NCAA South II Regional Baseball : Southern Upsets Favored Fullerton

Some first impressions of Bayou Country from a bunch of Californians who were expected to have nothing but big fun here:

--Humidity is not conducive to long-distance baseball travel.

--High praise from pollsters is a guarantee of nothing.

--Cooking isn’t the only thing they do well down here.

It took an unheralded team from Southern University to teach the Titans these lessons in humility. The Jaguars got a complete-game shutout from their best relief pitcher, caught every lazy fly ball the Titans were kind enough to offer, and left the field Thursday night with a 1-0 upset in the first round of the NCAA South II Regionals at the University of New Orleans’ Privateer Park.

It was a most unlikely outcome to what seemed a certain mismatch. The Jaguars were making their first appearance in an NCAA Division I baseball tournament and representing a conference (the Southwestern Athletic) that had never won a tournament game. Until Thursday, Southern had won games by scoring in double figures. With a pitching staff that had compiled a 6.70 earned-run average, how else to you finish the regular season at 30-20?

The Titans were a study in contrast. Fullerton was appearing in the NCAA tournament for the 11th time in the last 13 seasons, and had won NCAA championships in 1979 and 1984. They have been ranked as high as second in the nation. They were the top-seeded team in this regional, Southern the bottom.

But a hard-throwing pitcher named Allan Ratliff set logic on its ear, limiting the Titans to five hits and forcing them into 15 fly-ball outs and, before you knew it, Fullerton’s chance to advance to the winners’ bracket was swallowed by the moist Louisiana sky. Longo Garcia (10-4) went the distance for Fullerton, allowing six hits, striking out eight and walking nine.

Fullerton (42-16) will play Tulane (44-17) in the second round of the double-elimination tournament this afternoon. Southern (31-20) advances to a second-round meeting with Louisiana Tech.

Brian Cornelius’ RBI single in the fifth inning was the only run Southern would need, thanks to Ratliff’s thorough baffling of a Fullerton team that hadn’t been shut out since its opening game of the season. Ratliff led the Jaguars with nine saves, but Coach Roger Cador decided to start his bullpen stopper against the Titans. Strange strategy?

“Well, he’s my best pitcher,” Cador explained with candor. “I knew Fullerton State was a fine ballclub, and I wanted my best pitcher out there.”

Ratliff needed little help but when he did, the Titans cooperated. He loaded the bases in the second before Mark Razook hit a soft ground ball back to the mound that Ratliff turned into an inning-ending double play.

In the seventh, the Titans had the tying run at second but ran themselves out of the inning and, perhaps, into the losers’ bracket. Ken Garcia, who had three of the Titans’ five hits, wandered too far off second, enticing teammate Keith Kaub to wander too far off first. Both runners got caught between bases, and Garcia was eventually tagged out. A two-on, one-out situation turned into one on, two outs.

Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido said Garcia was considering stealing third, and didn’t consider it carefully enough. “He just got trapped,” Garrido said.

Now, Garrido must hope the Titans haven’t trapped themselves into swift elimination from a regional tournament they were favored to win.

“Our whole M.O. has been to jump right into the basement and fight our way back to something important,” he said. “We have an opportunity to do that again.”