upside.

CF – JC transfer #12 Cameron Newell (LH – .278/.363/.343, 0-12-8) played well in the fall and won a starting job over some highly rated recruits and has helped to ignite the offense while usually hitting leadoff.  He is one of the faster runners on the team and is second in the Big West in SB’s and is also a good bunter who will try to use his speed to beat out bunts and leads the team with five SAC’s.  Newell does a good job of setting the table with a solid 12/16 BB/K ratio and is fourth in the conference in runs.  Unlike most of his teammates, he has hit much better on the road with a .326 AVG and has only hit .242 at home.  Newell has gone 8-24 in the first two conference series.

RF – Soph #26 Luke Swenson (LH – .307/.386/.352, 0-13-6.  ’12 – .198/.280/.222, 0-7-3) was a part-time player in 2012 and has worked his way into a regular role by outplaying some of the other players he was competing with for playing time.  He is a little guy with good speed who doesn’t have much power with most of his extra-base hits coming due to his wheels.  Swenson has good plate discipline with a 10/12 BB/K rate.  He has only gone 3-18 over his last five conference games.

JC transfer #23 Joey Epperson (RH – .250 in 28 AB’s) is the fourth outfielder who occasionally starts against LHP’s because all three OF’s are LH hitters.

DH/P – FR #6 Robby Nesovic (RH – .372/.440/.487, 1-19-0) was rated among the top 100 HS players in CA and recruited mostly as a pitcher who might be given a chance to hit.  He only had three AB’s in the first nine games but once he moved into the lineup, the big man has been a force in the middle of the lineup and would be among the Big West leaders in AVG and SLG if he had more AB’s.  Nesovic is third on the team in RBI despite the limited playing time over the first three weeks of the season.  He has been a monster at home with a .463 average but has only hit .250 on the road.  He has gone 8-22 in the first two conference series and hit his first HR of the season on Tuesday at P’dine.

DH/P – Soph #11 Greg Mahle (LH – .143 in 35 AB’s.  ’12 – .347/.411/.379, 0-35-0) was 2nd team All-Big West and a FR All-American last season in his dual role as a 1B/DH and a closer but has been going through a sophomore slump at the plate and on the mound.  He was the DH earlier in the year, struggled from the start and lost his job to Nesovic and hasn’t made a plate appearance in a month.


Defense

Fielding % – .974 (3/42) with 30 errors.  2012 – .968 (5/109) with 70 errors.  UCSB plays on an uneven playing surface that is known for being difficult for infielders to get true bounces on grounders, which makes how their defense has played until last weekend, when they made six errors, even more impressive.  UCSB has been much better defensively this season after they allowed 53 unearned runs in 2012.  Trinkwon is one of the best shortstops in the country and leads the conference in assists and UCSB leads the Big West in double plays.  Kuresa is solid at 1B and Clark has been solid at 3B.  Woodward and Miles at 2B and Maris at 2B/3B have been shaky and have combined for 13 errors.  All three OF’s have good range, especially Newell and Swenson, without any standout throwing arms.

Stolen Base Attempts – 19-33 (3/xx).  2012 – 38-64 (3/xx).  UCSB played three catchers in 2012 who ranged from decent to below average against the running game but Morrow has been excellent and runners are 15-25 against him and he also has three pickoffs.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 22 (2/xx).  2012 – 82 (9/xx).  UCSB’s catchers did a poor job of keeping the ball in front of them in 2012 but their jobs weren’t made easy due to the wildness of the pitching staff.  Morrow has been excellent at blocking pitches.


Pitching

·       ERA – 4.06 (4/127).  4.14 in 2012 (7/).
·       AVG – .265 (3/115).  .256 in 2012 (4/).
·       HR – 12 (9/xx).  14 HR in 2011 (4/xx).
·       Walks – 93 (5/68), 3.2 BB/9 IP.  263 (3rd), 4.7 BB/9 IP in 2012.
·       HBP – 32 (3/xx).  99 in 2012 (1/xx).
·       OBP – .344 (4/xx).  .375 in 2012 (7/xx).
·       SLG – .374 (5/xx).  .348 in 2012 (4/xx).
·       WHIP – 1.38 (5/91).  1.47 in 2012 (7/153).
·       Strikeouts – 195 (5/149), 6.7 K/9 IP.  451 (1/13), 8.1 K/9 IP in 2012.

Starters

UCSB had four pitchers who took turns in the weekend rotation and two of them were SR’s, Kevin Gelinas and Zak Edgington.  The Gauchos thought they would have a good rotation with the other two SP’s returning and moving their closer into the rotation, with one of the pitchers leading the team in wins in 2012 and the other two were FR All-Americans, but things didn’t turn out that way with the two of them pitching their way out of the rotation.

