Titans’ Troubles Have Cochell Hoping Tradition Wins Out

You need a history book to find the last time Cal State Fullerton was a no-show in the weekly rankings of top 25 baseball teams. The Titans, who have won two national championships and made five College World Series appearances in the past 10 seasons, could always be found somewhere among the country’s elite, if not at the top of the list.

This year is different. This year Fullerton is going . . . going . . . gone out of the rankings. That’s what happens when your record is only 29-22, your preseason All-American pitcher has spent the year in the stands rather than the mound, your preseason All-American catcher has taken sick leave and your infield defense has more holes than the Warren Report.

“We don’t deserve to be in the Top 25 the way we’ve played,” Fullerton Coach Larry Cochell said.

Cochell would know: He’s suffered through a long and strange season. Strangest of all is the fact that the once powerful Titans now find themselves hoping for the best rather than expecting it, as they did last year during their march to another College World Series appearance. They have five conference games remaining, including tonight’s meeting with Long Beach, and need victories in almost every game to ensure themselves a National Collegiate Athletic Assn. playoff bid.

Can you believe that: Fullerton has to earn an invite this late in the season?

It’s true. Fullerton is on a delicate bubble, stuck there while it completes these remaining games against Long Beach and then Fresno State. Win those five games and the Titans almost certainly win a place in the NCAA playoff formula. Lose those five--and a third-place showing in the tough Big West Conference--and it’s time for fond farewells to any chance of postseason glory.

Of course, it doesn’t take a prophet to figure any of this out. In fact, all it takes is Cochell.

Cochell serves on the NCAA’s baseball tournament selection committee. One man, one vote and all that democratic stuff. Anyway, Cochell predicts that the top three finishers in the Big West will receive postseason bids. If one of them is Fullerton, great, said Cochell; if not, well, it’s not as if the Titans didn’t have their chances. After all, they begin these final five conference games in, you guessed it, third place.

“The season is not closed,” Cochell said. “We could win the next (five) games and win the conference championship. I’m not going to count us out until the season is over.”

Fine by us, Larry. The problem is that Cochell lacks certain options. For instance, how nice it would have been to have had the services of one Mark Beck. All Beck did last season was win 10 games and strike out 162 batters in just 135 innings. He also developed a shoulder problem, which ultimately forced him to withdraw from the U.S. Olympic team and later, the Titans.

“He comes out and roots for the team,” Cochell said. “But he’s not going to pick up a ball until October.”

The good news is that Beck will be OK. Doctors predict a full recovery, which should come in handy when the major league free-agent draft arrives. The bad news is that it doesn’t help Cochell and the Titans one bit. “He’ll never pitch for us again,” Cochell said sadly.

Further complicating matters, is the occasional loss of catcher Brent Mayne, who was good for a .393 average and a 38-game hitting streak last year. Nowadays, Mayne is nursing a variety of injuries, including shoulder and hip ailments. Cortisone shots have been used recently to dull the pain.

Mayne’s absence--five weeks in all--hurt the Titans in plenty of ways. It took the most consistent hitter out of the lineup. It put pressure on an already young infield. It meant one less option for Cochell. Mayne is back, but not at 100%. “A walking wounded,” is how Cochell put it.

“I’ve lost one All-American before, but I’ve never lost two,” Cochell said. “Still, we’re in the thick of things.”

That they are, but Fullerton is going to have tighten a defense that gushes errors (81 last year, 114 after 50 games this year . . . and still counting), as well as get timely efforts and wins from a team that has struggled with both. By Cochell’s calculations, the Titans blew at least six victories “because we flat out didn’t field routine plays.” As for the loss of Beck and Mayne, who knows how many games that cost them. Three? Five? Ten?

Cochell isn’t asking for sympathy. In fact, he likes his team. A lot. So much so that he wouldn’t be surprised if the Titans pull a surprise or two.

“I think we’ve bottomed out,” he said. “We’ve got a chance to play well. We’re not going to play as poorly as we have been, I don’t think.

“We play Long Beach,” he said. “Then we play Fresno State. We’ve got the situation we wanted. It’s like we’re down a run, bases are loaded and we’ve got our best hitter up.”

In past seasons, that would have been enough. A Fullerton comeback? It was a given.

This year--who knows? Tradition only can do so much. After that, reality takes over and right now, I like reality’s chances a whole lot better than Fullerton’s.