Mayne Won’t Complain About End of Streak

It was hard for Brent Mayne to think it was over, right up until Mike Ross’ game-winning homer cleared the fence.

After that, it was hard to mind.

Ross’ ninth-inning homer gave Cal State Fullerton a 6-3 victory over Texas A&M;, sending the Titans to the College World Series.

But it also ended any hope Mayne had of continuing his 38-game hitting streak, which had set both Cal State Fullerton and Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. records.

What should he do, complain?

So many times before, it had seemed as if the streak was certain to end.

Twice before, Mayne had preserved it at the last minute with 10th-inning singles.

And had Ross not ended the game then and there, it might have happened again.

It appeared to be all but over when he failed to get a hit in his third at-bat, striking out to end the eighth inning, with Fullerton trailing, 3-1.

But then the Titans rallied in the ninth, tying the score, 3-3, before Ross hit a two-out, three-run homer to win it.

Had Ross made an out, Mayne would have been on deck behind Keith Kaub as the bottom of the 10th inning began.

It didn’t happen.

“I had a great time with it. I don’t know what to say,” Mayne said afterward. “I wasn’t thinking about it ending, but that’s the way it goes. It had to end sometime.”

You would not have thought it would end like this. An 0-2 curve, a swing and a miss.

Mayne, who is batting .401, does not strike out often. The smooth and careful swing that he practices as he stands on deck is designed for contact, not power.

Most often, when teams get him out, it is on a grounder or a line drive. He has struck out only 14 times in 227 at-bats this season.

In Monday’s game, he lined to short in his first at-bat, and put down a sacrifice bunt in his second time up. In his second official at-bat, he grounded into a double play. Then, in what proved to be his final chance, he struck out swinging in the eighth.

“I saw the ball good, and I wasn’t pressing,” he said. “So many other games it worked out, even in the 10th inning. I just thought I was going to get a hit one of those times.”

So it is over, and perhaps it will be nice for him to have one less thing to worry about as the Titans go into the College World Series.

He enjoyed it, he said, but it is not so bad a thing that it is over. Better that than the season.

“If it was a choice between getting a hit and winning this game--I don’t even have to answer,” he said.