Soph #34 Austin Pettibone (RHP – 4-2, 2.86 ERA, 8 GS, 1 CG, 1 SHO, 57 IP, 58 H, 13 BB, 27 K, .276 BA, 4 HR, 2 HBP, 3 WP, 0-4 SB.  ’12 – 8-3, 4.44 ERA, 1 save, 17 apps, 13 GS, 79 IP, 102 H, 24 BB, 33 K, .331 BA, 4 HR, 6 HBP, 4 WP, 2-7 SB) started in the first eleven series as a FR before being bumped to the bullpen/midweek SP spot for the last month of the season and led the team in wins.  He started on Sat in the opening series at Fresno but has been the Friday starter since then.  Pettibone has usually given UCSB a chance to win with three starts in which he allowed two runs or less, including last week’s start against Cal Poly when he allowed 2 R on 6 H in 8 IP, but has also been able to be hit at times, allowing four runs in three of his starts and six runs in his start at Cal Poly a couple of weeks ago.  He is prone to giving up hits because he has very good control and is usually around the plate but he is not overpowering with an upper 80’s fastball that he sinks to go along with a solid curveball, slider and changeup to get batters to pound the ball into the ground and has only had more than four strikeouts in two of his starts.  Pettibone has been excellent at home, where he is 3-0 with a 0.84 ERA, but has struggled on the road and gone 1-2 with a 5.55 ERA.  He does an outstanding job of holding runners and has only allowed 2-11 SB’s over the last two seasons and did not pitch against Fullerton in 2012.

FR #44 Justin Jacome (LHP – 3-2, 3.67 ERA, 8 GS, 49 IP, 48 H, 11 BB, 36 K, .262 AVG, 0 HR, 5 HBP, 2 WP, 1-3 SB) was the Sunday starter at Fresno but moved into the Saturday spot the next weekend and has been there the past seven weekends.  He has been very consistent in allowing three runs or less in seven of his starts, including allowing two runs in 6 2/3 IP at Texas, three runs in 6 1/3 IP in winning his first start against Cal Poly, three runs in 6 1/3 IP at Hawaii and two runs (one earned) in 8 IP in winning his second start against Cal Poly.  Jacome was ranked among the top 150 HS players in CA and is tall at 6’6” and tough on LH hitters but doesn’t throw hard with a mid 80’s fastball and a good curveball and has very good control.  His stats at home and on the road are similar and he has a 2.51 ERA in his two conference starts.

The Sunday starting spot has been a revolving door for UCSB and they have lost the third game of their last four series.

FR #6 Robby Nesovic (RHP – 0-1, 7.30 ERA, 6 apps, 2 GS, 12 IP, 16 H, 4 BB, 11 K, .314 AVG, 0 HR, 6 HBP, 1 WP, 1-3 SB) was the latest guy to take a shot at the Sunday starter spot when he started last weekend against Cal Poly and he allowed 6 R (2 ER) in 3 1/3 IP after allowing 4 R in 4 IP in the non-conference fourth game at Hawaii so it remains to be seen if he will get another shot this Sunday.  He is a big guy with a good arm with a fastball that touches 90 and throws from a 3/4 arm slot that can make him tough on RH hitters.

FR #36 Kenny Chapman (RHP – 3-0, 4.68 ERA, 9 apps, 3 GS, 25 IP, 21 H, 10 BB, 14 K, .241 AVG, 2 HR, 3 HBP, 2 WP, 3-5 SB) was ranked among the top 100 HS players in CA and verbally committed to Fullerton but ended up going to UCSB as part of their large recruiting class.  He threw seven scoreless innings over three relief appearances and took his shot at the Sunday SP spot at Hawaii and allowed 4 R in 4 2/3 IP with Nesovic replacing him last weekend.  Chapman has a good arm with a fastball that sits around 90 and a good breaking ball.

Soph #25 Andrew Vasquez (LHP – 1-2, 4.70 ERA, 5 apps, 4 GS, 15 IP, 11 H, 16 BB, 16 K, .204 AVG, 1 HR, 5 HBP, 2 WP, 5-6 SB.  ’12 – 6-4, 1.93 ERA, 15 GS, 89 IP, 58 H, 63 BB, 104 K, .190 AVG, 1 HR, 17 HBP, 15 WP, 9-11 SB) was the Friday SP as a FR in 2012 and led the Big West in ERA and was second in strikeouts on his way to earning 2nd team All-Big West and FR All-American honors.  However, he also had major control issues and led the conference in walks and HBP’s and those issues came back this season without the effectiveness to pitch around them.  Vasquez wasn’t able to go longer than 5 1/3 IP in any of his four starts in the first month while averaging a walk per inning and was removed from the rotation and has only made one appearance over the last month, facing two batters in relief at Cal Poly two weeks ago and walking both of them.  He allowed one run on three hits and six walks in 4 1/3 IP in his start against Fullerton in 2012.

Relievers

UCSB primarily had a four man bullpen in 2012 with the closer duties being handled by Mahle and fellow 2nd team All-Big West reliever Matthew Vedo, who led the conference in strikeouts and had a propensity to say stupid things to the media.  Mahle has moved back into the bullpen in middle relief and it has been a kiddie corps with mostly FR getting the ball late in games.

FR #4 Dylan Hecht (RHP – 0-1, 1.86 ERA, 3 saves, 16 apps, 19 IP, 9 H, 4 BB, 25 K, .141 AVG, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 0 WP, 4-4 SB) has taken over as the closer and has been lights out in his last five appearances, striking out ten batters and allowing two hits.  He has a live arm with a fastball that sits in the 92-94 range and a good slider.  Hecht is second in the Big West in appearances.

FR #41 Connor Baits (RHP – 0-0, 4.20 ERA, 1 save, 12 apps, 15 IP, 19 H, 3 BB, 9 K, .311 AVG, 2 HR, 3 HBP, 3 WP, 0-0 SB) is another FR with a live arm who was drafted in the 23rd round out of HS with a fastball that sits in the 92-94 range while pitching in middle relief.  He has good control but when his fastball straightens out he can get hit.  Baits made the midweek start at P’dine and went six innings, allowing three runs on nine hits with no walks and six strikeouts.

