Fullerton Ousted in World Series : Stanford to Meet Arizona State in Final After a 9-5 Victory

After it was over, Cal State Fullerton was left to ponder the details.

Stanford still could look ahead, but the Titans could think only of the plays that led to the end of their season.

Fullerton’s attempt at a third national championship ended with a 9-5 loss to the Cardinal Friday night before a crowd of 15,103 at Rosenblatt Stadium.

The result sent Stanford (45-23) against Arizona State today for the national championship. The Cardinal, which won the College World Series last year, will be trying to become the first team to repeat since USC won five straight titles in 1970-74.

Fullerton (43-18) had been just one victory away from the title game after it beat Stanford, 5-3, Tuesday.

But the Titans lost to Stanford twice in the past two days, going home with a tie for third place.

“As I said all along, you have to have pitching and defense,” Fullerton Coach Larry Cochell said. “We had good pitching, but we didn’t make the plays we had to.”

Fullerton scored a run in the first inning when Keith Kaub singled home Mike Ross, who had hit a two-out double off the wall in right-center. The Titan lead was 2-0 after Jim Osborn’s solo home run in the second.

But it was faulty defense that gave Fullerton trouble.

Stanford came back in the bottom of the second, scoring two runs on just two hits.

The inning opened with Paul Carey grounding to second, but Mike Ross misplayed it, allowing Carey to reach base on the error.

With one out, Carey stole second. He took third when Ron Witmeyer singled into short-center. Fullerton got the second out with no damage yet done, but then Witmeyer stole second off catcher Brent Mayne, whose late throw was well off the mark.

Had Mayne made that play, Fullerton would have been out of the inning. But he hesitated, apparently recalling a similar situation the night before when he had thrown to second, allowing a runner at third to steal home.

With runners on second and third, Tim Griffin then hit a weak single past first, scoring both runners.

Fullerton went ahead, 3-2, in the third, but Stanford tied the score, 3-3, in the fourth and took a 5-3 lead in the fifth--once again scoring two runs on just two singles, aided by an error.

Mike Ross led off the sixth for Fullerton with his 15th homer of the season, but Doug Robbins doubled off the left-field fence in the bottom of the inning, scoring Carey, to make it 6-4.

Stanford went ahead, 9-4, on Robbins’ three-run home run in the eighth.

Fullerton had hoped to handle Stanford behind the arm of Mark Beck, who had struck out 13 in a complete-game victory over Stanford earlier in the Series.

He struck out five in the first three innings Friday, but faded later.

He was finally done in by Robbins in the eighth.

Cochell had gone to the mound before Robbins came up, after Beck had allowed two singles. But he chose to leave Beck in, planning to go after Robbins with sliders, which had worked before.

“Common sense told me he was done, but he had handled Robbins,” Cochell said. “I gambled and lost.”

Beck said he was tired but wanted to keep pitching. Robbins, however, said the difference was clear.

“At first, I thought he was almost as sharp as the last game,” Robbins said. “The first four or five innings, he had really good stuff. But from that point he lost a few miles per hour on his fastball, and his slider was not as sharp.”

It was the slider Robbins was looking for, and he sent it high into the bleachers in left field.

On its way to defending its title in the championship game today, Stanford has won seven games when a loss would have meant elimination.

The Cardinal lost to St. John’s in the opening game of the Northeast Regional but won the next four to make it to the Series.

Stanford won its first game here but lost to Fullerton in its second, and had to win its next three--two of them against Fullerton--to make it to the final.

Arizona St. 19, Wichita St.1--The Sun Devils scored nine runs in the sixth inning and tied a College World Series record with 23 hits as they eliminated the Shockers.

Wichita State (56-15-1) committed five errors, three of them in the first inning, when the Sun Devils took a 2-0 lead.

Arizona State (60-12) had rallied for a 10th-inning victory over Wichita State Wednesday to avoid being eliminated.