College Baseball : Fullerton, UCI Pound Out PCAA Doubleheader Split

If, as baseball scholars have observed, pitching is 90% of the game, then the other 10% of the game was played Saturday at Titan Field. Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine played a Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. doubleheader that had all the finesse and subtlety of a dentist’s drill.

The teams took six and a half hours to compile 47 hits and score 37 runs. When the shelling ceased and the teams had split the two games, the only thing resolved was, 1) offensively, these teams can hit, and, 2) as far as pitching is concerned . . . these teams can hit.

Irvine (9-15, 22-29-1) took the first game, 15-11, and Fullerton (18-9, 33-29-1) came back to win the second, 10-1.

There were 35 hits in the first game alone, 10 for extra bases. Fullerton committed five errors.

Irvine had built a 6-1 lead by the fourth inning, but that was cut to 6-5 when Fullerton third baseman Blaine Larker hit a grand slam off winning pitcher Craig Brink (5-3). It was Larker’s fifth homer of the season.

Irvine sent 11 men to the plate in the seventh and scored six times to increase its lead to 12-5. Three runs came home on third baseman Bob Perry’s triple. Perry scored on the play when second baseman Jose Mota bobbled the relay throw from the outfield.

Fullerton got a paltry three on center fielder John Fishel’s 15th home run of the season.

Perry countered with a solo home run to put Irvine’s lead back at four. But the Titans scored two runs on hits by Mota and shortstop Shane Turner to cut the lead to 13-11.

The Anteaters added two more runs in the ninth, one on an RBI double by Tom Baine. Baine was 6 for 7 in the game and improved his batting average to .390.

“Tom’s been the most consistent player for us all season,” said Anteater Coach Mike Gerakos, whose team broke a seven-game losing streak.

“It would have been easy for this team to roll over and die,” Gerakos said. The Anteaters were eliminated from the PCAA race this week. “But our hitters are finally going after pitchers at the plate. They’re making things happen offensively.”

However, things didn’t happen offensively for the Anteaters the second game as Mike Schooler won his seventh without a loss.

Schooler didn’t exactly shut Irvine down, he allowed four hits, a home run, walked four and hit a batter. But by this series standards, it was a pitching gem.

“Mike wasn’t overpowering in this game,” Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido. “But he was strong fundamentally as a pitcher. He was controlling their hitters. Our pitchers didn’t do that in the first game.”

The only run Schooler allowed came on a another home run by Perry. Meanwhile, Titan batters were roughing up four Anteater pitchers for eight hits.

Fishel, once again, had the big blow. He hit a third-inning grand slam to increase his RBI total to 71 and the Titan lead to 6-1. The Titans added runs in the fourth and fifth and two in the sixth to finish their scoring.

“John Fishel is simply as consistent as any player we’ve ever had,” Garrido said. “You’ve really got to see him every day to appreciate how good he is.”

Irvine shortstop Adam Ging, who has missed the last seven games with a knee injury, will undergo arthroscopic surgery Tuesday. Gerakos said doctors have told him they expect Ging to be playing in two weeks.

In California Collegiate Athletic Assn. action:

Chapman 6-9, UC Riverside 5-3--A Riverside error with two outs in the bottom of the 14th inning gave the Panthers the win in the first game, and a five-run, fourth inning led Chapman to the win in the second at Hart Park.

Mike Williams’ two-out, RBI single in the top of the 14th gave Riverside a 5-4 lead in the first game, but the Panthers rallied. Craig Kushe led off the bottom of the inning with a home run to center field. Chapman (8-19, 20-28) then had runners on first and third with two outs when Dan Skarshaugh hit a ground ball that second baseman Ty Dabney misplayed, enabling Ron Sargent to score the winning run.

Riverside is 9-17 in conference and 25-24 overall.