Soph #11 Greg Mahle (LHP – 4-4, 4.08 ERA, 1 save, 14 apps, 4 GS, 29 IP, 32 H, 9 BB, 21 K, .288 AVG, 1 HR, 1 HBP, 2 WP, 2-3 SB.  ’12 – 3-4, 3.88 ERA, 21 apps, 3 GS, 5 saves, 46 IP, 40 H, 18 BB, 45 K, .247 AVG, 1 HR, 15 HBP, 3 WP, 3-3 SB) split time as a closer as a FR and ended up being 2nd team All-Big West and a FR All-American who was expected to move into the rotation but wasn’t throwing well going into the season.  He made Sunday starts in the last two weekends before conference play started and allowed 8 R (3 ER) in 1/3 IP against Sac State and 5 R (3 ER) in 3 2/3 IP at Cal Poly and was moved back into the bullpen.  Mahle can be tough on LH hitters because they have trouble picking up the ball coming out of his hand due to his short arm delivery.  He allowed one hit in two innings in two appearances against Fullerton in 2012.

FR #33 Domenic Mazza (LHP – 1-0, 5.27 ERA, 11 apps,14 IP, 14 H, 6 BB, 14 K, .269 AVG, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 0 WP, 1-2 SB) is the other LHP in relief along with Mahle.  He doesn’t throw hard with a low 80’s fastball but has a good curveball and changeup with good command.

SR #22 Jared Wilson  (RHP – 0-0, 4.91 ERA, 12 apps, 15 IP, 19 H, 12 BB, 15 K, .322 AVG, 1 HR, 2 HBP, 4 WP, 2-2 SB.  ’12 – 0-1, 4.63 ERA, 24 apps, 1 save, 35 IP, 34 H, 28 BB, 30 K, .256 AVG, 3 HR, 10 HBP, 3 WP, 3-5 SB) has a solid fastball that sits around 90 and was drafted in the 35th round but came back and was expected to have a bigger role in the bullpen but he has way too wild to be relied on in critical situations.


Outlook

Fullerton has responded to every challenge that they have faced this season and found ways to win even when they haven’t played well.  The Titans haven’t always had consistent hitting but with their patient approach of grinding out at bats, they have still been consistently finding ways to score runs and they have had a killer instinct with six series sweeps in eight weekends.

Fullerton has controlled the series with UCSB over the last eleven years, going 26-7 and winning each of the last five series.  The Titans split the first two games and won the third game handily in each of the last three series played at UCSB and they have swept the Gauchos in four of the last five series that have been played at Goodwin Field.

Fullerton has the potential to score a good amount of runs this weekend with the way that they have started to hit the ball at home and facing a pitching staff that is young and talented but inconsistent.  UCSB also has the potential to score some runs but they haven’t been nearly as potent away from home, an issue they need to resolve if they are going to take the next step forward as a contender in the conference.

Fullerton has had a much better pitching staff than UCSB.  The Titans have lights out control, leading the country in BB/9 IP and WHIP, and are able to use three effective starters as well as several reliable relievers.  The Gauchos have usually gotten solid outings from their first two starters, especially at home, but they haven’t been able to find an effective third starter on Sundays.

UCSB has improved the talent level in their program but they are still going through some growing pains, especially on the road.  It wouldn’t be much of a surprise if the Gauchos were able to win a game in this series but between playing at home, being more experienced, playing at a higher and more consistent level and having a sizeable pitching advantage, this is a series that Fullerton should win.

Titans' Great Escape Out of Santa Barbara

By Don Hudson

In a hard fought series played at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium in Goleta, CA against the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, the Titans won an emotional rubber game on Sunday, bouncing back from a 3-1 deficit to win 9-3, motivated by some ill-advised remarks made to the media by a Gauchos pitcher after the middle game shellacking, 7-1, suffered by Cal State Fullerton.  The Titans belted three home runs to take a commanding 9-0 lead in the series opener on Friday, but barely held on to win 9-7.

It was the eleventh consecutive weekend series won by the Titans, which enabled them to maintain their #8 position in the Baseball America rankings for the fourth consecutive week.  They hold a two-game lead over their nemeses from Long Beach; the Dirtbags lost 2-out-of-3 this weekend at UC Davis, but are likely to sweep the hapless University of the Pacific Tigers next weekend.  The Titans will play their final regular season series this weekend against UC Riverside.

See complete photo gallery of UC Santa Barbara Series


Game 1:  “Pitchers’ Duel?”

Cal State Fullerton Titans 500  211  000   -   9   13   0
UC Santa Barbara Gauchos 000  004  300   -   7     9   2

The expectations entering this series were that the Titans would be facing a formidable pitching staff that has quickly developed under first year coach Dave Checketts into one of the best in the Big West Conference, with three left-handed weekend starters, including two of the BWC’s best: Kevin Gelinas and Andrew Vasquez.  Unlike the “crafty” lefties known to give the Titans fits over the years, the Gauchos staff includes several power pitchers: they lead the conference in strikeouts, but also yield a high number of walks, hit-batters and wild pitches.

Gelinas took the bump Friday with a 1.69 ERA and .182 opponents’ batting average after coming back from early season injuries, so the outlook for Friday was that the Titans would need a gem from their ace, Dylan Floro, and hopefully win a low-scoring nail-biter.  Oops.

