College Baseball : Cal State Fullerton to Defend NCAA Title in Newly-Aligned PCAA

The Super Bowl just ended, the USFL season is about to begin, so that means that it must be baseball season.

Baseball?

Although the rest of the country might be mired in snow and sub-zero temperatures, the climate of California allows it to get a jump on the new baseball season.

The major-league teams are still several weeks away from beginning spring training, but the regular season for local college teams is already under way.

Cal State Fullerton, the 1984 NCAA champion, opened its schedule on Thursday when it began a three-game series at Titan Field against Stanford and UC Irvine opens its season by hosting Cal Poly Pomona on Tuesday.

The familiar Southern California Baseball Assn. has been dissolved in favor of the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn., which is divided into two conferences. Fullerton and Irvine will now compete in the PCAA Southern Conference along with Cal State Long Beach and Nevada Las Vegas. The Northern Conference includes Fresno State, UC Santa Barbara, San Jose State and Pacific.

The other area teams that helped make up the SCBA (Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount and the University of San Diego) have gone to the West Coast Athletic Conference.

“The idea of the realignment is to get the maximum number of games and the least amount of travel.” Titan Coach Augie Garrido said.

PCAA teams will play 30 conference games, including home-and-home, three-game series against their conference foes as well as one three-game series against the Northern Conference schools.

The champions of the Southern and Northern Conference will meet in a best-of-three series to determine the PCAA championship. The games will be played at the school with the best overall record, and the winner receives an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.

Regardless of how the conferences are aligned, it comes as no surprise that Fullerton was the preseason favorite to win the first PCAA baseball title in separate polls of coaches and the media conducted at the conference meetings in San Jose last week.

Fullerton was picked to finish first overall in both polls and Irvine was picked fifth by the media and sixth by the coaches.

When Garrido claims that his team has a lot of work ahead of it, he’s not just another sly coach crying wolf.

“We lost 10 players to pro baseball and four others to graduation,” he said, “so we’re concerned with how the team will develop this season. We do have four good returning players to provide us leadership, though.”

Those four are John Fishel, Jose Mota, Blaine Larker and Shane Turner. Mota is a junior and the others are seniors.

Fishel, a Loara High School graduate, led the Titans in hitting with a .378 average last season and was named the Most Valuable Player of the College World Series. Fishel has played left field and third base, but is expected to play third, second, and some center field this season.

Mota, with a .357 average, is at second base and Turner is at shortstop, giving the Titans experience up the middle. Fullerton went 32-5 in games that Turner started at shortstop, and with Larker returning at third base, the left side of the infield is solid.

The Titan pitching staff is another story, however. All six pitchers who appeared in postseason play were drafted, leaving quite a few holes to be filled.

One of those expected to step to the fore is Damon Allen, the quarterback of the Titan football team, who was also seventh on the pitching staff last season. Garrido believes that Allen’s football experience will help him in baseball.

“Damon has proven that he’s a poised leader, and he handles pressure well because of playing on the football team,” Garrido said. “He’ll have a certain amount of time to log in to get into (baseball) shape, but he should do OK.”

Garrido also expects conference-rival Irvine to do well this season, considering that the Anteaters return a largely veteran lineup. Irvine will be anchored by junior shortstop Adam Ging, who was a second-team all-SCBA pick last season and an academic All-American.

Coach Mike Gerakos begins his fifth season at Irvine. The Anteaters were 23-34-1 last year, but a winning season isn’t out of the question for this year’s squad. Designated hitter Don Davis and right fielder Paul Hammond, both seniors, join Ging as tri-captains, giving UCI experienced leadership.

Conference play begins March 1, when Irvine plays host to Fullerton in an afternoon game. THE PCAA Southern Conference Cal State Fullerton UC Irvine Cal State Long Beach Nevada Las Vegas Northern Conference Fresno State San Jose State UC Santa Barbara Pacific

After a 30-game season, the two conference champions meet in a best two-of-three series to determine the PCAA champion. The series is played at the school with the best overall record. The winner receives an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. The loser may still compete in the NCAA Tournament, but only if it is chosen for an at-large berth by the NCAA.