UC Santa Barbara Series Preview

Titans at UC Santa Barbara (Caesar Uyesaka Stadium)

Friday 3 p.m., Saturday 3 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m.

By FullertonBaseballFan

Fullerton returned to action after taking the weekend off due to a bye in the Big West schedule with a midweek game at Goodwin Field against USC before hitting the road to play Pacific last weekend.  The Titans won all four games last week with a 4-2 win against the Trojans before sweeping the Tigers 5-2, 21-4 and 10-0 to move one game ahead of Long Beach in the conference standings in Fullerton’s last visit to Stockton before Pacific leaves the Big West after the 2013 season.

Fullerton only had six hits against USC but took advantage of twelve walks and, despite leaving fourteen runners on base, was able to get enough guys around the bases and took advantage of some solid pitching to beat the Trojans and get their first Tuesday win against a Pac 11 team after losing to USC, WSU, UCLA and ASU previously on Tuesdays (the Titans did beat ASU in their second game in Tempe). USC scored a run in the second inning and the Titans stranded eight runners, five getting on base on BB's and HBP's, over the first four innings before they took the lead with two runs in the fifth when Carlos Lopez walked, Michael Lorenzen doubled him to third, Lopez scored on Anthony Hutting's ground out to tie the game and Lorenzen scored on J.D. Davis' ground out.  Fullerton put the game out of reach with two runs in the sixth when Richy Pedroza and Ivory Thomas led off the inning with walks and Lornenzen tripled them in.  The Titans used seven pitchers on a staff day that was used to get the pitching staff back in the groove after not playing last weekend.  Jose Cardona started and allowed a run in two innings, Koby Gauna threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings to pick up the win and Lorenzen finished things off in the ninth for his Big West leading thirteenth save.  Lorenzen was the hitting star of the night in his best game of the season with three extra base hits (two 2B's and a 3B), two RBI and a run and Pedroza was on base four times with two hits and two walks.

Fullerton got off to a lead in Friday’s game when Hutting led off the second with a double and Matt Chapman singled him in.  The Titans held the 1-0 lead until the fifth when Pacific got to Dylan Floro for two runs on three hits.  Fullerton came right back to tie the game in the sixth when Hutting led off the inning with a HBP, J.D. Davis walked and Anthony Trajano’s RBI single tied things up.  The Titans took the lead for good with three runs in the eighth when the wheels fell off for the Tigers on defense.  Hutting got things started again with a walk, Chapman bunted him to second, J.D. Davis hit a blooper that should have been caught but fell in and the runners moved up on an errant throw in from CF, Hutting and Davis scored on Trajano’s fielder’s choice grounder when Hutting’s hard slide dislodged the ball from the catcher’s glove (with the catcher leaving the game with an arm injury) with Trajano advancing to second on the play and he scored on back to back wild pitches that the backup catcher couldn’t keep in front of him.  Floro threw a complete game in his return to the area where he is from and held Pacific to two runs on five hits with two walks and seven strikeouts to improve to 7-3 in front of many friends and family members.  Pedroza had three hits, Thomas had two hits and Chapman had two hits, a run and an RBI to lead the Titans offense.

Pacific came into the series a pretty banged up team and was even more shorthanded after losing two more players in Friday’s game and Fullerton took advantage of those injuries to bludgeon the Tigers over the next two games.  The Titans scored in every inning on Saturday except for the fifth on their way to scoring 21 runs on 21 hits and got things started with three runs in the first when Pedroza led off with a double, Thomas reached base on an error, a wild pitch moved them up and Lopez singled them in, Lopez stole second and Hutting drove him in.  Allen Riley hit a two run HR in the bottom of the inning for Pacific off of Kenny Mathews before the Titans extended the lead to 9-2 with a run in the second, two runs in the third and three runs in the fourth.   Trajano singled to lead off the second, Casey Watkins bunted him over and Thomas singled him in.  Lorenzen doubled to lead off the third, Hutting walked and Davis doubled them both in.  Thomas walked, Lorenzen singled, Thomas scored on a wild pitch, Chapman singled in Lorenzen, Chapman moved up on a wild pitch and Hutting singled him in for the three runs for Fullerton in the fourth and the rout was on.  The Titans continued to hammer the Pacific bullpen and scored eleven runs over the last three innings with Lopez topping things off with a grand slam.  Mathews picked up the win to improve to 5-0 with seven solid innings and allowed three runs on three hits with no walks and two strikeouts.  Fourteen Titans either got a hit, scored a run or drove in a run with Lorenzen, Chapman, and Watkins each getting three hits, Hutting driving in three runs, Davis and Matt Orloff both driving in two runs and Lopez driving in six runs on his way to winning Big West player of the week honors.

UC Santa Barbara Preview

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

Preview by FullertonBaseballFan

Cal State Fullerton had its fourth straight successful week since its return from a trip to the south, by winning a midweek game against Pepperdine and following that up with an important Big West series win against UC Irvine.

The Titans had 12 hits against the Waves and they took advantage of six walks, three HBP’s and five errors for an easy 13-3 win last Tuesday that was highlighted by nine runs in the 4th inning. Five pitchers saw action for Fullerton with the win going to David Hurlbut. Carlos Lopez was the hitting star for the Titans with a three run HR and five RBI in the decisive nine run inning. Richy Pedroza drove in three runs and Nick Ramirez, Tyler Pill, Lopez, Jared Deacon and Anthony Trajano all scored two runs apiece.

UC Irvine broke Fullerton’s nine-game winning streak last Friday in a series opening 15-3 rout. There were plenty of lowlights for the Titans and one of the few highlights was a HR by Ramirez to break up a shutout by Matt Summers and RBI’s by Matt Orloff and Michael Lorenzen, who also led Fullerton with two hits.

It was Fullerton’s turn to break a winning streak on Saturday as the Titans won a 2-1 pitching duel to snap the Anteaters six-game streak and tie the series. Noe Ramirez led the way for Fullerton by throwing 7 2/3 outstanding innings and allowed only one run on seven hits with nine strikeouts to earn Big West co-pitcher of the week honors and his conference leading fifth win. Dylan Floro retired the only batter that he faced and Nick Ramirez finished things off with a scoreless ninth for his Big West leading seventh save. The Titans didn’t have much offense in the game with only four hits. Nick Ramirez drove in Ivory Thomas with a SF in the first inning to give Fullerton the lead and the Titans broke the tie in the fifth inning when Irvine was unable to convert a 6-4-3 DP and the throw got past the 1B, allowing Deacon to score what turned out to be the game winning run.

Sunday baseball usually has more offense than night games at Goodwin Field and that was the case in the final game of the series as Fullerton broke out of their hitting funk against UC Irvine pitching and broke open a close game to win 10-4 and win the series on national TV. The Titans scored two runs early before the Anteaters took the lead with a four run fifth inning. Fullerton came right back with four runs in the bottom of the fifth and the rally was highlighted by Lorenzen’s three run triple. The Titans put together another rally in the sixth with Lopez getting the key blow with a two run single. Lorenzen had a monster game with 3 R, 3 RBI and one of the best catches you will ever see in the RF corner. Lopez also had 3 RBI, Deacon had 2 RBI, Pill and Trajano each scored two runs and Blake Barber finished off the scoring with the first HR of his Titan career. Floro was outstanding in relief and was the winning pitcher after allowing only three hits in 4 2/3 scoreless innings.

Fullerton continued to play well by winning for the 16th time in 18 games in a 5-0 win on Tuesday at LMU. Colin O’Connell was outstanding in holding the Lions to only two hits in six innings with four strikeouts and three relievers followed with a scoreless inning each to preserve the shutout. The Titans jumped on LMU early with runs in each of the first three innings and that was the only scoring of the day. Fullerton was led at the plate by three hits from Lopez as eight of the starters either scored and/or drove in a run in a balanced attack.

Fullerton looks to keep up their winning ways this weekend and extend their lead in the Big West standings in their second straight home series as the UCSB Gauchos pay a visit to Goodwin Field.

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos

• Overall Record – 13-13 in 2011; 23-30 in 2010
• Conference Record – 2-1 in 2011; 10-14 in 2010 (5th).
• Post-Season – None
• 2011 RPI/ISR – 112/99. 2010 RPI/ISR – 100/54
• Current ranking – None
• Predicted conf finish – 6th by the Big West coaches and Baseball America
• 2010 Summary and 2011 Preview

UCSB (13-13, 2-1) almost qualified for a regional in 2008 and was one of the last teams left out of the field after finishing tied for 3rd in the Big West but has slid back to mediocrity since then, going 28-23 (11-13, 5th) in 2009, 23-30 (10-14, 5th) in 2010 and starting out this season by winning half of their games. The Gauchos thought they had the potential to be a sleeper in the conference race after losing only three players who started 30+ games and one of their starting pitchers but they have played at their usual middling level of the previous couple of seasons.

UCSB never really got going in 2010 and lost series at San Jose State, Stanford and Sacramento State and at home to New Mexico State (all 1-2 series losses) with their only non-conference series wins coming at home against Northern Illinois (4-0) and San Francisco (2-1). The Gauchos won their Big West opening series with Cal Poly (2-1) and they proceeded to lose six straight conference series before sweeping their final series against Pacific during the Tigers collapse at the end of the season.

UCSB has played well at home this season with a 10-4 record against below average teams like La Salle (2-0), Sacramento State (2-1) and Nevada (2-0) but lost their series to San Jose State (1-2) when they blew a two run lead in the 9th inning of the opener. The Gauchos bounced back to win a hard fought series with Cal Poly last weekend by splitting the first two games before winning the final game in 13 innings.

UCSB has had trouble winning away from Caesar Uyesaka Stadium with a 3-9 record. The Gauchos scored only four runs when they lost both games at frigid Washington State in temperatures that were well below freezing, lost two out of three in a tournament at AT&T Park when they only scored seven runs and lost two out of three at Oregon State when they did get their offense going enough to score 16 runs but their pitching didn’t hold up when they allowed 17 runs in their two losses. UCSB has also lost two of their three midweek road games and scored only eleven runs in those games, including a 3-2 loss at Northridge on Tuesday.

UCSB had the worst offense in the Big West in 2010 despite playing in one of the more favorable hitting parks in the conference and finished last in scoring, AVG and OBP and 8th in SLG. The Gauchos offense has improved to the middle of the pack and they are 5th in scoring, 4th in AVG and 2nd in SLG. UCSB will play for the big inning and doesn’t play much little ball with two players accounting for 18 of their 26 SB’s and they are last in the Big West in SAC’s. The Gauchos are aggressive at the plate and don’t walk much and average under three walks per game (last in the conference) and swing for the fences (second in the Big West in strikeouts). UCSB struck out 37 times in the Cal Poly series.

UCSB had the potential to have a decent pitching staff over the last couple of years but hasn’t had much depth and haven’t had any power arms besides Joe Gardner in 2009 and Mario Hollands in 2008-2010. The staff ERA for the Gauchos was 5.56 in 2009 and 5.30 last season. UCSB has pitched better with the new BBCOR bats helping them to bring their ERA down over a run per game to 3.83. The Gauchos have had eight of their ten pitchers seeing regular action keep their ERA’s under four but their weekend rotation has been inconsistent due to the lack of power arms and pitching to contact. Most of their pitchers have solid control, averaging around three walks per game, but they have trouble putting hitters away and are 6th in the Big West in AVG and 8th in the conference in strikeouts.

Offense

• Park Factor according to Boyd’s World – 115 (increases offense by 15%). UCSB plays day games and the winds coming in from the ocean are usually blowing out to LF.
• Batting Average – .270 (4th in the Big West). .276 in 2010 (9th in the Big West).
• Runs Per Game – 4.8 (5th). 5.6 in 2010 (9th).
• Home Runs – 9 (2nd). 43 in 2010 (5th).
• Slugging Percentage – .390 (2nd). .414 in 2010 (8th).
• Walks – 69 (9th), 2.8 per game. 181 in 2010 (6th), 3.3 per game.
• HBP’s – 19 (7th). 70 in 2010 (5th).
• Strikeouts – 208 (8th), 8.0 per game. 404 in 2010 (8th), 7.3 per game.
• Stolen Bases – 24-35 (6th). 59-78 in 2010 (4th).
• Sac Bunts – 16 (9th). 35 in 2010 (6th).

Infield

UCSB lost their starting C and SS and returns starters at the other three positions around the infield.

C – SR #21 Dan Camou (RH – .211/.286/.298, 0-7-0; ’10 – 4-16) and FR #3 Joe Winterburn (RH – 9-30) have taken over behind the plate for two year starter Marty Mullins. Camou was starting most of the time earlier but has gone into a 5-34 slump and Winterburn has been seeing more time recently and has been a little better offensively. Whoever is behind the plate will hit 8th.

1B – SR #35 Trevor Whyte (LH – .292/.396/.371, 0-18-0; ’10 – .304/.392/.443, 5-34-0) is in his second year as the starter, has been a solid run producer and is 10th in the Big West in RBI and 2B. He leads the team in walks (solid 12/13 BB/K ratio) and has done a good job of getting on base and has failed to get on base in only three games. Whyte has struggled recently and has gone 5-25 over the last seven games. He will be hitting 5th. Whyte went 1-10 against Fullerton last season.

2B – SR #10 Sean Williams (RH – .359/.398/.505, 1-13-1; ’10 – .268/.373/.379, 2-17-4) started last year at 2B and is one the most improved players in the Big West and one of the frontrunners for All Big-West honors at 2B. He is 2nd in the conference in AVG and among the Big West leaders in H, R, TB, SLG and TB but has cooled off a bit and gone hitless in his last two games with five strikeouts. Williams handles the bat well and led the team with 10 SAC’s in 2010 but there hasn’t been much need for him to bunt this season. He will be batting 3rd. Williams went 2-10 with one RBI against Fullerton last season.

SS – FR #16 Brandon Trinkwon (LH – .260/.309/.360, 1-5-0) and Soph #3 Steven Moon (RH – .231/.273/.365, 0-9-0; ’10 – 1-19) have split time at SS in taking over for two year starter Matt Valaika. Moon was starting almost every game for the first month of the season but Trinkwon started eight straight games before Moon got a start in the midweek game at Northridge on Tuesday. Moon is a little ahead of Trinkwon defensively but Trinkwon has a much better bat and is also a LH hitter. Trinkwon started out hot, including hitting a HR at the tournament at AT&T Park, but has cooled off and gone 3-23 the last two weeks. Trinkwon will be hitting 2nd.

3B – JR #17 Ryan Palermo (RH – .250/.277/.364, 0-13-1; ‘10 – .245/.311/.377, 3-25-0) is in his second year as a starter. He got off to a good start and is 4th in the Big West in 2B but has cooled off lately and is 9 for his last 47. Palermo has a big swing and has struck out almost 25% of the time. He will be batting 6th. Palermo went 2-10 against Fullerton last season but did have a good game in UCSB’s win when he got both of his hits and drove in a run.

DH – SR #22 Beck Wheeler (RH – 6-24; ’10 – .297/.326/.424, 2-22-0) and JR #8 Lance Roenicke (RH – .260/.315/.340, 0-3-1; ’10 – .196 in 51 AB’s) have split time at DH with Roenicke getting more of the starts earlier in the season when Wheeler was out of the lineup. Roenicke has trouble making contact and has struck out 19 times in only 50 AB’s. Wheeler started most of the time last season and has been playing more recently and went 2-9 last weekend, including the game and series winning RBI single in the 13th inning last Sunday against Cal Poly. Roenicke is a backup OF and Wheeler is a backup IF. Whoever is the DH will be hitting 9th.

Outfield

UCSB returned only their RF from last season and brought in a JC transfer to start in LF and has been using part-time players from 2010 in CF.

LF – JC transfer #40 Joe Wallace (RH – .236/.330/.416, 3-13-7) is a good athlete who has been inconsistent in his adjustment to D1 pitching. He was on a 3-30 skid before going on a 8-22 run, went 1-11 two weekends ago against San Jose State and then turned it around when he went 5-12 against Cal Poly and hit a game winning 3 run HR last Saturday and had two more hits at Northridge on Tuesday. Part of the reason that Wallace is inconsistent is he has a big swing and leads the team and is 5th in the Big West with 26 K’s. Wallace is tied for 3rd in the Big West in HR and is 5th in SB.

CF – SR #7 Ben Edelstein (RH – .238/.303/.288, 0-3-4; ’10 – .344 in 64 AB’s, 2-10-6) and SR #29 Derek Eligio (RH – .167 in 24 AB’s; ’10 – .277 in 47 AB’s) have been sharing time with Edelstein getting most of the starts. Edelstein has better speed than Eligio and is more likely to run on the bases. Edelstein has been in a 5-35 slump and has had issues with making contact and Eligio has started the last three games, going 2-11 with an HR last Saturday. Whoever is starting will be hitting leadoff.

RF – SR #25 Mark Haddow (RH – .358/.446/.600, 3-23-10; ’10 – .273/.373/.419, 6-26-17; ’09 – .298/.371/.521, 5-25-10) is probably the best athlete on team and has been watched by the scouts for a while due to his power/speed combination. Before going hitless Tuesday at Northridge he had hits in six straight games and 12 out of 13, when he went 20-50 with 16 RBI, and went 12-23 with 8 RBI the last two weekends. Haddow leads the Big West in SLG, TB and 3B and is among the conference leaders in AVG, R, H, HR, RBI, OBP and SB and is the biggest threat in the lineup. He has a big swing and has struck out between 25%-30% of the time over the last three seasons. Haddow is the cleanup hitter. He went 3-11 last season against Fullerton with all three hits coming in UCSB’s win.

Defense

Fielding % – .967 (7th) with 33 errors. 2010 – .968 (6th) with 67 errors.

UCSB plays on an uneven playing surface that is known for being difficult for infielders to get true bounces on grounders. The Gauchos are average around the infield with Williams their best infielder and Palermo has made too many errors at 3B. They have good speed in the OF with good athletes in the corner OF spots.

Stolen Base Attempts – 13-21 (2nd). 2010 – 59-72 (7th).

UCSB has done a much better job of slowing down the running game this season, especially with help from the pitchers. The Gauchos have picked off eight runners to lead the Big West.

WP’s/PB’s Allowed – 20 (2nd). 2010 – 26 (1st).

Camou is better at blocking pitches than Winterburn so Fullerton will be more aggressive at taking extra bases on Winterburn with balls in the dirt.

Pitching

• ERA – 3.83 (5th in the Big West). 5.30 in 2010 (4th in the Big West).
• BA – .270 (6th). .307 in 2010 (5th).
• BB’s/9 IP – 2.9 (1st). 2.8 in 2010 (2nd).
• K’s/9 IP – 5.9 (8th). 5.7 in 2010 (8th).
• Extra Base Hits – 54 (3rd), 2.1 per game. 165 (2nd), 3.0 per game in 2010.
• HR – 5 (2nd). 50 HR in 2010 (8th).

Starters

FRI – SR #28 Jesse Meaux (RHP – 2-3, 4.36 ERA, 7 starts, 43 IP, 50 H, 10 BB, 22 K, .298 BA, 2 HR, 6 HBP, 5 WP, 5-7 SB; ’10 – 8-3, 4.41 ERA, 18 apps, 14 GS, 2 CG, 3 saves, 98 IP, 123 H, 18 BB, 39 K, .307 BA, 7 HR, 8 HBP, 4 WP, 14-15 SB) is a control specialist who doesn’t throw hard and relies on keeping the ball down. When he is off and has to get too much of the plate, he is prone to giving up hits. Meaux has not gotten out of the sixth inning in his last three starts at Oregon State (4 2/3 IP, 4 R, 6 H, 3 BB, 1 K), vs. San Jose State (5 1/3 IP, 3 R, 10 H, 0 BB, 1 K) and vs. Cal Poly (5 2/3 IP, 6 R, 7 H, 3 BB, 4 K). He has not pitched well in his career against Fullerton and has allowed 14 R (12 ER) on 17 H in 9 IP in four appearances against the Titans.

SAT – SR #34 Greg Davis (RHP – 3-1, 3.38 ERA, 10 apps, 5 GS, 3 saves, 37 IP, 36 H, 10 BB, 18 K, .261 BA, 1 HR, 5 HBP, 5 WP, 3-6 SB; ’10 – 2-2, 4.91 ERA, 20 apps, 7 GS, 1 CG, 0 saves, 55 IP, 66 H, 14 BB, 47 K, .293 BA, 2 HR, 6 HBP, 2 WP, 13-17 SB) was primarily a middle reliever and midweek SP last season who threw well in relief but struggled with throwing extended innings as a starter. He has been a swingman and started most weekends but has also been the closer in midweek games. Davis threw well in a no decision against Rice in the tournament at AT&T Park (7 1/3 IP, 1 R, 9 H, 2 BB, 1 K) and in a win at Oregon State (5 1/3 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K) but blew the save in Meaux’s start vs. San Jose State (2/3 IP, 3 R, 3 H, 2 BB) and wasn’t sharp against Cal Poly (6 1/3 IP, 4 R, 6 H, 5 BB, 2 K).

SUN – JC transfer #27 Matthew Vedo (RHP – 3-4, 4.84 ERA, 9 apps, 8 GS, 1 CG, 1 save, 45 IP, 43 H, 26 BB, 31 K, .269 BA, 0 HR, 10 HBP, 2 WP, 0-2 SB) is the hardest thrower of the three SP’s with a low 90’s fastball. He is also the most inconsistent and has put 36 runners on base by walks or HBP’s in only 45 IP. Vedo threw well in four of his first five starts and had a 2.56 ERA, including a near no-hitter against Nevada (9 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 K) when he didn’t give up a hit until the 9th inning. He struggled in his next two starts at Oregon State (1 1/3 IP, 6 R, 5 H, 2 BB, 1 K) and San Jose State (4 2/3 IP, 7 R, 10 H, 6 BB, 1 K) but threw better against Cal Poly (7 IP, 4 R, 2 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 5 K).

Relievers

UCSB has an experienced bullpen with four pitchers returning from 2010, although a couple of them were starters last season so those two pitchers have the ability to go several innings.
Closer – SR #23 Nick Loredo (RHP – 3-1, 3.90 ERA, 11 apps, 5 GS, 4 saves, 30 IP, 39 H, 5 BB, 26 K, .322 BA, 0 HR, 4 HBP, 1 WP, 1-1 SB; ’10 – 0-5, 7.28 ERA, 18 apps, 6 GS, 2 saves, 56 IP, 75 H, 16 BB, 24 K, .329 AVG, 10 HR, 8 HBP, 1 WP, 0-1 SB) was in the weekend rotation early in 2010 but after some poor starts was moved into a long relief role. He has been much more effective this season as the closer and a midweek SP. Loredo has allowed 1 R on 6 H in 6 2/3 IP in six relief appearances. He is questionable for this weekend with a broken jaw after missing his start on Tuesday at Northridge. Loredo allowed 1 R and 3 H in 2 IP in one appearance against Fullerton in 2010.

SR #20 Nick Capito (LHP – 2-2, 3.54 ERA, 13 apps, 1 GS, 1 save, 28 IP, 22 H, 9 BB, 20 K, .218 BA, 1 HR, 6 HBP, 1 WP, 2-3 SB, 5 runners picked off; ’10 – 4-6, 7.09 ERA, 18 apps, 13 GS, 2 CG, 72 IP, 106 H, 19 BB, 42 K, .349 AVG, 13 HR, 11 HBP, 0 WP, 12-16 SB) was in the weekend rotation most of 2010 but like Loredo he has been much more effective out of the bullpen this season. He got off to a very slow start and allowed 9 R in his first 9 IP but has only allowed 4 R (3 ER) in his last 19 IP and was very effective in his two most recent outings when he got a spot start against San Jose State (5 2/3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K) and an extended relief outing to get the win in extra innings against Cal Poly (5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K). It will be difficult to steal on Capito because he has picked off five runners. Capito was battered by the Fullerton hitters in his start last year and allowed 14 runs in 4 2/3 IP.

SR # 31 Bryce Uhrig (RHP – 1-1, 2.76 ERA, 19 apps, 16 IP, 8 H, 4 BB, 13 K, .160 BA, 0 HR, 4 HBP, 0 WP, 1-1 SB) has been a workhorse out of the bullpen and has appeared in 11 of the last 13 games. He usually only goes an inning or so when he comes into the game and has allowed runs in only three of his 16 appearances, including his most recent outing when he blew the save at Northridge with Loredo and Capito unavailable to pitch.

JC transfer #18 Zak Edgington (LHP – 0-0, 3.38 ERA, 8 apps, 1 GS, 16 IP, 16 H, 5 BB, 5 K) got a spot start on Tuesday at Northridge after seeing only limited action previously and threw an outstanding game, leaving with the lead (8+ IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 3 K).

Others – these three are likely to only face 1-2 hitters when they come into the game.

JR #30 Matthew Brady (RHP – 0-1, 1.93 ERA, 13 apps, 4 2/3 IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 2 K; ’10 – 0-1, 3.86 ERA, 16 apps, 23 IP, 23 H, 13 BB, 8 K)

SR #41 Connor Whalen (LHP – 0-0, 3.38 ERA, 10 apps, 5 1/3 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 5 K; ’10 – 1-1, 4.00 ERA, 24 apps, 18 IP, 24 H, 15 BB, 21 K)

Fr #12 Cameron Cuneo (LHP – 0-0, 1.29 ERA, 11 apps, 7 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 6 K)

Outlook

Fullerton has been dominant at home this season and the Titans have won 12 of their last 14 games at Goodwin Field. UCSB has been below average on the road in going 3-9 away from home.

UCSB’s offense is improved and Fullerton doesn’t have the offensive firepower that they had in 2010 but the Gauchos have had issues scoring on the road, averaging 3.6 runs per game, while the Titans have been averaging almost seven runs per game after the opening weekend of the season.

Fullerton has much better pitching than UCSB. The Gauchos have also had an improved pitching staff but don’t have the arms that the Titans do. Fullerton’s team ERA aside from the LSU series is 2.11 and games like last Friday’s have been few and far between and UCSB doesn’t have the plate discipline that UC Irvine has.

Fullerton has traditionally had their way with UCSB and has won eight of the last nine series they have played against the Gauchos, primarily because the Titans have usually had the better team. Fullerton is a prohibitive favorite to win this series and the only time they have had trouble with UCSB the last three seasons was when Mario Hollands was pitching against them when he won two of his starts at home and nearly a third at Fullerton. The Titans should win at least two games this weekend, if not all three against the Gauchos.